by: Joshua Hawley
Virtual reality really is something different. It is hard to explain the experience in words. It is truly an experience, and if you have not gotten the chance to try an actual virtual reality machine (not those small headsets that you put your phone in), I would suggest you jump at the first chance. I was able to play paintball and basketball, swim under the ocean right next to a whale and schools of fish, walk on a plank between two skyscrapers, and go anywhere around the world, from the Eiffel Tower, to the Great Pyramids, to my house in Oak Ridge. I now desperately want one of these machines, and I believe when I do get one, it will be well worth it. These machines can be rather expensive due to having to get the hardware as well as probably a new computer or machine to run these programs. However, we have already seen these prices dropping this past year, and they should become more affordable in the years to come. This was so cool to see this kind of technology that many people do not have access to, yet.
The pictures both above and below are from our Innovation October event yesterday, with Craig Belcher, at the SkyMart Venture Place. In the above pictures, Jobe is testing the program that places the user underwater on a wrecked ship, with the whale encounter. In the below pictures, one of our coworkers, Lynn, is trying out a program that put him in a spaceship orbiting earth.