Awaiting its iPhone moment

IS IT vividly realistic—or is it still just vapid razzmatazz? Virtual reality (VR), a technology that flopped in the 1990s, is making a glitzy comeback. The dream of a headset that can immerse you in a detailed, realistic 3D world is now being pursued in earnest by a gaggle of startups and the giants of technology alike. Last year Facebook bought Oculus, the most prominent VR fledgling, for $2 billion. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s boss, says “immersive 3D content is the obvious next thing after video.” Google supports VR in several of its products and is backing a secretive new company called Magic Leap. Microsoft, having missed the boat on smartphones, has developed an impressive VR system named HoloLens. Tech leaders have decided that VR could be the next big thing after the smartphone (see ). Are they right?The VR devices appearing in the next few months will focus on video-gaming, where VR is a natural fit. But the technology will eventually have many other uses: in data visualisation, education, communication and entertainment (including VR pornography, which is already starting to appear). Whether the 3D world is computer-generated or captured using special cameras, rendering it fast enough to seem realistic—and for it not to cause nausea—requires processing power, high-resolution screens and motion sensors. Happily, all those things can be found inside modern smartphones, which is making VR hardware cheaper to put together. Smartphones have also boosted VR thanks to adaptors that turn phones into basic headsets, the cheapest of which (devised by Google) are made of cardboard and cost $10. These cannot compete with high-end VR headsets, but they offer much of the experience for less than 5% of the price. Over the past year this has led to a surge in the experimental production and consumption of VR content.