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show that rocketed VR pundits to the pinnacle of pop culture and then sent
us burning back into the atmosphere, noticing too late that we were in the
decaying orbit of what just might be a fad.
“Hey guys,” little voices shout from the capsule as it begins to glow,
“we weren't done yet . . . we were just beginning . . .”
What went away when the hype died? The hype positioned VR as a
technology with the potential for creating a radically new entertainment
medium almost instantaneously. It promised that entertainment and tech-
nology companies would emit hi-res, hi-touch consumer VR products in
the near term. It provided the palpable icons of head-mounted displays and
datagloves—encrustations on our bodies that we would be willing to put
up with for the enormous rush they would enable. Many people hypoth-
esized that this new form of entertainment would replace both videogames
and TV. The more hopeful among us declared that it would transform the
very nature of human communication.
But it quickly became apparent that VR as entertainment was going to
be extremely diffi cult to “monetize.” There was one really gnarly problem
with VR as location-based entertainment, what amusement-park people
would call “throughput.” To get anything out of a VR experience, a per-
son reasonably needs fi ve minutes—probably longer—even to get a taste
of the world, never mind having a dramatic experience in it. This problem
remains. Less gnarly but equally important was the problem of hygiene. In
Japan, for example, we observed a great deal of reticence to use a piece of
equipment that had been on someone else's face, and cleaning it would be
delicate and time-consuming. Note how that problem has been solved for
3D glasses in movie theatres; they are washed and wrapped in plastic fi lm
for your protection, and there are no electronics to spoil.
Where did VR go in those missing years? Primarily, it went into univer-
sities: University of Michigan, University of Buffalo, University of Wash-
ington, Iowa State, Duke—the list continues. Important advances in such
technical areas as tactile interfaces and motion tracking have come from
university work. Applications explored in universities include treatment
for PTSD, phobias and addiction, pain reduction for burn victims, and
archaeological reconstruction, as well as architectural and urban design.
Many, if not most, of these applications are supported by grants from NSF
and other foundations. They are exploring applications that can be “mon-
etized”—that is, where the cost of the application is acceptable relative to
its value to the customer. They are “productivity” or “research” applica-
tions writ large, relying on sensory immersion to make representations and
 
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