Virtual reality: Get your head in the game

The explosive popularity of the Oculus Rift headset has launched a revolution for virtual reality, promising to make it more immersive than ever

Read more: "Dreams on demand: Virtual reality finally delivers"

I SHOULDN'T have looked down. I'm balancing on a narrow stone beam between two buildings, with a drop either side that plunges into the tree canopy far, far below. The wind howls. My legs feel shaky. The room I'm edging towards is just a tantalising few steps in front of me. Arms outstretched for balance, I'm almost there when I suddenly wobble and fall, head spinning, into the jungle.

This is what it is like to experience Oculus Rift: the headset that is poised to single-handedly resurrect virtual reality, a technology that seemed to have fallen by the wayside years ago.

The Rift burst onto the scene last August as a Kickstarter project that went massive. More than 9000 backers raised $2.4 million in crowdfunding to develop the headset ? eclipsing its $250,000 goal. Some 5000 people who pledged $300 or more were rewarded with the Oculus Rift developer's kit, so they could craft apps for the rig. The first of them are being delivered now.

The device itself provides two separate images, one for each eye, that together give the wearer a 110-degree field of view that fills their peripheral vision. Coupled with a head-tracking sensor and a high frame rate that prevents the image "dragging" as you whip your head around, you can really get the feeling of immersion.

"In the past, there have been too many things standing in the way of successful VR," says Palmer Luckey, the hardware hacker who came up with the idea for the Rift in his bedroom. "We now have extremely powerful computers, lifelike game engines, high-resolution displays and high-precision motion tracking technology."

The Oculus Rift could be used to explore not just virtual environments ? as in first-person shooter games (see "Virtual reality: Live your dreams in real time") ? but also real places that have been filmed with a 360-degree camera. Daniel Ervik of Norwegian firm Making View was one of the first to do this. Ervik's firm creates 360-degree videos with small cameras that can be fitted to objects like a Formula One car or the helmet of a wingsuit flier. Users can then view an event from any angle, normally with the help of a web browser. The addition of Oculus Rift will immerse users right in the middle of the action.

Consumers have been waiting for a long time for something like this, Ervik says. "Even though it's just in the development stage, it's still far better than anything else out there. It's a great time for virtual reality. Oculus Rift has rebooted the field."

Andy Millns, creative director of Inition, a London-based 3D technology firm, says matching Oculus with video footage is a great way to use something that was designed for gaming. "You can place people anywhere and surround them in live action content," he says.

Some are already having fun hacking the Oculus Rift for a variety of new uses. Korean developer Joo-Hyung Ahn has created a 3D virtual cinema that lets a wearer step into a digitally recreated movie theatre, choose a seat and then watch a blockbuster movie in full 3D. Meanwhile, others have combined the Rift with Kinect's gesture sensors to step into a world where they can be a VR DJ, playing different tunes and tweaking the graphic equalisers that surround their virtual body with a wave.

Someone else who got their hands on a Rift is Skip Rizzo of the Institute of Creative Technologies at the University of Southern California. He has been using virtual reality for years to help treat soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder. Since he took delivery of the kit, he has been using it to run his Virtual Iraq/Afghanistan PTSD exposure therapy system, which helps soldiers relive their experiences in a safe environment.

The Rift still needs a few tweaks before it's consumer ready. The prototype tracks the orientation of your head but does not yet know where it is in space, which can lead to some disorientating effects. But one early drawback has already been dealt with. At last week's Electronic Entertainment expo in Los Angeles, Luckey unveiled a new version of the headset. It has a full 1080 pixel HD screen, far better than the developer's rather measly 720 pixel version. Millns is excited about its potential. "This area is going to explode," he says. "It's been very uncool for the last 20 years ? now it's back."

This article appeared in print under the headline "Get your head in the game"

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