Today was the first time that I was able to experience Virtual Reality equipments' potential and the current state of development. I experienced a couple of different VR scenes and am fully convinced that the future has arrived. We still do not know all the use cases of this technology, as the technology is really in a infant stage. But as I experienced a couple of different scenes in Oculus VR Gear and Google cardboard (as well as saw my classmates experience it), I got to see first hand what works in VR and what doesn't.

Without a doubt 'storytelling' was a big part of all the VR experiences. In fact, each experience I tried was created around a theme. All of them were short: about 3 minutes each. The most effective experiences were the ones tied to a theme, the ones in which cues were given to the user on where to see and move the head. These stories were based in a same environment i.e the surroundings did not change abruptly. Even when the surroundings changed they changed by going through transitions and not abruptly. Also I noticed that for the user to fully immerse in the experience the sound played a huge role.

Me and my classmates were really impressed by these experiences. I could feel that my classmates were enjoying the experiences because of their expressions while experiencing VR. As opposed to what I have read so far about VR experiences, none of us felt any nausea (as far as I know). I think this was because all the experiences we saw were very well designed, keeping in mind the best practices. The camera in all these experiences was steady. Also the scenes changed pretty fast as per the head movements. The only time I thought I might have had a hint of nausea was when I was trying the Google Cardboard. In one of the scenes, I experienced a little lag for the scene to update according to my head movement. I think that was more t do with the hardware than the scene. I did not feel any such issues in Oculus Gear.

A lot of factors add to the quality of the experience of VR. According to me some affect the experience more than the others. Below I have rated a few considerations out of 5 (5 being highest) for impact on overall experience.

Resolution (5/5): resolution definitely affects the quality of the experience. While a low resolution experience may not be bad, a higher resolution experience will be outstanding.

Sound, especially 3D sound that moves with your head (3/5): This comes secondary to resolution, smoothness of head tracking, and choice of sound in the experience.

Smoothness of head tracking (5/5): The smoothness of experience not only enhances the experience but reduced the nausea. Hence it is very important.

Ability to lean forward on DK2 : I did not experience the DK2 today so cannot really comment on this feature.

Wired versus wireless : You cannot really put a number on this, but definitely wireless is anytime better than wired. The technology is taking us there.

Quality of 3D graphics (4/5): The better quality of 3D graphics makes you forget that you are in a virtual world at all. Even though, a lesser quality of 3d graphics is not a complete dealbreaker but it sure does remind you that this is a virtual world.

Full spherical range of vision (5/5): How else would you feel that you are at a different place altogether? This is important.

Content choices (5/5): Experiences which are larger than life or not easily experienced increases the user interest hence serves to enhance the experience.

Moreover, in todays' class, Once I was sitting in a Mongolian hut with a local Mongolian people. They were cooking food and chit chatting among themselves in their local language. Whereas in other experience I was in a live Coldplay concert! With the full glory of the band. It was a very intimate experience. Both of these experiences were created on a 360 degree video. And I feel that really evoked empathy in me and helped me appreciate the feelings of the people who were really present there.