The Race for the Matrix: Who Will Own the Virtual Reality Interface?

12th February 2016, LinkedIn by Linc Gasking

Virtual reality and augmented reality are having a moment.  Last month, both multimedia formats had a large presence at both CES and the Sundance Film Festival.  German games festival director Thorsten Wiedemann recently spent 48 hours in a VR headset—and lived to tell the tale.  And the New York Times, after giving out Google Cardboards to subscribers last year, is currently promoting a VR film about the ongoing presidential race.

The mainstream is starting to consume virtual and augmented reality experiences, but we’re only at the start of what will be a long and iterative transition to a new interface.  Right now, VR exists on desktop-tethered devices and simpler mobile-powered solutions. The real question is, how long will it take before it converges into one computer in your pocket that controls an Apple Watch-style peripheral, such as an interactive contact lens?  Only time will tell.

What we do know is that today’s top technology and hardware companies—Facebook, Google, HTC/Valve, Samsung, Sony, Microsoft and now Apple—are engaged in a race to own this new interface and produce the winning VR operating system.  As these virtual worlds converge on the Internet, it will be a sprint with surprisingly significant consequences.  Not only will the company with the leading OS influence the hardware you’ll purchase to experience volumetric VR and AR content, but it will also determine who’ll own your mental real estate. That is, the memories you’ll record in VR, the experiences you’ll have, not to mention your social interactions.

To read the original article from LinkedIn, please click here.