Augmented World

Designer and futurist Jeff Julian has worked as a consultant for Samsung, Oculus (which created the Gear VR with Samsung), Google and Apple. He says the tech is already here in an easy format but content is still coming online.

“My take on VR is we have been hearing about it forever. It has always been really lame and kind of cheesy, super expensive and the problem is the content has always been terrible,” he said.

But that is all starting to change, with VR receiving a big tick from industries outside of the world of gamers. The potential applications of VR– be they medical, real estate, education or entertainment – offer exciting possibilities.

“When you look at TV or movies it’s very much ‘I as a creator/director am telling you the story’ it’s very much a one way direction. Where VR is really interesting is it’s much more experience-based and that’s why it has grown out of gaming because gaming is an experienced-based environment.”

A massive amount of VR content – which gives you experiences which you may never have in your life – is coming.

Julian — who worked as part of Steven Spielberg’s team of futurists for the film The Minority Report and has also worked with Hollywoods ‘A-List’ including Ridley Scott, Warner Brothers, Dreamworks SKG, Universal and Sony. He says he can’t talk about them because he has been working on them, but a handful of major feature films are planning to release VR content. Big museums and National Geographic are “all jumping onboard like crazy,” he added.

“Behind the scenes it is being upticked by industry like it never has before. It has always been that kind of weird thing that everyone said sounded cool but hasn’t really taken off. That is not the ecosystem that I am seeing.”