Virtual reality moves closer to actual reality at CES 2016

Virtual Reality (VR) is closing the final gap before it becomes an accessible and comfortable consumer experience, writes Matthew Duke-Woolley, an analyst at Beecham Research.

Motion sickness has been a huge technological challenge for VR, with OEMs addressing issues with the refresh rate, graphical fidelity and pixel size of their screens. Some industry leaders in VR hardware speculate that the solution is to provide more reality in the form of force feedback – the VR illusion can be shattered if it is not convincing and when this happens it can often lead to discomfort in the form of motion sickness. Enabling a more convincing virtual reality experience could be assisted by 360 degree treadmills – or similar – on display at CES 2016.

The 360 degree directional treadmills allow users to run around in their virtual world whilst being firmly located in one position in the real world. The hardware required for the best VR experience is beginning to stack up with the prospect of a treadmill becoming another addition to the $600 headset, and $1,000 computer required for taking advantage of the best consumer VR experiences.

However there is a cheaper alternative for the serious VR consumer. PlayStation plans to make the VR experience much more mainstream and accessible by releasing its own headset, which is a dedicated peripheral of its console. The combination represents a significantly lower price point and encourages adoption of VR experiences on a home entertainment system.

Facebook has begun taking pre-orders for the Oculus Rift. The price is set at £599 for the headset but this price has been subsidised by Facebook to create a bigger sales buzz. Success could be measured by the fact that Oculus’s website has been unable to handle the initial demand. The real success of VR hardware will be decided by the content available. Currently this market lacks a killer title to launch the technology. The industry understands this and has started to address that issue; Oculus has 20 games in development, there will also be over 100 titles from independent developers.

Qualcomm announced a new partnership with NextVR, which provides live action VR broadcast technology, to gain support for VR experiences on its Snapdragon 820 mobile processor. NextVR recently broadcast the NBA season opener game and a CNN Democratic debate to 121 countries. While at CES NextVR broadcast an NBA game live in VR – users were transported to the courtside to watch the game.

Mobile VR is pegged as the next phase of VR – allowing consumers to access the technology with hardware that they likely already own in the form of a smartphone. Samsung Gear VR announced its price at $100 for the headset – but it requires a Samsung smartphone to operate. Other entry level VR products include the Google Cardboard, which is literally a cardboard case for a smartphone VR experience. It seems that VR will be accessible to everyone but the quality of experience may vary depending on hardware.

VR has huge potential in the following areas; live sporting events, concerts, education, adult content, social experiences, movies, and gaming.