It’s Virtually Brilliant- We Are Tilt

VR is an embodiment of humanities desire to create richer and ever stronger ways to provide stimulation to our senses into another reality.

Tilt had a very homely feel to the office and very modern in design. We were welcomed with drinks whilst a fluffy brown dog roamed around. When we entered the room that we would experience VR in, I notice an entire wall was a whiteboard. This is a creative place, and rightly so, creativity is key with a piece of advanced equipment such as this.

We went through a brief history of VR - the introduction, plummet and rise.

Originally, painters would create visual huge 3D pieces of art that stretched around a room. This was the first immersive reality in the form of art. Later, in the 1950s the sesorama was created. It looked like an arcade machine and had stereo speakers, fans, smell generators and a vibrating chair. You could watch 3 short films on it that incorporated the senses. In the 1980s, a mass adoption of personal computers came about, meaning VR could go much further. At the time, in the 1990s when the first proper VR headset came out, people had very high expectations. When they tried it, they were disappointed it wasn’t like the ‘matrix’. Latency is why VR in the 1990s died. VR plummeted and wasn’t really looked at again.

Until now

The first ‘virtual realm’ I entered was a city. I was on a car and driving down the road. All of a sudden, a comet landed to earth and everyone on the street panicked. An alien came out and a war started on the streets. This immersive experience was unreal and I found myself chasing the alien into the subway. What I love is that when you’re moving, it actually feels like your physical self is moving as well.

When I entered the second scenario, I found myself on a strange alien planet. This alien was chatting to me in a language I didn’t understand. It reached its hand out to me and I reached out to grab it. When I moved around the planet, it made the experience even more surreal.

Where can VR go in the future?

Education - Children in, say, a history class can put on VR and be in the Victorian ages, seeing the difference between the poor and the rich. If that doesn’t help you remember and learn facts I’m not sure what will.

Entertainment – did you know the Olympics filmed the Rio Olympic Games 2016 in VR? And i’m sure we all know the possibilities that can be achieved in games.

Tourism – want to see what a holiday is really like? Check it out in VR.

To fight fears – fear of public speaking? Put on the headset and get on stage in front of lots of people.

Social – Facebook owns oculus rift. If you haven’t seen the video Facebook recently released about VR you should.

Altogether VR has endless possibilities and can change the world to improve education, digital social networks, entertainment and much more.

Live blogging by Jake Wharton, Marketing Assistant of IT support business Computer-eyez.

If you want to contribute to the Chamber blog, contact us on hannah@brightonchamber.co.uk