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Putting the virtual into reality

It's often said that contemporary technology poaches its ideas from works of science fiction. Automatic sliding doors, for example, were famously inspired by the automatic doors seen aboard the Enterprise in the original Star Trek series, and the now commonplace touch-screen technology that can be found on smartphones, computers and even ATM machines is pure Minority Report. But another technology that takes its inspiration from the movies, virtual reality (VR), hasn't quite managed to catch on.

Essentially, VR should put the user into an immersive, highly visual and interactive 3D environment, allowing him or her to literally inhabit the digital world. In Minority Report, for example, the technology is sold to paying customers, who can use the digital world to live out their wildest fantasies, be it soaring across the sky, or else winning the world title at a sporting competition. But present-day scientists have yet to come up with a high-fidelity and fully immersive VR system - at least one that can be marketed to the public - due to limitations on processing power, image resolution the speed of communication between the person and the screen. But that hasn't stopped them trying.

A case in point is the Sony HMZ-T1 Personal 3D Viewer, which was released earlier in the year, at a retail price of $800. It comes in the form of a headset boasting a 720p 3D screen that sends different images to each eye, as well as a set of stereo earphones. With the headset on, the user is pretty much cut off from the rest of the world, making it one of the most immersive digital products out there.

Reviews of the T1 have been good; testers have described it as one of the most immersive 3D devices on the market, with a 3D experience that's much more realistic than any 3D TVs currently available. For gaming and movies, it's easy to forget the physical environment and to feel like actually being in the digital one. But unfortunately, due to the headset being reasonably heavy, wearing it for prolonged periods of time can become uncomfortable, ending the user’s suspension of disbelief.

Another new device, the Oculus Rift, promises to make up for the T1's shortcomings, though it is far from being ready to hit the market. Funded with cash generated from a Kickstarter campaign - using money from some of the biggest game developers in the world - the set headset features a 640 by 800-pixel screen for each eye. Indeed, its field of vision is so much wider than what's come before that it promises to launch the market further than it's ever been. The product seems so promising, in fact, that it took the firm only four hours to raise the $250,000 needed to get the project going.

That said, the technology still has a long way to go before it becomes viable. One of the biggest problems comes with tracking - how a device's sensors react to movement, and how that translates into movement on the screen. Many devices suffer from lagging issues, meaning that when the user moves his or her head, the scenery on the screen fails to change as rapidly, making the experience feel unrealistic.

That said, there have been some successes in the field of virtual reality. The armed forces make extensive use of VR simulators to train pilots in combat scenarios, without putting them - or the expensive jet fighters - at risk. What's more, testing for Formula 1 cars relies heavily on computerised simulations, with the drivers spending hours on digital racetracks in order to hone their skills. The problem, though, comes with making this technology available to the public for a reasonably small price, and that feat still eludes technology manufacturers.

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