The real world and the virtual world are just now starting to meld together. The emerging technology is so new that it’s hard to see just how far it will advance, but most tech experts agree, virtual reality, or VR for short, will soon become an ordinary part of our brave new world.
The first consumer VR systems became available about a year ago. Derrick Boyce, owner of Digital Lands, purchased a VR system as soon as they were available and has been using it for a year now. He hasn’t opened his VR system to the general public, but he and his friends use it quite often, and he’s also developing programs for it.
“I’ve never been so excited about a technology as I am about VR,” said Boyce. “It’s going to change a lot of things.”
Boyce says his friends who have tried it are usually amazed with the experience.
One of those friends was Page resident Phil Esco, who tried it recently and found the experience “a little bit mindblowing.”
“I didn’t realize the level of sophistication involved with this,” he said.
While in VR, Esco stood underwater on the deck of a ship and watched fish and whales swimming around him, played a first person shooter game and played fetch with a dog on top of a mountain.
“I felt like I was on top of that mountain,” he said. “Even though my mind knew it was in virtual reality, my body still reacted as though it was in reality. When I was standing on the deck of the sunken ship and that whale came up from behind me I still ducked.”
Trying to explain how awesome VR is to someone who’s never tried it is like trying to explain what salt tastes like to someone who’s never tasted it.
“You really have to try it for yourself to see how amazing it is,” he said. “There’s no way to communicate how amazing it is to someone who’s never done it.
“As impressive as the experience is now, I’m excited to see where the technology will be in five years.”
As the technology grows, the VR experience will become more customizable. For instance, when you visit the north rim of the Grand Canyon you’ll be able to choose your season and weather conditions. You’ll be able to stand on the edge of the cliff while it snows around you or autumn leaves drift by you.
Virtual tourism is expected to grow into a multi-billion dollar industry in the coming years. Tech companies are moving quickly to provide both the hardware and software that will power the VR experience.
“It’s the wild west right now,” said Boyce. “Almost everyone who tries it, when they take off the visor says, `You know what that would be good for?’”
VR was driven by gamers who wanted a more immersive experience in the worlds where they played their games.
“I think gamers thought they’d put on their visors and play ‘Call of Duty’ but it was giving them reverse motion sickness,” said Boyce. “It was a case of your eyes telling your brain that you’re moving but since their body wasn’t actually moving it disoriented the brain.”
To adapt to this, other companies have built 360-degree treadmills that move with the player.

One of the most popular VR apps is “teleportation.” VR allows users to easily visit hard-to-access places. Programs already exist that allow you to hike the last quarter mile to the top of Mount Everest, all without the subfreezing temperatures or oxygen deprivation. Have you ever wanted to walk down the subteranean hallway of an Egyptian Pyramid? Now you can. You can walk across the surface of the moon, or ride an ATV across Mars. Have you been trying to get a permit to hike The Wave for the last two years? Now you can visit it in the virtual world.
Inherent with VR tourism is the disturbing connotations for tourist destinations, such as Page, whose economy is highly dependent on tourists, who in the future may find that tourists walk through Antelope Canyon in the virtual world rather than in person.
Or, we may find that it boosts tourism. Someone who has explored the Antelope Canyon while standing in their living room in Sydney, Australia may now be more motivated to dust off their luggage and visit the real thing.
One of the most exciting realms of virtual tourism will be visiting places that no longer exist. We’ll be able to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef before it was bleached and dead, walk through a snowy Charles Dickens era village, visit ancient civilizations — such as the Roman, Persian or Aztec empires.
Of course, we’ll be able to visit fictitious places, too. The Star Wars universe, Santa’s workshop or Pandora, the world in the movie “Avatar”.
Because virtual reality is the ultimate immersive technology it has broad applications in the real world as well.  For instance, medical students can now perform virtual surgeries — it’s called surgical simulation training — and log X amount of hours performing a virtual surgery before trying it on a real, live patient.
“It’s just amazing to see every little opening in the skull where a nerve goes through,  said Dr. Neil Martin, chairman of University of California Los Angeles’ department of neurosurgery. “On the image, I can see the carotid artery going through the margin of the tumor. Rather than have that all of a sudden appear as I’m removing tumor, I’ll know exactly when I’m going to encounter it. That is a big improvement.”
Just as pilots must log a certain amount of flight time in a simulator as part of their training, Dr. Martin believes something similar will be required of aspiring surgeons now that the technology to do so has arrived.
One area where VR is expected to change the entire industry is architecture. Utilizing a VR visor an architect’s CAD drawings will be seen in 3D. The CAD drawings can be taken to the build site and virtually “projected” on top of the site. The architect and client will also be able to virtually walk through the building floor by floor, room by room and if changes are desired they can be added into the CAD design. Before the building is ever built. a client will be able to stand on any floor, in any room and see the view out the room’s window. This will give the client a lot more input into the design process while the project is still fluid, and changes made before the building is built. For instance, while checking out the view from the 12th floor she may decide she wants a window moved up or down, left or right. After walking through her virtual kitchen, she may decide to change its layout.
Many companies are utilizing VR as a way to make an educational experience more engaging and entertaining.
The National Museum of Australia is offering VR tours of the life’s earliest day on Earth. With world-famous naturalist David Attenborough narrating, NMA visitors don their VR headsets and travel back 540 million years while Attenborough introduces us to the dawn of life on Earth, while they swim with animals that have been extinct for millenia.
Virtual reality will just be the beginning of our virtual new world. Several tech companies are already working on technology that will overlay a layer of the virtual world over our physical world, a phenomenon called Augmented Reality.
One such company, Magic Leap, a tech start-up based in Florida, is developing what they call a photonic lightfield chip, which is basically glasses that allow you to see virtual elements that are overlaid with real elements. For instance, you can play chess with a virtual robot or Frisbee with a virtual dog. You may wear smart-clothes that project a holographic wardrobe around yourself. Other people you encounter who are wearing the same glasses will be able to see your virtual wardrobe and your virtual dog and robot, and even interact with them.
Microsoft has made a similar device called HoloLens.
VR opens up a whole new level of social engagement, said Boyce.
“I think a lot of people think VR will make people less social,” said Boyce. “That people will just spend all day in their homes alone. But it doesn’t have to be that way at all.”
One aspect of VR that’s making a lot of people happy is that it allows them to meet and interact with their friends who live far away from them and engage in a mutual activity in a virtual room. For instance, a kid in Page can play a game of virtual checkers with their grandpa in Ohio.
Boyce recently sat on a holographic balcony in New York which overlooked a street in Manhattan with a person he’d never met in real life. Boyce was physically sitting in Page, and the other person was physically sitting in another city but their avatars sat together and chatted on a New York balcony.
“By the end of our conversation, I felt like I knew the person,” said Boyce.
Where VR is today can be compared to Columbus landing in the New World, what he’ll encounter as he proceeds forward who can tell, said Boyce
“It’s a good time to be alive,” he said.