Bohemian Rhapsody
Is this the real life? Is this just fantasy?We are entering an age of immersive technologies. Virtual Reality, 360 degree videos, real life simulators and augmented reality. Where did all this begin? For me, it was the introduction of google street view. Launched in 2007 in the United States, included with Google earth in 2008 before being added to Google maps in 2009. We had to the option to go anywhere in the world, right from our living rooms, so where did we all decide to go? Outside our own house. Amazing isn’t it! Below is me touring the external office right from my desk.
Virtual Reality allows you to become immersed into an environment right from your home. By now everyone has seen the virtual reality headsets that you can get, which allow you to be placed into environments such as games or movies. It can either fall into two categories: simulation of real environment or an imagined environment I.e. a game. The BBC have offered virtual reality technology for the world cup, which allows you to be on the pitch in various locations.
Augmented Reality allows for a mixture of real world and computer generated overlays. A major example of this is the Pokemon go app, which overlays Pokemon in real life and became a worldwide phenomenon in 2017. The Ikea augmented reality app allows you to place pieces of furniture in your home before actually buying them.
360 Degrees images and videos now enable you to get full immersive views of pretty much everywhere. Companies are now taking full advantage of this technology to. It all began with a panorama image but now you can go up, down, left and right or a complete circle if you so wish. A couple of interesting examples are the Emirates ‘immersive experience’ which allows you to explore different seating classes for the A380 and the deadliest catch 360 website that allows you to explore various boats 360 degrees.
Lastly I would just like to mention the Magic Leap company website. Magic Leap are an augmented reality company looking to release their own headset this year and I think the desktop version of their website is awesome.
Thanks for reading,Andy