Oculus Rift: Virtual Reality Coming To Africa

Let's say you have a family getting married in Kenyan, Africa and you can't be there. What if you could put a 360-degree video camera in the audience and the UK family see the event virtually? They see the wedding party, the African food and local sunset. They have the ability to really feel like they're there and they look around and see what's going on, just by moving their heads. The technology of the Virtual Reality (VR) headset and fast wifi connections could be used in the field literally, like on the savanna the rolling grassland scattered with shrubs and isolated trees such as the Serengeti Plains of Tanzania you are on safari virtually looking at animals like lions, zebras, elephants, and giraffes. Maybe you are qualified to help other such as in hospitals in real time, your are a doctor in Sierra Leone, West Africa looking on into a ward and at operations in 3D giving advice, that's the potential of this technology. It could change the African continent and the world when connected to the internet. It is a grand idea, but the use of this technology together with others like 3D printing could be easier and more cost effective than flying to another part of the world.

What Is Virtual Reality (VR) Technology?

So what is this technology all about? Is it real? Well remember virtual reality? Well it's back and this time it really could be the future of how we play games, connect and communicate. Here's why...

1. VR: The next generation
   Think back to the early '90s and virtual reality was going to change everything — giving us all a gateway to fully immersive digital otherworlds. Except it didn't. VR was expensive and bulky and the technology simply not good enough to fulfil its huge potential. But now it's back thanks to a device called the Oculus Rift—and this time things could be very different.
2. Reinventing the headset
   Unlike the big plastic monstrosities you used to have to strap to your head for VR, the Oculus Rift is a far lighter, smaller and more comfortable headset. It works in conjunction with your computer and a pair of headphones to take you into virtual reality worlds—and with the improvements in computer graphics and screen tech over the last 20 years, those worlds can be startlingly realistic. Currently only available to developers and testers, a commercial release of the Rift is set for 2015.
3. It's great for games
   But what will it do? The obvious answer is that VR will likely reinvent the way we play videogames, sucking players into a game world like never before. Turn your head or look around corners and your character on screen will do the same. The sense of movement, of space and distance, is really quite remarkable and a huge leap forward from what VR used to be.
4. But that's just the beginning
   One of the best Rift apps currently available is VR Cinema, where you can watch any film from your computer on a remarkably life-like virtual reality cinema screen—free from nattering teens and noisy popcorn eaters. Or you could use VR to explore some of your favourite fictional locations. Special effects house Framestore has built an incredible replica of The Wall from Game Of Thrones where you can wander around the 700-foot ice wall as if it were a real place. Anyone with a fear of heights need not apply.
5. Virtually limitless possibilities
   Oculus Rift started as a Kickstarter project and surpassed its $250,000 target by some way— users pledged an astonishing $2.4 million. Then in March 2014, Facebook snapped it up for $2 billion. Clearly, they have big plans for virtual reality. "Let's say you have a friend getting married and you can't be there," Facebook's VP of engineering, Cory Ondrejka, told The Verge. "What if you could put a 360-degree video camera in the audience? Then, what you have is an ability to really feel like you're there and look around and see what's going on." It's early days, but we could be looking at a technology that has as much potential to change the world as the internet...

Now we are waiting for the applications, ideas and products to come to market.

Oculus Rift revolutionizing the way people experience video games. The Oculus Rift itself is a new virtual reality headset that lets players step inside their favorite games and virtual worlds.

See the current VR headset on the market today. Click below