Introduction

Around 25 years ago, I visited the Forest Fair Mall in Cincinnati, a large, sprawling mall that has since closed down. One of the greatest features of this particular mall (to an 11-year-old kid) was the basement arcade. Running the full length of the mall, it had everything you could want: a Ferris wheel, bumper cars, mini golf, laser tag.

But the pièce de résistance was a pair of Virtuality pods, a virtual reality (VR) experience created by the Virtuality Group. The Virtuality 1000 featured a stereoscopic head-mounted display helmet (HMD), an exoskeleton touch glove and gun, and a waist-high ring used to track a player’s movement within the enclosure. This specific VR experience was a local user multiplayer experience: Take on all comers in a high-energy laser battle!

My father patiently waited in line with me and handed over the $10 for me to play. By the time I reached the front of the line, I was bouncing off the walls with excitement. As the helmet was lowered onto my head, I closed my eyes, mentally preparing myself for the wonders of the virtual world I would be entering. Where would I be transported to? A lush, Amazonian jungle? A gleaming futuristic metropolis? Surely my imagination could not prepare me for the wonders I was about to behold.

Thus prepared, opening my eyes, I found … a mostly empty, boxy world populated by pixelated characters. Confused and disoriented, I glanced around the crudely rendered environment, the tracking barely keeping up with my movements. I was being assailed with lasers (really, blocky lines), but the resolution of the headset was so limited, I couldn’t even determine where I was being shot from. I was quickly eliminated from the game, and the headset came off. My less than two-minute experience in VR had left me (and my father’s wallet) deflated.

Fast forward to 2013, and I found myself working in the emerging technology field. The industry was abuzz with the “next big thing”: the Oculus Rift Development Kit (DK1), a VR headset originally launched via Kickstarter. Still sporting the scars of my previous VR experience but determined to see what the buzz was about, I sorted through the mess of cables in the development kit, hooked it up to my computer, and put the headset on with trepidation, preparing myself to be let down once again by the promise of VR versus the reality of VR.

Instead, all the things I hoped to experience in that Forest Fair mall years ago were delivered. The Rift tracked my head movements accurately! The visuals were convincing! Instead of floating in a vaguely 3D-ish landscape populated by blocks, I could wander about a Tuscan villa, watch butterflies flutter by, stand by a roaring fire, gaze out the windows … 3D audio tying it all together. It all felt so real. With little to actually accomplish in the demo scene (no monsters to fight or riddles to solve), I (and everyone I showed the scene to) could spend hours just wandering about the villa, for the first time truly immersed within VR.

What was little more than a simple demo scene for a Kickstarter startup became the headset that launched a thousand companies. In one fell swoop, consumer-grade VR was re-introduced to the world, and upon seeing just how far this transformative technology has come, hundreds of thousands have jumped into this burgeoning industry to help shape its future.

About This Book

VR, which was once only a plaything in tech laboratories or a research-and-development (R&D) experiment in large technology companies, has entered the mainstream consciousness. VR, and its technological cousin augmented reality (AR), are quickly proving to be the next pieces of transformational technology. Estimates vary wildly on just how big these markets might become, but many estimates place business revenue of VR and AR at over $100 billion by 2021, if not sooner.

Despite these eye-popping numbers, the VR and AR wave is still in its early stages. There is still ample time for consumers, content creators, even those with just a passing interest in learning how these technologies will affect their lives, to brush up on these technologies before the wave of mass consumer adoption hits.

In this book, I arm you with broad knowledge of the VR and AR fields, their histories, and where they appear to be headed in the future. VR and AR are vast areas of study, and many Fortune 500 companies are currently waging war to try to ensure that their interpretation of VR/AR is the winner. As such, I don’t try to make you an expert in one singular facet of the technology. Instead, I provide you with a broad knowledge base so you can confidently move forward into the fields of VR and AR as best fits your goals. I hope that the potential of these technologies will excite you enough to go out to experience and create content for them on your own.

Perhaps more than any technology wave in recent memory, the fields of VR and AR are in a state of constant flux. As such, much of the technology mentioned in this book is early-generation technology, and some might not even be released by time of publication. I’ve taken care to be as thorough as possible while generally focusing on technologies with an already released consumer product, but I would be remiss not to mention certain technologies that might or might not be widely available by the time this book reaches you. When covering the various hardware/software options, I take care to mention upcoming technologies, but I give preference to technology that is already available to consumers.

While both VR and AR have a number of enterprise-level options available, I try to focus mainly on consumer-grade devices, as these devices are what the majority of consumers will interact with. However, as many current AR devices are targeted more towards enterprise consumption, I discuss those options in a bit more detail.

Finally, I try to keep things simple and clear in this book. For those who would like to explore the technologies in greater depth, I have included some more technical information within sidebars and marked with Technical Stuff icons scattered throughout the book. Those aren’t required reading, so feel free to skip them if you want to ignore the more in-depth technical pieces.

Foolish Assumptions

Without any knowledge of you, the reader, any assumptions I can make are most likely wrongheaded and foolish. However, I’ve thrown caution to the wind and assumed the following in order to outline the type of reader this book may appeal to.

The book assumes that you have at least a passing familiarity with VR and AR. You may have heard the terms being tossed about at work, or seen someone trying out a VR experience at a mall or retailer, or even had the chance to try out a headset yourself. You may have heard of Apple’s and Google’s recent forays into the AR space for mobile devices (ARKit and ARCore, respectively), and maybe you’re curious how you can try these experiences yourself.

The book also assumes you have an open mind regarding these technologies and are curious about where they’re headed in the future. Both VR and AR are very much emerging technologies in their (mass consumer) infancy. Some of the experiences and form factors available for both are very experimental and not always the polished experiences you may be accustomed to on your personal computers or mobile devices. Getting in on these technologies in their infancy allows you to follow their growth, missteps and all, which makes it all the more exciting when they succeed!

Icons Used in This Book

As you read through this book, you’ll see icons in the margins that call out blocks of information you may find important.

The Tip icon marks helpful advice for saving time and money or enhancing the experience as you begin to explore VR and AR.

The Remember icon calls out a key piece of information to retain or a summary of the points just made. If you remember nothing else from the section you just read, remember the material marked here.

Warning icons point out hazards, drawbacks, or gotchas.

Anything called out by this icon takes a deeper look at a particular technical detail. Feel free to skip this information if it doesn’t interest you.

Beyond the Book

In addition to what you’re reading right now, this product also comes with a free access-anywhere Cheat Sheet that includes some abbreviated explanations of the current state of VR and AR, use cases for VR and AR, and where VR and AR are headed in the future. To get this Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and type Virtual & Augmented Reality For Dummies Cheat Sheet in the Search box.

Where to Go from Here

You can jump to any chapter that interests you, and come back to revisit sections later as needed. If you’re an absolute beginner, I suggest reading Chapter 1 to establish a baseline for definitions of what the terms I use mean when discussing VR and AR. If you’re only interested in how you can use VR and AR today, Chapters 4 and 5 are a good starting point. And if you’re looking to take the step of creating your own VR or AR content, Chapter 6 should help guide your choice for further reading.

VR and AR have often been called the “fourth wave” of transformative technology after the personal computer, the Internet, and mobile computing. Each of those previous waves has uniquely shaped our lives to the point...