I am standing on the rooftop of a skyscraper in an unfamiliar metropolis. The ground is a long, long way down. Pigeons fly away as I step closer to them.
Click. A harness is strapped on. My heart is in my throat, I can hear the wind in my ears.
It is too much.
Vertigo hits and I ask, shout, for the simulation to stop. In a panic, I’ve forgotten that I can pull off the virtual reality headset that has put me in this thrill-seekers’ space.
Back at the VRCade installation in Vodaworld in Midrand, Johannesburg, it takes a minute to re-orient to actual reality.
The brainchild of Zach Joubert, a lawyer turned tech-head, VRCades (one in Joburg and another at the Waterfront in Cape Town) offer a taste of the technology that is soon going to take over our world.
No exaggeration. Walk on the moon, dive the Galapagos Islands, navigate the seven wonders if you will.
While Joubert’s arcades are primarily about gaming (the zombie apocalypse is brilliant), and gaming is the space where VR is developing rapidly, it is coming to every aspect of life, from space travel to medical science to shopping.
Expect it in education – think field trips from a Limpopo classroom to Christ the Redeemer’s statue in Rio or King Tut’s tomb in Egypt. Mining, engineering, architecture and house buying are quickly being revolutionised – see how scaffolding will hold up in a mine shaft, walk through the future building in your head, rearrange the furniture or change the paint colours. From London, survey the property on sale in Camps Bay.
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Source: Sunday Times