Two Industries That Could Thrive Using Virtual Reality

The year 2016 will most likely be remembered in the technology industry as the year that virtual reality finally broke into the mainstream. After years spent attempting to sell the world on the benefits of VR, some of the largest players in the game finally released consumer models of their headsets, in the form of the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR. The impact has been almost immediate: those three systems, along with the Samsung Gear VR (released in late 2015), look on course to propel the virtual reality industry to generate annual revenues of $24.5 billion on software sales alone by 2020, with an additional $15.9 billion coming from hardware revenues.

While around 50 percent of VR software revenue in 2018 is forecast to come, rather predictably, from the console and PC gaming market, a number of other industries are beginning to embrace virtual reality technology, while others are a little further behind, but could surely benefit from doing so. With that in mind, today we’re taking a look at two more industries that could thrive through the use of VR.

Online Casinos

While essentially an extension of the video games and gambling industry, iGaming is one burgeoning area that is, somewhat surprisingly, yet to fully embrace virtual reality. The online casino market is worth €10.7 billion ($11.4 billion) as of 2016, with a growing number of operators offering users access to a wide array of table and slots games. One of the most popular online casino games is roulette, with current offerings broadly being able to be broken up into two genres: virtual roulette and live roulette.

The former is a fully virtualized recreation of the classic table game, with computer-generated graphics and gameplay. In an attempt to diversify their selections, many iGaming hubs now offer various forms of virtual roulette: for example, online roulette games from bgo include European Roulette, American Roulette, and NewAR Roulette. In fact, the game is so popular that the provider has taken the time to invest in even more variants, including the crossover Pinball Roulette. Casino operators also offer roulette games themed around popular culture: Age of Gods Roulette features among bgo’s titles, while Mansion Casino, offers the superhero-themed Marvel Roulette, with a number of bonus spaces based on characters such as The Incredible Hulk.

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In an attempt to further immerse their players in the action of their game, a number of online casinos now offer the second aforementioned option, live roulette. While the rules are identical to its virtualized counterpart, live roulette broadcasts a live, human dealer, who spins the wheel and interacts with players via live chat. In addition to roulette, some online casinos, including Titanbet, also offer live versions of games such as baccarat and poker, with human dealers dishing out the cards.

Although live casino games go some way to emulating the feel of stepping foot into a real-life casino, imagine if some of the leading iGaming developers were able to make use of VR technology to deliver a truly immersive casino experience to players. Players could interact with each other in a fully explorable lobby, see their cards being dealt to them and have to physically pick up and place their chips: if major developers and operators including the likes of Playtech and bgo embraced the technology, no expensive trips to Vegas would be required for players to experience the (almost) real-life thrills and spills of a mega casino.

Healthcare

While the online gaming industry is unquestionably an important market that will thrive by using VR, it isn’t quite a matter of life and death. That’s not the case in healthcare, however, where the technology could help save patients’ lives. As you’d expect, the industry is one of those that has embraced VR since its embryonic stages, and continues to explore experimental ways in which to use the technology going forward.

Perhaps the most obvious use of virtual reality in the healthcare industry to date is through the creation of virtualized training environments. Open source software NeuroVR, for instance, has allowed neurosurgeons the ability to practice and develop complex neurological procedures in a safe, virtual environment, while on the other side of the coin, a first real-life operation was broadcast in virtual reality last year – the first of its kind – allowing medical students to step into the shoes of Dr Shafi Ahmed as he carried out a tumor removal.

Virtual reality has also been used in a more conventional manner in the treatment of chronic and terminal patients, with immersive and tailor-made palliative VR pain-management video games being used to distract users from the pain they are currently enduring. “The theory behind it is that there’s only so much attention available to process pain, and if you’re able to pull that attention away, they think about the pain less and they experience it less,” David Patterson, a professor of psychology at the University of Washington, told Polygon last year.

Eventually, many believe, virtual reality may be used alongside robotic surgery in order to minimize complications during procedures. Robotic arms are able to perform more delicate, precise movements than those of human surgeons, but whether or not the proposal eventually becomes a reality depends on the extent to which force feedback technology is developed: it is essentially that a surgeon feels a physical response when using a robotic device in order to inform them of the type of pressure that is required and to adjust accordingly.

Which other industries do you think will thrive through the use of virtual reality technology? Let us know in the comments section below.