Over the decades, science fiction has treated us to visions of a future with virtual reality. From the mind prison of the Matrix to the graphical representation of the Internet in Neuromancer, the ability to escape our own reality through computer code has long intrigued mankind. Now, with the imminent release of state-of-the-art, VR headsets from world-class tech companies like Oculus and Sony, we will soon dip our toes into virtual waters for the first time. What will the impact be? Will it measure up to the expectations garnered by movies and novels we've experienced over the years? And what are the benefits and detriments of such technology and its applications?

Allied Vision

First, let's clear the air "” we will not be stepping into a Matrix-like reality in which the virtual world could potentially be indistinguishable from the real world any time soon. The Matrix, as well as many other works of fiction, depicted a method of "jacking" into the virtual world via a wire-jack connection directly to the human brain. Such a connection could allow for neurological input and output that would encompass all five senses. Not only would the user see and hear whatever the VR software provided, but the user would also be able to taste virtual food, smell virtual flowers, and feel the touch of a virtual being's fingertips against the skin. As Morpheus says in The Matrix, "If you're talking about what you can feel, what you can smell, what you can taste and see, then 'real' is simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain."

Unfortunately, the first iteration of virtual reality will be a simple helmet providing only visual and audio feedback to the user, via screens and speakers. Head-tracking in the helmet will allow the screens to `turn' to whatever part of the virtual world you turn your head towards, giving the brain the impression that you are surrounded by the world of the software. You won't be able to sniff any flowers, but you will hear if someone is sneaking up behind you and you will be able to whip around to confront them. No, it's not quite the Matrix yet, but if you'd like to try drilling a hole in the back of your head and shoving a USB cable into it, please, by all means.

Warner Bros.

The other shortcoming of a helmet-based, VR system is lack of output by the rest of the body. The helmet can track which way your head turns, but it can't recognize if you swing your arm, jump up and down, sit or play dead. This could potentially be solved by a device such as Microsoft's Kinect camera, which tracks body movements. But the Kinect is still quite faulty and, really, until a user can run or feel like they're running neurologically or climb a virtual mountain and feel the rock beneath their gripping fingers, it's not going to be like it is in the movies. Tech companies are quickly working to try to create peripherals that can read body movement and translate it to the screen, but it is going to take time.

So, what will we be able to do with the technology in its current form? The first, and most obvious answer, is improvement of video games. Games have been designed as immersive three-dimensional worlds since the late '90s. Imagine traversing those worlds with a first-person perspective so realistic, it feels like you're actually there, squashing koopas as Mario, or cutting down armies with a machine gun in Call of Duty. Imagine a dragon spitting fire right in your face while you hack away at it with a broadsword. But the game genre that will probably benefit most from VR is horror. Walking down the dark, decrepit hallways of an abandoned mental asylum with a Resident Evil-style monster looming in the shadows behind you ... and then charging you when you least expect it! It may be too much for some people to handle.

But video gaming is not the only entertainment platform that will benefit from virtual reality. Museums, sports, theme parks, even outer space itself will all be able to be witnessed and explored first-hand without leaving the comfort of your home. Can't get tickets to the Mayweather fight? Want to see a Broadway show without trekking to the city? Or maybe you'd like to be in the control room during NASA's next rocket launch. Virtual reality will open up the doors so that you can be there without actually being there.

Aside from entertainment purposes, though, there is a world of applications that could benefit from virtual reality. Healthcare, for one, has recently been covered in an article by Guff. Click to learn more about the Oculus Rift's use as a deterrent of psychological damage. Other uses of VR in the field of medicine include surgery simulation, in which doctors can train themselves to perform different procedures by working on a virtual patient, and robotic surgery, in which doctors control a robotic arm or other mechanical device to perform surgery while seeing the body through the "eyes" of the robot.

The military has been a huge proponent of virtual reality. All three U.S. services already use VR helmets for a plethora of training purposes, including combat simulations, virtual boot camp and flight and tank driving simulations. This provides our soldiers with the most realistic warfare practice one could hope for without actually stepping foot onto a battlefield and risking lives. Additionally, drones are often piloted through the use of VR, the controller viewing the sky and ground from the perspective of the craft.

Getty Images

Education may be transformed from the passive classroom task it is into a series of adventures. What if kids could walk around the field of Gettysburg and witness the North and South at war firsthand? Or perhaps go further back in time and learn the names of the different dinosaurs by witnessing them stomp around a cretaceous landscape. Geology might not be so boring if a student could stand by a river and fast-forward time to watch the riverbed get chewed away and reshaped by the rushing waters over the millennia.

And finally, the one industry that drives us all: sex. With each new video medium invented, the adult film industry is always one of the first to adapt. VR will be no different. In this case, the first person perspective will lend itself richly to the experience. Visually, it will feel to the user as if he is engaging in the act with their favorite stars firsthand. This type of personal experience has never been technologically possible before. The real question is, with Internet pornography already being one of the most addictive vices in the world, will the ability to have relations with whomever a person wants, whenever he wants, however he wants, be too much of a temptation to control? Will monogamy and marriage survive such technology? Only time will tell.