When i believe of virtual reality it brings to mind images of individuals wearing oversized yellow and black helmets awkwardly maneuvering in my local arcade while being watched by a queue of curious bystanders. Once we watched we felt that people were sitting on the verge of something big something really big... and very cool.
Virtual worlds, hey that's my lawn!
The classic image of virtual reality has all but disappeared from the general public view nowadays. However we have moved forwards in leaps and bounds in related areas. Last time i heard the figure for World Of Warcraft subscribers it had been close six or seven million. Virtual worlds and virtual economies are thriving.
Visual immersion
We've our virtual worlds but what about that immersive visual experience that those oversized helmets promised us? Well there's actually plenty of hardware available out there at the moment ranging from the affordable to the not affordable. On a basic level you could opt for something like what
edimensional.com offer, a couple of 3D glasses for about $100. For those who have some more quid there is
videovision from worldviz.com "the ultimate solution for affordable and flexible augmented reality applications" personally i don't have $13,000 to spare though.
Whoever smelt https://www.adventure-vault.com/deerfield-beach/virtual-reality dealt it..
Almost any mass producible source of smell for used in virtual reality applications is still a thing that is miles off. Some research that's currently being performed of this type is investigating how smells act as triggers in post traumatic stress disorder. The smells are usually created by using a dissolvable tablet. Dynamically creating the multiple smells that you might need in a completely immersive game continues to be quite a distance away.
The Future
If its a whole sensory experience you're after there is a common consensus that people have to strat to get involved in experiencing the brain itself. Whether that is done through some physical connection much like what was found in the movie "The Matrix" or a noninvasive means is still to be decided. Sony recently patented an idea for transmitting data straight into the brain to supply a direct sensory experience. It sounds pretty cool but also damn scary.. don't point that thing at me!
It'll be interesting to start to see the developments in VR over the next few years. A very important factor is for certain Virtual Reality will be back the forefront again at some stage soon and this time it might just deliver.