“We should film people trying the Oculus Rift for the first time,” Ian says to me. It’s the same every time. Friend sits on couch, puts the Oculus Rift on his or her face, and below the ski goggle mask, a big smile emerges. Nobody puts on the Rift and isn’t totally blown away.
I’m taking my friend Reyna through the developer’s kit demo, an animated virtual reality world of a small Tuscan villa. You start the demo inside the house, where you can look up at the vaulted, beamed ceiling, or down at the hard wood floor, at the staircase behind you, or out the window. By pushing the arrow keys on the computer, you can move out the door to a beautiful courtyard, where you realize you are on what appears to be an island.
“You want to fly?” I ask her. A resounding yes. I push the =/+ sign on the keyboard and she begins to take off like a helicopter over her Italian home. She is enthralled. The experience is as close to real life as we’ve seen in virtual reality. I bring her back down using the – key, and as she’s about to slam into the ground, she rips the Oculus from her face. “Whoa. Sorry. I just felt like it was too real, like I was going to smash into the ground.”
When movies first burst into human consciousness with Arrival of a Train at La Ciotat in 1885, People screamed as the train moved toward them. I couldn’t help but think I was watching the 2014 version of that with Reyna on our couch. It’s exciting, fun, and feels like a new frontier in storytelling. Bring it on!