Don't Go Outside - Get on VR
Social distancing is a major adjustment for most people in society who are used to going work, visiting their friends and family and doing away with any form of close contact. Some can no longer go outside past certain times, with penalties ranging from fines to jail time. School kids miss their peers and the box office theatre releases will be missed entirely. The virus that has travelled wide and far brings out new ways of socialising. Getting social without being in the same room or even country has been powered by technology and connectivity. The internet opens gateways and possibilities that did not exist in the past.
I have spoken about VR tech being one of my favourite immersive technologies and still feel it has some ways to go before it feels truly fluid for anyone to pick up and use. With mass social gatherings being ruled out, how would one congregate with their amigos aside from voice or video calls? Virtual reality technology is more than just about seeing things in a different way, it’s also about being able to express yourself in a unique way too. Shake your head, make a gesture or do a dance. VR tracking has improved vastly, allowing people to move freely in their spaces and translate natural body movements into digital avatars. VR meet ups may be a temporary fill in for a number of events in the coming future.
I’ve seen a number of interesting social VR projects pop up and it’s interesting to see projects built for specific communities. For instance, VR Church is a basic concept that involves worshippers joining live experiences as digital avatars in similar fashion to VR Chat. We’re currently in a world where virtual meetings make all the more sense. Immersion, tracking and communication to provide a synthetic social event between people. It would be interesting to see statistics in the coming months of VR projects and traffic during lockdown periods. Will they amount to a similar increase to that seen in popular streaming services? Most likely not, I believe that projects are still facing a challenge to on board users. Not everybody wants to handle controllers, it’s hard enough wearing a headset. Price and hardware requirements are also an issue that will need to be explored. If social distancing become a norm then perhaps adoption may be accelerated, but let’s hope we all get to go out and meet up again very soon!
