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Oculus Rift will change tourism industry

photographer
Honored Guest
I have always dreamed about traveling, its my main passion along with photography. With oculus rift there will be content that that will allow me to virtually travel anywhere I want and with something like omni treadmill or any threadmill and motion detection I could actually walk in the plains of Serengeti or even Antarctica - in the footsteps of the guy or girl who has the camera attached to them or the robot etc.

I could go for a run in the morning in some exotic beach and in the evening stroll the streets of some city. I could hang out with a wolf pack or climb Everest with an expedition. I could be a virtual storm chaser close to a tornado and even travel deep in the ocean.

In fact these experiences will be so real, without risk, and of course cheap that I might actually have second thoughts about traveling... Antarctica without the cold... Jungles without the heat and bugs... And people who will provide these content will make millions.

While OR is a gaming device it has so much potential that its beyond comprehension as of now. Once the 'collective consciousness' is made aware of this little device and its available in shops, there will be an explosion of creativity that might actually change the world itself - no exaggeration intended, use your own imagination.

In the R&D offices of all major electronic companies, they're right now scratching their heads on how to make their own ORs and join this new VR revolution... In fact other uses of OR might in fact overshadow its humble gaming origins.
22 REPLIES 22

drash
Heroic Explorer
I usually think about tourists as divided into two groups:

1) Those that don't want to know too much about a destination beforehand so that they can go in with no/low expectations and be surprised, etc. They will avoid "spoilers" ahead of the trip like pictures, travel guides, Street View, VR replicas, etc.

2) Those that want to know as much as possible about a destination in order to make an informed choice of how to make the best use of time there. I can see VR replicas helping out a lot for these people!

I'm personally a #1, and I'm always compelled to let someone else work out travel details so that I can be surprised along the way. However, it always backfires when I later learn something that would have helped me further appreciate what I saw on a trip. 😞
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hannuko
Honored Guest
Hi!

I would like to bring this discussion back to live.. If this gets enought support, it will be possible sooner than you think:

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/oculus-rift-telepresence-module

A439
Honored Guest
It might be that the Oculus Rift will positively chance tourism industry, but also the logistic or game sector. I've worked for 3 years for a german company. They had made considerable progress during the years and presented 2015 their material flow planning software with virtual-reality-techniques for the first time. They see a great potential for this business.
David