Coming up in VR

Writing about the near future is hard, because you have to make a reasonable guess about things. If, for example, The Gamerunners had people teleporting around in the real world, you’d expect to see leprechauns next.

What about the virtual reality in The Gamerunners, though? In the book, Bobby spends much of the time in various models of Spinmaster VR rigs, which make it possible to walk around in the virtual world. Will we actually have technology like that in 2027?

It seems pretty likely. Destin, of the amazing YouTube channel “Smarter Every Day,” got to try out the current state of the art in virtual walking:

They described the system, Infinadeck, as a “treadmill of treadmills,” and you can see in the video that it’s not perfect. It’s not even for sale yet. By 2027, people will have these things and it’ll be awesome.

Destin made another video about haptic gloves, which let you feel virtual objects. You’ve got to see this one:

These are two examples of technology that is almost ready today, in 2018. By 2027, we’ll have better VR headsets, much better games (like Everything League!) and other software, and maybe even digital smells. Actually, I think I’ll pass on the smells.