Virtual reality! ~woo

Its hard to think that mere decades ago the next big thing was Atari, or the Nintendo 64. Fortunately for the newest of generations I cant even imagine what this technology will develop into in the next 20 or so years. Needless to say I am excited.

From what I read this new immersive technology is still working out the kinks. The author constantly refers to Us as newcomers in this field. Essentially the most lacking area if this tech is apparently the motion tracking. Which only makes sense, The Wii, Xbox, and Playstation all had at the very least a sensor bar. These bars would project lasers out into the room which when broken would effectively signal to the consol that movement had occurred. Kind of like a spy movie. But Tracking head movement without a sensor bar is much more difficult.

How does the Oculus Rift work?

Picture a set of ski goggles in which a large cellphone screen replaces the glass. The screen displays two images side by side, one for each eye. A set of lenses is placed on top of the screen, focusing and reshaping the picture for each eye, and creating a stereoscopic 3D image. The goggles have embedded sensors that monitor the wearer's head motions and adjust the image accordingly. The latest version of the Oculus Rift is bolstered by an external positional-tracking accessory, which helps track head movements more accurately. The result is the sensation that you are looking around a 3D world.                                               Source

 All of this is amazing. Being able to literally insert oneself into a game or movie sounds awesome, but I can't help but to feel that there must be some downside to this. After some searching around I discovered several health concerns that come with this level of immersion.

 The most minor of the health concerns for the Oculus rift are, motion sickness and neck stiffness. Major side effects can be Loss of sight, heart attack/ panic attack, and there were several instances where someone injured themselves reacting to something that wasn't there.

So these are just a few of the complaints I found summed up. Honestly I think the reward in this instance out weighs the risk. 

With tech as cool as this starting to find its legs I can't wait to be able to safely plug me head into a game and play full body! but maybe thats just me...