VR Headsets

A virtual reality headset is a heads-up display (HUD) that allows users to interact with simulated environments and experience a first-person view (POV). VR headsets replace the user’s natural environment with virtual reality content, such as a movie, a game or a prerecorded 360-degree VR environment that allows the user to turn and look around, just as in the physical world.

Different types of VR headsets are available to discover the range of virtual reality experiences available. Some require a tethered connection to a PC, while others are fully standalone with built-in computing power, and others use a smartphone. The tethered hardware to experience has traditionally been expensive, bulky and power-hungry. Today, mobile VR headsets, which are basically goggles that will hold a smartphone, have allowed VR apps to spread into the consumer market.

VR apps for both mobile and tethered apps incorporate technology such as gaze tracking, IR sensors, gyroscopes and accelerometers to move the user’s point of view in a natural manner. Mobile apps often include stereo sound, while tethered apps may feature surround or even 3D sound. Development challenges for all VR apps and headsets include eliminating latency to reduce viewer disorientation, headache and nausea.

Types of VR headsets:

Oculus Rift - a computer-based system that reignited interest in virtual reality when the Oculus VR startup launched a successful Kickstarter campaign. Rift works with positioning technology that lets the user move physically through 3D space and has Touch controllers.

Microsoft’s Hololens - a standalone VR headset. The system features 3D spatialised sound, Wi-Fi, a Kinect-like camera with a 120-degree spatial sensing system, a fleet of gyroscopes and accelerometers and a transparent screen for each eye.

HTC Vive - plugs into a powerful gaming PC for its performance. Dual base stations allow users to move freely through a 15' X 15' area. The system was developed collaboratively with Portal, a video game software company.

PlayStation VR - works with PlayStation 4 rather than a PC. The system duplicates the headset VR display on a TV.

Samsung Gear VR - a smartphone container that uses the phone's processing power. The system, which works with high-end Samsung Galaxy models, was developed in collaboration with Oculus VR.

Google Cardboard - a low-cost, smartphone container made of plain cardboard. There are a number of inexpensive headsets based on the original open source model.

Health Risks From Using Virtual Reality Headsets

The virtual reality headsets that are already on the market warn users of a wide variety of possible ill effects, including nausea, dizziness, and even seizures. The side effects are temporary, and VR use isn’t believed to cause any lasting damage. Here are some of them.

1. Loss of Spatial Awareness

Once you’ve been in VR for to long (more than 30 minutes), a lot of people tend to forget about these little objects that might cause them to fall over or wack a hand against a ceiling fan. Out of sight, out of mind, sort of thing.

2. Dizziness and Disorientation

People prone to motion sickness and vertigo are not going to be on a good foundation going into the world of VR, but even if you aren’t prone to these unpleasantries, they might still come about if you are in VR too long. 

3. Seizures 
If you are prone to seizures then you should probably just stay away because the technology may invoke a response. 

4. Nausea 
In traditional motion sickness, the mismatch occurs because you feel movement in your muscles and joints as well as in the intricate coils of your inner ear, but you do not see it. With digital motion sickness, it is the opposite. You see movement — like the turns and twists shown in a movie or video game car chase — that you do not feel. The result is the same: You may have sensory conflict that can make you feel queasy.

5. Eye Soreness 
Just as watching too much television or staring at a computer screen, short-term eye strain is normal in VR. 

6. Psychological consequences
Post-VR sadness can “range from feeling temporarily fuzzy, light-headed, and in a dream-like state, to more severe detachment that lasts days — or weeks.” Searles notes the only study that looks explicitly at virtual reality and clinical dissociation, authored by Frederick Aardema in 2006, “found that VR increases dissociative experiences and lessens people’s sense of presence in actual reality. He also found that the greater the individual’s pre-existing tendency for dissociation and immersion, the greater the dissociative effects of VR.” 

7. Virtual reality addiction
VentureBeat’s Dan Crawley reports another potential worry related to virtual reality is “living with a virtual headset on will be preferable to taking it off, at least for some people.” That could be a tempting option for people who are already dealing with mental health problems. It’s not unheard of for gamers to become so immersed in a game that they continue playing to the detriment of their self-care or the care of others.