My first encounter with VR wasn’t through the use of any hardware. It was through a book: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline. The technology in the book was far more advanced than what we currently had, but the novel showed where VR could go in the future.

Everyone had full body suits, giving the wearer haptic feedback, and omnidirectional treadmills. The experience was far more immersive.

However, the most striking difference between the VR of Ready Player One and VR in the real world was the social aspect. In the novel, everyone went into virtual reality to hang out. The world was filled with various chat rooms where players could take their avatars to socialize with others all around the world.

When I first found out that Facebook purchased Oculus, Ready Player One immediately came to mind. Facebook is all about the social and I was excited to see where the technology would go.

Then I heard about AltspaceVR. You can check out their website here: http://altvr.com/.

AltspaceVR is currently working on furthering the idea that VR should be a social experience. You can create a robot avatar and then take your avatar to different rooms to interact with other people.

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Your avatar can perform a wide range of human actions such as wave, kiss, and high five.

The technology also allows players to sit at a table and play games with a friend.

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Facebook revolutionized relationships once already by helping people stay in touch even when far away. I think AltspaceVR is on their way to doing the same. Imagine couple in a long distance relationship, getting together in VR to watch a movie together when they are thousands of miles apart. Or friends seated around a table playing card games even after they graduate college and go separate ways.

All of these things could be possible in the future with AltspaceVR.

 

Featured image from: altvr.com

Other images from: http://digitalworldnative.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/altspacevr.jpg, http://www.roadtovr.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/SBowlShot01-edit.jpg