They all predicted it. The movies. The books. Virtual Reality is here, and it has come to stay.

At Vision Summit, the industry's hottest event of the year, Unity CEO John Riccitello predicted that within 5-10 years one billion consumers will own VR technology gear. He stated,"what's going on today is nothing short of a revolution." If his predictions are accurate, it is a very exciting time we have upon us.

When Oculus Rift founder Palmer Luckey originally developed the head-mounted display, the main purpose for the immersive technology was gaming. Although gaming is still the most adopted use, the industry is expanding rapidly, with entertainment as the front-runner. Cinematic VR is predicted to be the next big thing, and companies like Jaunt VR are working on exciting projects by letting their viewers engage in 360 video content.

Training Purposes

Already back in 2014, the first live VR surgery was performed in a hospital in Paris where the surgery was filmed with help from VR technology. This way, surgeons in training could observe exactly what the surgeon was seeing, making it as close to the real thing as possible. VR technology is excellent for training purposes, and even the military has started to adopt the technology by using it to train soldiers for combat situations and how to deal with dangerous situations.

VR to the People


Although VR is not a technology adopted by the masses yet, 2016 is the year it will go mainstream. There are several versions of the masks available, from Google's cardboard to more advanced headsets (you can find them all here.) But on March 28th the immersive technology will be available to consumers worldwide when Oculus releases their first Rift to the public, for roughly the price of an iPhone 6s ($599).

The possibilities of virtual reality and augmented reality is as endless as our imagination allows us and the industry is a rocket ship ready to launch, and when it does - it will go far.

Stay tuned for more updates on the VR/AR industry!