While the progress of computer development is
always at a
sort-of breakneck pace, the computer industry as a whole is nearing a
major turning point. For the past 30 years, consumers have been
interacting with computers using some sort of 2-dimensional screen.
However, computing hardware has finally reached a critical size and
power threshold wherein it has become feasible to present the consumer
with a fully simulated 3D interface. No, I'm not referring to a 3D
screen.That's too limited of an idea and not practical. No, what I'm
referring to is a set of technologies that can display fully simulated
3D worlds into the boundless space of a human being's field of vision.
They
call the technologies, collectively, Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual
Reality (VR). The best summary explanation I can make about VR is that
it is a technology that takes 3D images rendered by a computer, and
displays them in video format to each of a person's eyes. This gives
the person a sense of being someplace that isn't real. VR, though it is
similar to AR, must exist as a prerequisite to AR. However, AR is a
little more complicated to explain. The fundamental idea of AR is
similar, but its practical application is much different. In summary,
AR also displays computer rendered images to each eye, but it blends
those images in with the real world to make it look like those virtual
things are actually there. It's more difficult to do because the
technology also has to "keep track" of the real world and figure out how
to display virtual objects so that they appear to blend.
These
ideas, though they may be new to some, have been hyped and speculated
on for at least 30 years. In that time, dozens of companies have risen
up, promised everyone a virtual reality entertainment nirvana, and have
summarily come crashing down in epic fashion. The problem has been a
simple one: economics. It has never been, up until this point, feasible
to provide individual middle-class consumers with a compelling virtual
reality device.
Enter Oculus Rift!
The
catalytic moment for the dawn of this real age of virtual reality came
sometime in early 2012, when a 17-year-old kid named Palmer Luckey,
working in his parents garage, built a cardboard-and-duck-tape prototype
of a virtual reality headset. His simple idea was this: why not take a
cell phone screen and use that to display images to a person? It
turned out to be the money question. By building a VR headset in this
way, he solved the economics problem that had plagued so many other VR
attempts over the years. The cell phone screen was a cheap, small, and
readily available piece of supply infrastructure that didn't exist even 5
years before that! You're probably thinking "this is all well and
good, but I can go into my basement right now and tinker with some great
technological idea but actually getting money and interest behind it is
next to impossible!" Truthfully, I would agree with you. And so, as
is it with most stories like this, Palmer encountered a lucky break.
The
internet forum where he was posting his tinkering progress happened to
be frequented by one of video gaming's most legendary designers: John
Carmack. Carmack was intensely interested in Palmer's invention and
asked if he might borrow it so he could do some software tinkering and
show it at a convention he was attending. Of course, Palmer sent his
prototype to Carmack, and the rest is history. The appearance of the
device at this convention was the stuff of nerd legend. Although the
device was tucked away in a small booth, the convention attendees, the
media, the blogs, everyone, it seemed, went totally ape. Virtual reality
is here! John Carmack's new virtual reality headset could set the tone
of the future! It was the springboard that every inventor dreams of.
It was then that Palmer named his device Rift, and
started a company he called Oculus. Palmer initially thought that he
could use this publicity to sell the device as a kit that enthusiasts
could use to build a cool little device themselves. However, when he
put the device on kickstarter.com, a website used to help small
companies build capital through public donations, he raised 2.5 million
dollars, completely blowing away his initial funding goal by something
like 10 times! It was one of the largest donation hauls the website has
ever seen.
This was too huge just to be a product for
enthusiasts. Palmer then decided: this would be a fully realized
consumer product. After this point, the interest in the device
increased with seemingly exponential intensity. He obtained business
partners, and a CEO. They let wall street investors try the device,
which impressed many of them so much that the company was able to raise
tens of millions of dollars in additional capital. This investment
fervor climaxed with the buyout of Oculus by Facebook in 2014 for 2
billion dollars. Thus, overnight, Palmer Luckey (along with a handful
of other Oculus founders) became one of the richest people in the world.
He has become the virtual figurehead of a very real computer
revolution.
No comments:
Post a Comment