What is virtual reality? And why is it important for your business? And virtual reality is clearly one of the key trends to watch. So in this video, I want to look at what it is, and how businesses are starting to use it.

What is virtual reality?

 Virtual reality is one form of what we call extended reality. But it’s the most immersive form, So basically, where we are entering a completely digital environment.

So what this means is we need VR glasses for this, So something like the Oculus Rift glasses that we strap on, which give us a complete immersion in this digital world, we usually have some controllers as well that allow us to move forward and backwards in those digital world.

And all of this started in the gaming world where we have virtual reality games that we can enter that feel very real. But now businesses are looking at virtual reality.

And especially when you look at some of the latest evolutions of this. So instead of just having these sometimes clunky headsets, you can now use your smartphone camera as your VR screen.

So you almost get a cardboard version from companies like Google, that you you basically strap your your iPhone or your Android phone into a little bit of gear, put this on.

And then you have something very close to a virtual reality experience, So companies like Apple companies like Samsung have really focused on VR and given phones VR capabilities.

So businesses are now starting to use this, So one good example is virgin, virgin holidays, what they’re now doing is they’ve started to film some of their resorts, some of the hotels in VR environment.

So as a holiday maker, you can now go into their office, you can say I would like to go to this resort. And then they say, Would you like to experience it.

So you put your VR goggles on, and you can actually see and walk around the the pool area, walk around into the restaurant, experience the hotel to see what it might feel like, and whether you want to really go there or not.

So this try before you buy is a real important aspect for businesses. I’ve seen this in car retail for example. Again, if you want a complete different interior of a, let’s say Mercedes car, you only have a few of them in the Showroom.

And if you want something like a red interior with wide buttons, something you don’t have, again, you can put your VR goggles on. And you can experience what this might look like and what it feels like sitting in this car.

Businesses are now using this, But also when are using this in training environments. The Army, for example, uses VR to train their soldiers. So again, if you have certain scenarios, you can train them and they can experience situations, very lifelike situations that they might encounter in real combat.

Again, surgeons have started using virtual reality to perform operation to try things out in the virtual world, you’re almost creating a digital twin of a real world.

And you can then experiment with this, And this is something that is getting bigger and bigger.  Actually, one of the most fascinating recent examples I’ve looked at was a VR waterslide. So this basically you experience a real water slide with your VR goggles on. And this then transports you into a completely new world.