Explore Like Never Before

Virtual reality is an ever changing technological advancement consistently creating buzz. We've gone from still frame pictures that capture a moment, to being able to take photospheres on our smartphones letting us reminisce about being in a specific place at a specific time. When we talked about virtual reality here last month, Google was launching their Expedition Pioneer Program. However, instead of guided movement, how would it feel to be the explorer? Choosing where to go, and what to look at? We have yet to able to realize this strata, until now.

Consider Lytro had developed a special camera, that provides the ability to refocus your photos after they have been captured. By leveraging the same light field technology on a completely new camera: the Immerge aims to be virtual reality's best.

 Now with such an enormous goal, what's their secret weapon? The Immerge records video footage that you can actually move around in. Compared to the current VR experiences, the Immerge brings an entirely new game to the table. Instead of using any 360-degree camera, the recording ball on a stick can take in an incredible amount of data. By using their light-field technology, the camera actually records information about how light hits objects and flows within the environment. Essentially recreating it and with the use of CGI, it provides the environment that you can explore with VR goggles and a controller.

Being not so secret anymore, the Lytro Immerge will be getting a lot of attention and expectations. It could give way to new ways of teaching and learning: students could possibly watch different professionals work and explore their environment as well, without physically having to be there. Imagine if hologram technology is mixed in? Perhaps we could be seeing some development into the future that we've dreamed up in our movies and stories: Silicon Valley Holographic Teleconference...haha. Jokes aside, integration of virtual reality into our world will be an exciting and inevitable development. It will open up many new opportunities as mentioned, and so far it seems to be moving in a very promising direction.