2016 was only year zero for Virtual Reality

Vinay Narayan
Vinay Narayan

For all the fuss over Virtual Reality, you don’t often see people around you using the technology. We asked Vinay Narayan, Executive Director VR at HTC, who was in India to join the board at SmartWizX., just three questions. (SmartWizX is a Noida-based company that is actually making revenue using VR solutions for architects, designers and engineers.)

Virtual Reality is an exciting technology but where’s the content? If you’re not a gamer, there’s very little.

There’s actually a big explosion in content. On Steam alone there’s a thousand pieces of content and HTC has Vive Port, which is our non-gaming platform and that includes everything from education to travel to content that supports various business verticals — so there is actually a lot of content though the more mobile content may be a little less right now. Remember that 2016 was just Year Zero for VR. It’s very early but we are seeing companies now work together to make standards as they develop ecosystems of content.

What are the challenges for VR content right now?

One of the biggest challenges is the awareness of the content that’s out there. For example, there are some amazing photogrametry tools that can give you such detail that you can look at individual blades of grass, for example. Most consumers haven’t seen that level of quality and realism. It exists.

You’re here to get involved with an Indian company, SmartWizX, that’s all about VR in business. Do you think verticals will open up VR usage?

Well, I do think adoption of VR is going to come from the non-gaming space. VR is another platform, just like the PC has been. Enterprise actually does a good job of creating awareness of this platform because as people begin to use it for specific uses at work, you extend that awareness at home. For example, today you can go to a virtual museum, or go back to prehistoric times or visit Rome or learn about things you never had access to. And the power of VR is that when you’re in that deep immersive environment, you can learn very deeply in a short amount of time.

(This article was published on February 15, 2017)
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