What is Virtual Reality?

Before we dive into an explanation of Virtual Reality Porn, let’s discuss the more general topic of Virtual Reality.

First, The Bad News: Virtual Reality is difficult to explain. It is simply hard to put into words. Think of your favorite food. For the sake of this discussion, let’s say it’s pizza. How would you describe pizza to someone who’s never had it before? Never tasted piping hot mozzarella sprawled across a layer of tangy tomato sauce baked into a bed of wood-fired dough. No matter how accurate the description, no matter how deliciously you explain it, conveying the taste of pizza, the joy of eating pizza is a challenge. To get the full effect, pizza must be experienced: it must be smelled, tasted, savored.

Now, The Good News: Virtual Reality is so difficult to explain because it is SO GOOD. It really is like nothing you’ve ever seen, heard or felt before. Maybe you’ve heard some chatter about it. VR-related buzzwords like STEREOSCOPIC 3D, MOTION TRACKING, or BINAURAL AUDIO are pervasive on the web these days. But what do these words mean? And more importantly, what do you need in order to experience all of these things?

VIRTUAL REALITY IS A REVOLUTIONARY ENTERTAINMENT MEDIUM

WHAT IS IT?

VIRTUAL REALITY IS ALL ABOUT IMMERSION

Immersion is the KEY WORD when it comes to Virtual Reality, and it means just what it sounds like. When you’re experiencing immersion, when you’re immersed in something, you’re not just watching the action, you’re INSIDE THE ACTION.

HOW IS IMMERSION ACHIEVED?

STEREOSCOPIC 360° Video: Video that introduces a sense of depth so you feel like you’re in the scene. You’ve probably watched a movie in 3D before. Well, stereoscopic 3D is like 3D on steroids. Where 3D creates an illusion of objects coming toward you from a 2-dimensional scene, stereoscopic 3D puts you inside the scene.

MOTION TRACKING: Motion tracking is a key feature of IMMERSION. In the real world, when you move your head, your view changes, your perspective switches to something different, and depending upon the degree to which you move your head, the difference in perspective is subtle or great. In the virtual world, this is accomplished through Motion Tracking. When wearing a head-mounted display like Oculus Rift or Samsung Gear VR or Google Cardboard, your perspective on the video you are watching changes responsively to the head movement. The video is shot and edited to track your motion so you have the sensation of being in the virtual world, and you would not feel like you were in a virtual world if you could not

BINAURAL AUDIO: Sometimes called 3D sound, binaural audio is an integral part of the Virtual Reality experience. Again, compare it to the real world. Listen to the world around you. Notice that as you turn your head, the sound and volume changes, relative to the position of your head. To achieve immersion, that has to happen in the virtual world, and Binaural Audio makes that happen.

WHAT DO I NEED?

A Smartphone: That Android or iPhone you use every day to connect with the world is one-half of the equation. Along with myriad other component parts, it contains an ACCELEROMETER and a GYROSCOPE. Both, working in conjunction, provide the motion tracking key to virtual reality immersion.

The Accelerometer is an electromagnetic device that senses motion. If you’ve ever taken a stroll or driven in a car using Google Maps on your phone to navigate, the accelerometer is how the phone knows you’ve walked or driven 5 or 10 or 100 miles from your starting point.

A gyroscope (alternately called a magnetometer) is a device that uses the earth’s gravity to help determine orientation. The gyroscope measures rotation of your phone. When you launch the compass app on your phone and tilt it back and forth, causing the compass app to display different degrees, that’s the gyroscope at work.

A Head-Mounted Display: While you can experience a level of motion tracking with just a Smartphone, full immersion requires a head-mounted display (HMD). There are numerous HMDs on the market, and new ones are unveiled nearly every week. Some work in conjunction with your smartphone. Others work in conjunction with your desktop computer.

The Three most popular head-mounted displays are:

Samsung Gear VR: ($99.00) Samsung’s Gear VR, released to consumers in November 2015, works in conjunction with Samsung’s 2015 series smartphones. Compatible smartphones snap neatly into the headgear apparatus, and* you’re ready for an immersive experience.

Oculus Rift: ($350.00) The Oculus Rift is largely responsible for the excitement surrounding Virtual Reality today. Facebook purchased Oculus for $2 Billion. That jump-started everything. Oculus Rift is a desktop-driven solution, requiring a gaming PC. It’s a high-end solution.

Google Cardboard: (FREE)