Without any
actual product released, the virtual reality company Magic Leap has raised funding of nearly $800 million in their series C round, at $4.5 billion
post-money valuation, which might be a new record in the hirtory of the internet. It
is not a unique case: for several years, virtual reality companies have become rising stars that every investor
wants to fund and gain profit from later.
VR’s
history is maybe longer than you thought. As early as in the 1990s, VR
companies made their first attempts by launching gaming machines in arcades.
They all failed, mostly due to the unacceptably high unit price (around £25000)
and the fact that they were not that competitive.
In 1995, Nintendo launched Virtual Boy, which only contained 19 games and wasn’t able to compete with other gaming devices on the market.
In the 2000s,
the manufacturing industry began using this technology. With a laboratory providing
an “Immersive Virtual Environment”, Ford was able to test the security system
and have an almost real user experience of their car with a lower budget.
2012 was a
turning point, when Oculus initiated a program of crowd funding on Kickstarter, and received $2.4 million, which exceeded by far their original goal
of $250,000. VR has finally drawn the attention of the public. In 2014, Facebook
acquired Oculus with $2 billion. Since then, almost all
tech giants, including Microsoft, Sony and HTC, have entered this battlefield.
A bright future
What can we
do with virtual reality? Imagine that one day, you wake up and make yourself a
coffee. You touch your mug. You feel the heat of it. The coffee tastes bitter. It
all seems so real – while you, wearing a headset, are still lying on your bed.
You will still need essential energy for your body though, but you can just take
an infusion of nutrient liquid, and the VR device will send electronic signals to
your brain and tell it what your “food” tastes like.
It is the
ultimate and the wildest imagination of how we can use this kind of technology.
But let’s set our vision on the short term for now. With VR, you can do more things
without going outside: working (with virtual documents around you), studying,
shopping (you can see directly what you look like when putting those clothes
on). You can also use it to help people go outside while they cannot. Like a sick kid who, with a VR device, can finally see the
world he has never seen.
When
talking about VR’s practical value, we are often given a spectacular blueprint.
We will be able to use it on so many sectors that it seems that in the future, we
won’t need many material support in our life. All we will need is a VR device
and an advanced logistic system which allows us to get what we want quickly.
Living in the Matrix
Is VR a
huge opportunity or is it just another bubble? For now, it is hard to tell.
Apparently, to have a decent user experience, there’s still a lot to be done. Users
are complaining about how heavy those devices are on their head and how their
view is blocked, and they can easily stumble over anything in the room. Most
devices can only track the action of the head, not any other part of your body. Companies
have made promises about solving these problems, but none of them seems easy to
deal with.
On the other
hand, investments in VR programs are massively increasing. As a 6-year-old
company, the only thing we see Magic Leap has done is to release a series of
fancy videos on the internet, including an “elephant” that you can hold in your
hand, and a “whale” jumping out of water – in a gym.
The visual
effect is impressing, indeed. But we wonder when this technology will be mature
and be more useful to our life.
There are other
concerns about the future of VR. If things really go as we have imagined –
lying on the bed (or in a giant “pill” with lots of tubes, as many
science-fiction movies had pictured), letting an electronic device control your
five senses and your feeling. You won’t need to go outside anymore, nor to live
in the downtown for any living facilities. It seems that there’s no reason for
a big city to exist anymore at that time.
This may
just be an imagination which will never happen. But the technologies involved are
not unreachable. If we want VR to develop, why shouldn’t we consider the worst
situation it could cause in the future? This is not to say that we need to stop
funding VR programs; on the contrary, we should be able to see the great
potential in it. However, maybe it is wise to invest more carefully, knowing that runaway valuation is actually a pretty effective way to destroy the sector.
Yuan. S
Hi Yuan,
ReplyDeleteThank you for this article! I would like to say it's quite interesting. This virtual reality device is just amazing and it's very likely that il will change our lifestyle in the near future.
As you said, this high technology is always tending to be the target of hasty investments which might hurt its development actually. Hopefully, the investors will keep a sober mind.
Another concern that occurred to me is that: will this device make people addicted to the virtual world rather than leading a real life? Do you have some ideas about it?
Bei H.
Hi Bei! Thank you for sharing your opinion! Yes, I do think the addiction to the virtual world will become a problem, not for now, but in the future.
DeleteToday’s VR technologies are not developed enough to allow people to stay in the virtual world for a long time, but considering how certain people like game players (actually the Oculus VR device was created by several young entrepreneurs who wanted not only to play video games, but also to play “in” the games.) or mentally vulnerable teenagers are going to use it, this may become the major problem we should warry about in the future.
Yuan
I really appreciate the lifestyle with VR that your wildest imagination mentioned.
ReplyDeleteThank your for your appreciation :)
DeleteHi, Yuan! Your article is very interesting! Since this new technique appear, makes many people looking forward the realize of the scene in science fiction filme. It will be exciting that if my idol one day standing in front of me via this technique! I will never sleep ! But false is false, do you think VR can change our real life?
ReplyDeleteXuedan F.
Hi Xuedan, thank you for your comment! You asked if VR will change our real life, by which I suppose you mean the tangible, material world (tell me if I misunderstood!).
DeleteAnd my answer is yes. Although it seems that VR can’t bring any “tangible entity” that we can actually touch, it will still influence us mentally and change the world. Like the situation I mentioned in the article, if the VR technology is developed enough and allows everyone to stay at home and not to go outside at all, there will be no reason for cities to exist. The ways of communication, as well as relationships between people will be changed, which I think are also part of our real life.
Yuan
Thank you for your reply, I'm agree with your point of view, and I'm really looking forward to this technology can be widely applied in the near future in our lives.
DeleteGood post.... Many business industries plan to use the virtual reality technology as an one of the essential things.
ReplyDeleteVirtual Reality Shopping
VR real estate
VR architecture