Virtual reality has become an actual reality now with the invention of different mobile and gaming headsets. Growing interest in virtual reality has led to companies investing more in the trending market, so what does this mean for the future?

Virtual reality has surprisingly become a bit of a pastime for people now that it has become relatively cheap in the past couple of years. Now, the average virtual reality headset for a mobile device is roughly around $50-$100, but there are other ways to make a headset, like for example the Google Cardboard, which is a headset made literally out of cardboard and a few lenses. It is pretty surprising though, considering that a device that can practically take you out into another world entirely is only around the price mentioned above. These kinds of headsets are readily available if you have a smartphone, and it is fascinating to think that we have come this far in finding new mediums of entertainment.

But is this device solely used for entertainment? No, in fact, companies are finding more ways to incorporate virtual reality, including NASA. Recently NASA and Microsoft wanted to show the capability of the new Microsoft HoloLens, another type of virtual reality headset, and took people from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab to demonstrate its power at New York University’s Tendon School of Engineering MakerSpace (1). They showed a virtual reality representation of Mars, educating others that participated in this event on space exploration. People could set courses for the Mars rover, or just walk around and explore (1).

We have come so unbelievably far in technology, and yet we’ve only scratched the surface of the wondrous possibilities in the field of virtual reality, and hopefully in the future we can begin to see more revolutions in this growing market.

Sources:

(1): https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nasa-showcases-virtual-reality-for-space-exploration/

Picture: http://opticsgamer.com/vr-news-virtual-reality-sharapova-apollo-11-and-miden/