As Virtual Reality (VR) Head Mounted Displays (HMD) push the

boundaries of technology, in this paper, we try and answer the

question, “What would it take to make the visual experience of a

VR-HMD Life-Like, i.e., indistinguishable from physical reality?”

Based on the limits of human perception, we first try and establish

the specifications for a Life-Like HMD. We then examine crucial

technological trends and speculate on the feasibility of Life-Like VR

headsets in the near future. Our study indicates that while display

technology will be capable of Life-Like VR, rendering computation

is likely to be the key bottleneck. Life-Like VR solutions will likely

involve frames rendered on a separate machine and then transmit-

ted to the HMD. Can we transmit Life-Like VR frames wirelessly

to the HMD and make the HMD cable-free? We find that current

wireless and compression technology may not be sufficient to ac-

commodate the bandwidth and latency requirements. We outline

research directions towards achieving Life-Like VR.