We were promised hover boards and we got them. We were promised self lacing shoes, and we got them, too. We’ve been waiting for virtual reality for a while now. Its been coming in jumps and starts since the nineties, but it looks like in 2017 the technology is finally going to be fully democratised. Although certainly widely available already, 2017 seems to be the year that the relatively adolescent realm of virtual reality will take its place alongside our most trusted artefacts of technology: smartphones, tablets, tvs and gaming consoles. In fact, those futuristic headsets you keep seeing everywhere look set to shake up just about everything that’s come beforehand.We were promised hover boards and we got them. We were promised self lacing shoes, and we got them, too. We’ve been waiting for virtual reality for a while now. Its been coming in jumps and starts since the nineties, but it looks like in 2017 the technology is finally going to be fully democratised. Although certainly widely available already, 2017 seems to be the year that the relatively adolescent realm of virtual reality will take its place alongside our most trusted artefacts of technology: smartphones, tablets, tvs and gaming consoles. In fact, those futuristic headsets you keep seeing everywhere look set to shake up just about everything that’s come beforehand.
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Google Cardboard is a DIY VR headset that turns any smartphone into a virtual display
Image courtesy of Google / Main image courtesy of Sony
According to digi-capital, the virtual and augmented reality industries will be worth $150 billion dollars by 2020 — and it’s no surprise. Over the past two years, designboom has watched the integration of virtual reality into every facet of art, technology and culture. But what happens next? In many ways, VR has become the accumulative result of our ongoing relationship with the internet, and the expanding library of devices and doors we use to access and avail of that world. In an exciting and, admittedly kind of scary expansion of this, virtual reality offers almost complete submersion in what right now we get in drips and drabs.
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The ‘shadow’ by artefact group is an adaptive VR that includes an integrate hood and shoulder cloak
Image courtesy of Artefact Group
There were more than a few things that happened in 2016 that nobody saw coming — But some of the paths that VR is set to take seem, at least for the moment, clear. The first and already arguably the most advanced of these is gaming. By rights the birthplace of VR, gaming is the industry that, at the moment, is driving the technology forward. Does anyone remember the ‘playstation 9′ advert sony released in back in 2000? The spores that could tap into your dream gland? Doesn’t seem so far-fetched now, does it? Take the virtuix omni for example — a concave circular treadmill that lets you physically run through virtual worlds. Pairing this element with VR has the potential to result in a level of emotional and physical engagement we’ve not yet seen, a sense of agency and consequence heretofore absent in popular media.
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The palimpsest project uses VR to digitally record the changing face of local architecture
image courtesy of the interactive architecture lab at UCL
From the thrill of gaming, to the galleries of the art world, the different facets of the VR industry are increasing slowly in parallel with our own. For art this year, VR was the name of the game. As those little black headsets become more common, we predict artists taking on the technology to paint, sculpt and craft without limits. Earlier this year, TIME magazine gave seven artists the chance to try working with the google tilt — a three dimensional painting tool — and the results were breathtaking. It’s not just for visual artists either — immersive theatre company punchdrunk collaborated with samsung this summer to bring an unsettling virtual performance to the tech company’s chelsea store in new york. Forget streaming live performances to the cinema, before too long we’ll be catching the latest broadway hit from the comfort of our living rooms.
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IKEA already lets you use AR and VR to preview their products
image courtesy of IKEA
We’re also putting our money on this becoming a staple in the architect’s toolkit. Recently, we ran an interview with ole scheeren where he spoke of how rare it was to work on a 1:1 scale. Imagine designing a building in true to life dimensions, growing and improving your process as the physical realities of a building are made clear. Like lego, but real life. Once the work is done, what’s stopping potential buyers from exploring a virtual showroom? IKEA’s on top of this one already, with their ‘virtual home experience’. We foresee these kind of advancements across the field, from shopping online, to interior decoration.
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Source: Designboom