Oculus Rift

Thirty years after virtual-reality goggles and

immersive virtual worlds made their debut, the
technology finally seems poised for widespread
use.
Breakthrough

Why It Matters

Key Players

High-quality virtual-reality hardware

Visually immersive interfaces will

+ Oculus Vry

that is cheap enough for the

lead to new forms of entertainment

+ Sony

consumer market.

and communications.

+ Vuzix
+ Nvidia

almer Luckey had not been born when The Lawnmower Man was released in 1992, but the movie,
with its vision of computer-generated sensory immersion, helped seed his interest in virtual reality as
soon as he saw it. He dreamed of playing video games in simulated 3-D worldsa dream that led him to
amass one of the worlds largest collections of head-mounted displays and, eventually, inspired him to
attempt to make his own. With no formal engineering training, Luckey designed his first working
prototype in his garage at the age of 16.
Today, the 21-year-old is the founder of Oculus VR, a company that is on the verge of releasing the Rift,
an affordable virtual-reality headset for playing ultra-immersive video games. Facebook bought the
company for $2 billion this spring.
Oculus VR had already attracted more than $91 million in venture funding, a near-fanatical following, and
team members like the game programmer John Carmack, who led the development of influential video
games such as Doom, Quake, and Rage. But the Facebook deal is a sign of faith that virtual reality is
now sharp enough and cheap enough to have huge potential for more than video games. The idea of
merging immersive virtual reality with social communications is intriguing. It could also be a compelling
tool for teleconferencing, online shopping, or more passive forms of entertainment. Some filmmakers are,
in fact, already experimenting with movies designed just for the Rift.

Virtual-reality headsets could be found in some arcades when The Lawnmower Man was in the theaters.
But the technology wasnt good enough to catch on widely. This time around, Luckey realized that
cheap smartphone components could be combined to stunning effect, rendering bright, crisp worlds
much more compelling than the blocky graphics often seen through earlier virtual-reality headsets.
When you use the Rift, you feel as though youre actually inside these worlds. The technology follows the
movement of your head in real time; lean in to take a better look at a virtual flower or look to the skies to
gaze at a virtual cloud, and your mind is drawn into the simulation. You can almost believe you are fully
there.
The vast audience for home video games appears hungry for the device. In August 2012, Oculus VR set
out to raise $250,000 on Kickstarter and met the goal in a matter of hours. It surpassed $1 million within
two days.
Luckey started shipping a version of the Rift for software developers in March 2013 for just $300, and in
the past year, the hardware has improved significantly. The retail version, which is expected to launch
later this year or early next, will offer resolution higher than 1,920 by 1,080 pixels per eye. Such
stunningly sharp definition has only recently become possible at such a low price.
While video games are where this improved virtual-reality technology is likely to take off first, it could
also have applications in telepresence, architecture, computer-aided design, emergency response
training, and phobia therapy.
Indeed, in some niches, older VR technology has been in use for years. Some surgeons routinely practice
operations using VR simulations, while some industrial designers use the technology to view their designs
as if they had already been constructed. But 30 years ago, when Jaron Lanier founded VPL Research,
the first company to sell virtual-reality goggles, such products were too expensive for the consumer
mainstream (a single head-mounted display cost as much as $100,000).
There were other reasons, too, that earlier versions of virtual reality failed commercially. Players of
Nintendos Virtual Boy, a low-end VR game system launched in the mid-1990s, complained of nausea
after extended play. For other players, the keen sense of wonder and presence they felt inside a virtual
world soon dissipated. Your first time playing a game in a virtual world is incredible, Lanier says, but the
20th time is wearying.
Things may be different now. Though some testers have experienced nausea using the Oculus Rift, the
company says the latest version has almost eliminated this problem. And todays virtual environments
offer so much more fidelity that they could remain captivating for much longer. Artists have been able to
create a more stimulating range of worlds, from the rigorously realistic to the more abstract and
painterly.

Already Oculus has inspired imitators. Acknowledging the Rift as an inspiration, Sony has demonstrated
a VR headset that players will be able to use with the PlayStation 4. Sony is also working with NASA to
create a virtual-reality simulation of Mars using images pulled from the Mars Rover. A more mundane but
potentially useful application that Sony is exploring would let travelers visit virtual hotel rooms before
booking the real thing. Assuming they ever want to take the headsets off.
Simon Parkin

Credits: Photo by Bruce Peterson, model: JJ Banicki, illustration by John Macneill; sources: Oculus Rift, ifixit.com
Tagged: Computing, EmTech2014, TR10 2014, augmented reality, virtual reality
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MIT Technology Review

2014

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