Ask HN: Will Virtual Reality Ever Make a Comeback? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Will Virtual Reality Ever Make a Comeback?

3 pointsVR_Hypetrain5 comments

I have always been fascinated by VR. I even did an internship at a VR tech-startup in Los Angeles when I was a freshman in college (2019). Now, I am 6 months from graduating from a Master's in neuroscience and cognition in the Netherlands, and for my thesis, I am working on VR for neurorehabilitation (like motor skill training for stroke patients within an immersive virtual environment). It is my goal to work for a company that builds VR tech for clinical use cases, and ideally, I would continue on with something resembling my thesis.

However, the peak hype for virtual reality was in 2016. Ever since reports that Meta has lost billions investing in the metaverse and on other VR technologies, it seems like there is a "VR winter". Even Apple's new XR device is reported in the media as aimless and expensive.

My question is: is the VR market dead? Was it pointless to invest so much of my Master's program into an overhyped technology? I am hesitant to even reach out to the Neurorehab VR companies I have found since I don't even know if anyone is still hiring given the market trends.

TLDR: I am fascinated by XR technology, but given the current market, I am left wondering if there is any productive way to make a career out of being a XR developer for clinical use cases.

I think what's most important is to work out what you find valuable and useful about VR and to direct your attention toward that, because there's clearly some uses that you believe will be important. If you have some brilliant ideas for developing something, then get on with implementing some of them and people at companies will be interested in your work and approach. Asking here where's best for your career isn't likely to give useful answers.

VR to me seems stalled because there's not much in it that people can't get by just looking at screens. The Metaverse seems stalled because people just aren't very interested in it, or what it adds over what they already do – it's currently just Zuckerberg playing out his fantasy of being Hiro Protagonist plagiarised from Neal Stephenson. It seems like people outside of his immediate circle aren't buying it, particularly because they screwed up the initial implementation so hard.

If kids playing games on their PlayStations and Xboxes suddenly find some brilliant use case for it, then it'll take off like wildfire. Given they sit or stand three feet from field-of-vision-filling 72inch LED TVs while playing already, it seems like they aren't going to need headsets to get that effect.

Thank you, that is really helpful to hear. I think I have been hoping that the next big development is right around the corner, because I agree with you, the current VR systems we have are inadequate for many cases. I am really curious to what Apple is going to come out with this year, AR seems to have so many advantages to VR that I would love to explore. The only AR glasses I've used have been Magic Leap's and they were not all that impressive (in 2019).

In the neurorehabilation field, at least, there are clear use cases for VR, and some even have advantages over traditional rehabilitation. I am worried that with all of the negative sentiments towards VR technology right now, breaking into this industry will be impossible, even with a brilliant idea for a new use case. So I am doubting whether I can convert what I have done in my Master's thesis into something that can pay the bills. If all else fails, though, there's always academia.

At six months from graduation your best option is to push through the hard parts and get the degree.

It does not matter if you do a thesis on one thing then end up working doing something else, that happens to lots of people.

Finding a job is stressful, nobody likes disappointment or being rejected. You have to try anyway. Each thing you try has a chance of working.

Yes, 5-10 years it is likely needed for hardware to get to the right place. It could be sooner if the US military decides to commit to AR and invests large amount of money.

They said that 25 years ago.

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