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by montibbalt 3550 days ago
I think VR can only become mainstream/ubiquitous once it has an "iPhone moment" that fundamentally changes what VR even is in the first place. Right now everyone is thinking about how to make the VR we heard about 30 years ago. Sure, we have faster processors and everything is smaller and lighter now but if you look at VR demos from the 80s it's really all of the same stuff taking the same approach with all the same issues and all the same empty promises. VR's problem right now is it's just the same boring novelty it's always been.
1 comments

Well, there are only a few real options

1) A dark box on your head with a screen (or a projector) inside

2) Direct connection to the brain

We're not even close to solving #2, and even if we were, I'm not sure many people would agree so a surgical procedure.

We could create a light weight version of #1 without the box - something like glasses with screens or low-power laser projectors, but then you'd need to be in a relatively dark place for the true immersion. Dlodlo V1 VR is doing that, I think. And ODG R-7 Smartglasses, kind-of.

I'm not even necessarily talking about just the hardware specifically - the whole experience stinks. Nobody's really figured out what to do with it yet. I think mainstream VR as a whole will have to be something way different from what's being made now, and I don't know what that even looks like.