PHOTO: Professor Bruce Thomas immerses himself within virtual reality. (ABC News: Malcolm Sutton)
The technological world may be on the cusp of a revolution, the extent of which is predicted to mimic the take-up of the smartphone in the late 2000s, but some experts have urged caution as its addictive qualities and long-term effects remain unknown.
Virtual Reality, or VR, has finally become commercially accessible — a full-immersion kit with motion controllers is less than $1,000 — putting hardware and software tools in the hands of gamers and independent game developers for the first time.
But it is the appeal of this technology across the broader population rather than just the gaming community that has people like Microsoft multimedia and interaction researcher Mar Gonzalez Franco excited.
“We [the general public] will buy VR devices in shopping malls the way we buy smartphones today,” she said.
“I think it will be adopted pretty fast.”
Applications outside gaming will include social media, virtual lives, movies, news, virtual conference hook-ups, live music experiences and, of course, pornography.
The VR come down
Late last year, Ms Gonzalez Franco reportedly predicted future VR units would be akin to experiencing powerful hallucinations — once they started including other senses, such as touch.
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PHOTO: A reduction in price for VR units and software gives independent game developers access to get creative. (ABC News: Malcolm Sutton)
This reporter recently had his first experience with a game called First Contact, and could not help but notice a mild sensation of deflation with the real world on exit — a sensation that lasted about an hour.
In the narcotics world this sensation is called the come down and can lead to repeat usage and, on occasion, addiction or dependency.
Federation University Australia clinical psychology senior lecturer Vasileios Stavropoulos said research on addictive internet behaviour was largely inconsistent until 2015 when the American Psychiatric Association introduced the concept of internet gaming disorder.
Dr Stavropoulos said newly diagnosed cases “appear to have been increasing worldwide” and with the advance of VR technology that “definitely” had addictive potential, “we should be cautious”.
“We’re not only talking about virtual reality, we’re also talking about virtual personality,” he said.
“Scientifically, it’s what we call the compensatory internet use hypothesis, which basically suggests that those who are not fulfilled here in this world, tend to escape in another world where they might feel more fulfilled.”
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Source: ABC Australia