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Is virtual reality the future, or is it already over?

Given that it hasn't launched in any mainstream commercial fashion yet, aside from a few Samsung headsets and Google's Cardboard experiment, that might seem pretty obvious. All the big headsets on the slate from the likes of PlayStation, Oculus Rift and HTC are still to be released -- we hope in 2016. This is obviously a technology that will reach its potential in months and years to come.


Even so, for those of us lucky enough to get regular time with VR headsets at tech shows and back room demos, it's also possible to become a little jaded and pessimistic about VR's prospects. We have been testing VR in its latest incarnation for more than three years, watching its slow evolution from tech demo to a fully-fledged product, charting each new game and innovation in exhaustive detail but without ever, really, seeing it turn into something a regular person might buy at Tesco. Several core problems -- persistent issues with motion sickness, the potential cost and lack of software -- have made it hard to really believe that VR will ever be more than a curiosity.

But then I went home for Christmas, with a Samsung Gear VR headset in my bag, and everything changed.

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"My god!" said my mum, as she stood simultaneously in the kitchen and inside a family's yurt somewhere in Mongolia. "Look, there are the children." She bent over, physically, as if to reach out and touch them. And then the scene inside her headset changed, and she was drifting in space. Her mouth opened and she seemed lost for words. It changed again, and she was underwater. "The world you are going to grow up in," she said, handing the headset back to me, slightly dazed -- at least I imagine so, since I turned 31 this year and by most definitions am already more-or-less grown up -- but smiling broadly. "It's just... incredible."

My sister -- an iPhone and iPad user, but by no means a tech nerd like me -- was next. I tried her out on the GoPro surfboard demo, a 360-degree film featuring immersive shots recorded on the edge of a cresting wave. She seemed tentative at first, but within seconds she had taken a surfer's stance (pointless, given the Gear VR does not track your position, but natural) and was gawping at the water rising and falling over her head. My brother, an instinctive early adopter if not an actual geek, was blown away too -- and seemed equally pleased with Google's Cardboard that turns even a normal iPhone into a virtual reality portal to other worlds. My dad also enjoyed it -- typically understated, as a rule, but quietly and genuinely impressed.


It was clear to me then that VR is going to work, if people get a chance to wear it. The experience is just too palpable, and straightforwardly immersive, to fail.

But at that moment I noticed something else, too. Everyone else in the room, even those who had not tried the headset yet, or seemed uninterested, or were busy doing something useful like cooking a turkey, was smiling. Watching someone try VR, I noticed, is fun -- people in VR headsets look silly, but they smile, and laugh, and wave their hands. You talk to them, and they talk back -- they describe where they are, and you ask questions. Playing with VR at home is participatory and engaging, not isolating or scary.

If Playstation can make this work with games, or Oculus (and Facebook) can figure out how to make presence within VR something that can connect people together, this is really going to work.

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Of course there were a few down notes. Yes, someone asked about VR porn -- and yes, I had admit that WIRED has written about its existence, but no I haven't tried it. Some people weren't interested to try the headset or -- like my wife -- were too freaked out to really enjoy it. (In particular the Netflix 'virtual living room' didn't seem to go down too well, which is perhaps hardly surprising given that real living rooms are practically made for Christmas and by comparison even the best VR recreation will look like a terrifying fascimilie.)

It's also an open question whether Sony, Oculus et al will be able to get enough people to try the headset to actually buy one. I'm convinced, now, that if they manage the first then the second will follow -- but it may take some time.

Perhaps most interestingly, my family members who seemed least interested in VR were the youngest ones who tried it: my five- and seven-year-old niece and nephew briefly tried the Google Cardboad viewer, but though they took to it naturally it didn't hold their attention. Minecraft -- and a Minecraft colouring book -- were the bigger draws.


The Samsung Gear VR is only an early gesture at VR's future. It's certainly neat -- and the ability to slide in an otherwise normal phone and transform an £80 piece of plastic into a next-generation gadget is still impressive. It's range of games and video is growing, though not exactly compelling, and its comfortable enough to wear for a short while (even though it does tend to mist up in warm rooms).

But it's not the specific gadget that impressed me, it was the reaction it received: delight, amazement, laughter and fun. For anyone used to going home with a new gadget only to be met by amused indulgence or bafflement (see the smartwatch) that's a rarity, and an inspiring one.

I know that VR will work now, and it's not about the tech, the games or the price. It's about an honest human reaction to a delightful experience. At the edge of this (sigh) year of VR, that's a reason to be cheerful.