How virtual reality will change the way we travel
After several failures and oversights in the past, virtual reality is back to stay and not only that: this technological field is preparing to revolutionize various areas of our day to day . One of them, precisely, It will be the way we have to travel.
A year ago, the president of Sony Entertainment Shuhei Yoshida , featured the virtual reality headset Project Morpheus, conceived for the PlayStation console. Shuhei announced that this helmet will not only help us experience video games in the first person, but also It will allow us to travel to other places in the world from the sofa at home.
the billionaire Mark Zuckerberg , creator of the social network Facebook, does not rule out this possibility either and hence his company took over the virtual reality helmet Oculus VR for three billion dollars. Thousands of programmers around the world are creating tools for the different Oculus prototypes that have been released to date. other technology, microsoft , surprised us in January of this year with augmented reality glasses, baptized as ** Hololens **, which seemed to be taken from the future.
The future hides in those glasses
But the truth is that the future is already between us and in a few months we will be able to start enjoying new experiences unimaginable until now. The industry is beginning to prepare for this change that will allow us travel from home and explore unique places in total comfort, saving money and ensuring the safety of the virtual traveler . Helmets allow us to delve fully into those iconic or remote places to which we have always wanted to travel, something that is possible thanks to a high-definition screen that projects a 360-degree image . Virtual reality “teleports” us to any point on the planet that we want, in a matter of seconds (something ideal for anyone who does not dare to travel due to their fear of planes).
And speaking of fears, These helmets will help us meet challenges that had never crossed our minds. The company London Studio has developed a virtual reality adventure in which he invites us to swim among sharks . In this "demo" that the studio has shown at various events, the user gets in the skin of a virtual diver that goes to the bottom of the ocean in a cage. From the hull we will be able to observe the aquatic environment and the sharks that we come across will show us their sharp teeth making the pulse of our hearts accelerate.
Project Morpheus
Sphere Play aims to make this experience even more real. Their creators, Christopher Emerson and Stephane Levesque , aspire to connect people spread all over the world through virtual reality. Sphere Play is one of the first concepts that focuses on the possibility of making us travel from home and meet other people. Users will capture their cities through smartphone cameras and will be able to share these environments, captured in 360 degrees, with their contacts . “Whether you like to travel, or if you are a travel company, this platform will allow you to create new opportunities for “teleportation” around the world”, its creators tell us.
“Sphere Play is a social network of experiences made possible by virtual reality. We provide the option that anyone with a smartphone or tablet can create photos and videos recorded in 360 degrees and share it with others through their walls, personal messages or through other social networks. It will be an independent social network, but one that can be easily integrated with other ”, assures Christopher Emerson. Sphere Play aims to revolutionize our traditional travel album: the images that until now were static, they will become dynamic and envelop us in a 360-degree world . It will help other people move to places on the planet they have never been. "Users will be able to taste the truth and somehow be present in one of your memories in an almost real way, something that a traditional photo could never achieve. Sphere Play opens the doors to the universe of teleportation , in which other people can see what you saw on your travels, hear what you heard and feel what you felt", says its creator, Emerson.
There are not only startups interested in this world of new possibilities. The chain of Marriott hotels has created a system that allows us “taste a destination” before traveling, something that has been possible thanks to the collaboration of the London studio Framestore , responsible for the film's special effects Gravity . The invention has been baptized as Teleporter . The idea is that virtual reality leaves us wanting more and invites us to visit those places that we have explored in 3D. The Marriott project, which from a virtual reality station **takes us to the sands of the Maui beach (Hawaii)** or even the skyscrapers of London , does not intend, in any case, to replace the traditional way of traveling, but from the hotel chain they think that getting on the technological bandwagon is important to reach more customers.
Yes, there is no doubt that virtual reality will revolutionize the way we travel, but there are things that cannot be changed at the moment: what we feel when we smell a new place, the nerves when we arrive in that city that we have always wanted to visit, that gastronomy that will put our palates to the test or even human contact. Smells, sensations, flavors... Will virtual reality be able to cover these fields in the future?
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