Imagine a world where you can do anything you like without any consequences. Sounds intriguing? This is the concept of full immersion in virtual reality.
As eager as you may be to get your hands on it, it has yet to be a mainstream concept. However, the good news is we’re inching closer and closer to attaining full immersion every single day.
With the progress of technology, full-dive virtual reality can be made possible in the near future. But how far exactly is the near future? Let’s take a look.
How Far Are We From Full Dive VR?
You may have come across movies where the main character is transported to a fully virtual world once they put on a VR headset. A virtual space beyond reality where you can experience and interact with virtual objects and people that would not otherwise be possible in the real world. This is what full immersion or full dive into virtual reality essentially means.
If technology keeps advancing at the current rate, in the coming decade or two, you may be able to experience full-dive VR. From trading in VR to full immersive driving, the possibilities are endless.
It might even open up opportunities to create a virtual environment that can be customized according to our likes and dislikes, which in turn becomes a virtual safe space.
This whole concept is quite similar to video games these days. Not only does it have a significant amount of potential, but it also has room for further interesting developments. It can start with the expansion of virtual worlds and progress onto the number and types of virtual activities you can do in said world.
Perhaps, one day it might develop to a stage where you can physically feel the virtual world, from temperatures to natural elements.
Where Does Full Dive VR Lie In The Modern Day?
Agreed, putting on a pair of VR headsets and escaping to a whole new world where nothing limits you sounds appealing. However, before we take a deep dive into the future possibilities, let us take a look at where full-dive virtual reality stands now.
With modern-day virtual reality, you can get access to virtual sounds and sights. Some examples are 360-degree video games, where you can roam around freely in the virtual world, communicate with other fellow players, and escape reality. Traditional virtual reality has also gained immense traction in the educational field.
For instance, say you are learning about a particular geographical area. With the help of VR, your teacher can take you to the location and teach you about the place without having to spend exuberant amounts for tickets. Or, if you would like to get a fully immersive VR experience of a monument you’ve been studying about, you can do so easily, thanks to virtual reality.
VR has also been significantly helpful in the medical field, helping students as well as teachers. Since medicine is a sensitive subject, handling matters that can result in a life or death situation, this full dive technology will be ideal. Using software that mimics an operation theater allows the upcoming doctors to get a better understanding of the human anatomy and get more practice apart from real-life dissections.
And since it’s a virtual world, you are allowed to make mistakes without consequences, so you can learn from them and avoid them during the actual surgery.
How Will Full Dive Virtual Reality Progress?
Now that we know the state of the current VR technology, another question arises. What next? Since we have access to sight and sound in the virtual environment, the next possible advancement could be touch.
A group of scientists at Northwestern University has invented a skin-like material that is quite lightweight and thin. The material consists of several independently functioning sensors that can efficiently mimic the feel of touch.
This full-dive VR technology, now referred to as Epidermal VR (virtual touch), will allow the user to feel touch without needing it to be attached to the skin. Though it is still in its prototype stage, this immersive technology has been quite successful and widely accepted.
Understandably so, this may seem like the extent that virtual reality can grow. However, this is only the beginning of the potential of VR. As this technology develops further, you may even be able to feel things like weight, the inertia of hitting something, and in certain cases, maybe even pain.
Most people attach technological advancements in the virtual field to video games. But why limit such a useful development to one aspect? Full-dive virtual reality can be ideal for various things, such as sports. It can be a great way to practice for people who engage in high-contact sports, like football and boxing.
This prevents the chance of injury while still giving the athlete space to polish their skills. Aside from intense sports, even a biker who desires to bike to certain locations but is limited by financial and other resources will find VR useful. Who wouldn’t want to bike to every corner of the earth while ironically still being at their home?
The Limitations Of Full Dive VR
You may have come across someone stating that the developments in virtual reality will be the end of physical reality. For obvious reasons, that is not true. But, one cannot ignore the potential limitation such intense technological advances may have. These include:
1. High Cost
Technology is naturally quite pricey, be it a smartphone or the latest gaming console. Especially technology with several intriguing features will be priced according to the cost of time and resources it took for production. Due to this, a full-dive virtual reality will not be affordable.
If this full dive technology becomes available in the near future, it may not be accessible to everyone aside from the selected few who can afford it. This might not be a major problem for individuals who are just curious. But for people like students, teachers, athletes, etc. affordability of an essential item matters.
2. Software Glitches
For a full dive VR, functional software is necessary. However, if this full dive technology were to be accessible in the near future, the quality of the software would not necessarily be the best. As we progress, the software can improve, and glitches can be fixed. But that depends solely on the companies who sell the software.
However, when you pay exuberant amounts for a technical product, including the VR headset, experiencing stutters and glitches is a bummer. Moreover, these problems can lead to a break in the virtual experience, forcing you to leave the virtual space and return to the physical world.
3. Health Concerns
Though virtual reality seems interesting, and you may have urges to spend all day in the virtual world, it is unhealthy. If you spend an unnatural amount of time in virtual reality, it can have adverse effects on not just your physical health but also your mental state. In case full dive VR was to be implemented in the near future, you might begin to notice an increase in health-related problems in many users.
This can be a possibility if full dive VR is implemented in the style of Sword Art Online, which puts the user in a semi-conscious state with no movement. Sword Art Online is an MMORPG game with levels of skill mastery and other features.
To play the game, one may have to fully immerse themselves in the game, especially mentally. Sword Art Online has been the cause of several deaths due to this factor.
When Can We Expect Full Dive VR?
To give a potential time and date for technological advancements is quite an impossible task. But we can safely say that the chances of this technology being available in the mainstream markets anytime soon is quite low.
Ideally, this technology will be advancing in sections, starting with the touch and progressing further till we reach full immersion. Touch can be a foolproof subject within the next five years. However, achieving full dive VR may take over a decade or two.
Conclusion
Full dive VR can open up various possibilities for several people and professions. However, you have to keep in mind that it is not a piece of cake to be able to mimic every real-life aspect of an artificial world. It is not an impossible task, but it sure is a time-consuming one.
If you’ve been wondering whether full dive VR will be available in 20 years, the answer is possibly so. Although this seems like a futuristic concept, the way technology has been progressing makes this advancement long overdue.
For virtual reality enthusiasts, though full dive VR has a long way to go, the good news is we’re closer than ever before. Till we reach the endpoint, let your imagination run wild.