How the pandemic made virtual reality mainstream

NEWSTATESMAN, 25/02/2021

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Beesens TEAM

How the pandemic made virtual reality mainstream

"When I logged on to the fitness app Strava three weeks into the current lockdown, I was shocked to see that one of my friends had clearly been breaking stay-at-home rules. The map on her latest post showed that she was on an island in the Pacific Ocean, staying in a mountainous part of Teanu. She had recorded her ten-mile cycle that morning. I clicked on it to look at the pictures she’d posted.
As I swiped through, I realised my mistake: each picture was a CGI image showing a point-of-view perspective from the seat of her bike. She had recorded it using Zwift, a Peleton-style cycling programme that uses virtual reality to allow users to visit countless destinations and experience what it would be like to cycle on that terrain. She had completed the entire route from her London flat, live, with a group of other people across the UK also hoping to experience something foreign.
Virtual reality is often considered one of the least accessible, most mystifying pastimes. It’s associated with astronomical prices, exclusivity and, above all, geekiness – images of The Big Bang Theory and bulky headsets come to mind. But since the beginning of the pandemic, virtual reality has begun to creep into the mainstream: Currys PC World has said its sales of VR headsets are up 350 per cent on the year. More and more people are willing to pay to virtually escape our current monotony. And while many of them went to VR looking for distraction, some have found it has become an emotional lifeline..." Lire la suite