Gadgetory

virtual reality is having a renaissance big tech companies like Google Facebook and Samsung are all building headsets consumers can buy and use in the comfort of their own homes but virtual reality is also reshaping an entirely different set of industries it starts here in theme parks but it will spread to malls and movie theaters and arcades virtual reality will reshape the way we consume entertainment not just passively sitting on our couch but also when we're having fun out in the real world this summer the future of this industry will start to roll out to the masses Six Flags is going to put VR coasters in nine parks across the United States and Sony Pictures is working with an ambitious startup called avoid to put a ghostbusters virtual reality experience right into the heart of Times Square okay I know what you're thinking wearing a VR headset on a rollercoaster seems ridiculous and well obviously it is but having tried it myself I can say there's actually something amazing about it when you combine real-world forces with great virtual reality you get something new something more exciting and terrifying than either one on its own layering virtual reality on top of rides that already exists works well but startups are also starting from scratch zero latency for example is creating a sort of virtual reality shooting range think the next generation of laser tag and the void with its new Ghost Busters experience is going even further it's trying to map the virtual world onto the real one so that when you reach out to touch a wall in the simulation it's actually they're using heat lamps and fans trapdoors and elevators it's adding physical effects to the simulation creating what it calls hyper reality these projects will have a profound impact on the VR experience in two ways first they'll act as a catalyst for mainstream adoption Six Flags estimates that 7 million people will get to experience VR this summer on their rise that's 7 times the number of active users samsung believes it has for its VR headset right now second they'll give consumers a taste of the near future the void is willing to spend a lot of money on its headset for the average consumer VR experience consumers not willing to pay more than six to eight hundred dollars plus $1,000 for their gaming PC the void can spend around ten thousand dollars on a single headset in order to give people an ultra high-end experience that's worth the price of admission and that's why theme parks are going to be the future of virtual reality you want the biggest number of people to experience the best the technology has to offer and that's only gonna happen in a place like this unless it doesn't actually we've been on this ride before a few decades ago people thought that theme parks are gonna be the future of virtual reality and vice versa that ride didn't end so well it's 7:40 3:00 in the morning right now we are gonna rock your world through virtual reality ah the 1990s at the time a lot of companies were jumping on the increasingly hot VR bandwagon and one of the biggest was virtual world entertainment now the guys from that company you thought that VR headsets made you look like an idiot and they were not wrong so they created what they call battle tech pods these big complex looking cockpits that you could strap into and battle not very realistic-looking robots people loved it they loved it so much that VW is able to create its own series of virtual reality parks they even had bars we could go to tell your war stories Weird Al was a fan yeah it was a thing around the same time Disney began to experiment with its own brand of virtual reality it opened up in Aladdin magic carpet ride with some very cumbersome looking helmets and Bill Nye did a little work on a cyberspace Mountain VR theme parks and arcades were big business until the novelty wore off that is it turns out that they couldn't keep the software updated fast enough to make it interesting they didn't have the same eternal enjoyment as a roller coaster VR was just another amusement one with a very short shelf life so is VR today just another fad it's hard to say obviously we know it's not as bulky or expensive as it was back then and no doubt the immersive experiences you can have in your living room will improve by leaps and bounds over the next few years but until people start putting rollercoasters in their backyards or turning their houses into funhouse mazes full of props there'll be a certain kind of magic that's only possible when you actually get off the couch who was the virtual reality King getting ready to are tickets on the virtual reality tour this morning he joins us live from Pasadena the mornings are nice you guys gonna fly with me today Tony Susan you're there what we're in virtual reality somewhere yes somewhere