I’ve been an advocate of Virtual Reality (VR)_pretty much forever. I remember decades ago having the idea that one day we would walk down cinderblock hallways in a standardized office layout, with an VR headset on, walking through a virtual office which mapped exactly to the physical layout of the office we would be in. The dreams of a young kid! Now, we actually have the capability to do that, with platforms like Spatial, AltSpaceVR, Engage, and many more starting up all the time.
One of my passions is helping to move forward the VR and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies to help bring people around the world together, to socialize, learn, teach, and get to know each other. Just as the Internet has empowered people with access to a world of information, VR/AR has the potential to to help people from around the world better understand each other through engaging dialog made possible via “in person” meetings in a VR world. It’s harder for people to hate each other, war with each other, once we know each other and have looked into each other’s (virtual) eyes.
A tangential interest is that of 360 video, not because it simplifies video production, although it certainly has the potential to do that, but because when coupled with VR technology, it provides an extremely immersive experience. 360 video allows people to be in places they will never be able to travel to, learn from experiences they will never have in the physical world, and enjoy a new level of immersive entertainment not possible via our existing flat screen mediums.
I started in earnest with VR using a Google Pixel Daydream headset, then graduated to a HP PCVR head, then acquired an Oculus Quest and will soon have a Oculus Quest 2. On the 360 video front, I started with an LG360 and now have an Insta360 One R. In this blog, I will be exploring both VR/AR and also 360 video, how I use these technologies for recreation, for exercise, and hopefully for work.