Will the new VR gear trip up older gamers?

This is the March version of the SteamVR "Vive" headset co-created by HTC; a newer dev kit has already shipped to eligible SteamVR developers. (credit: Sam Machkovech)

By this time next year, consumers should have their choice of a variety of virtual reality (VR) gaming systems. Sony’s Playstation VR (formerly Project Morpheus) has been announced for the first half of 2016, Facebook’s Oculus Rift is scheduled for Q1 2016, and Valve/HTC’s Vive has promised a limited release during the 2015 holiday season. While the VR systems on the horizon are largely being marketed to gamers, everyone involved in their production sees the technology as having a much wider appeal. These companies dream of applications in virtual travel, training, and entertainment, to merely name a few.

Enthusiasm among people who have experienced the new VR systems is high. Jaded reviewers who have been introduced to “the next big thing” countless times over the years often come away giddy with excitement. But as with any new technology, there are some potential issues. Most obvious, VR can produce feelings of dizziness and nausea. But perhaps less obvious, those effects are symptoms of a deeper problem that stems from the way VR interacts with the system that allows people to keep their balance. Vision is an essential component of the balance system, and viewing a virtual world in place of the real one can induce mild feelings from vertigo and motion sickness to extreme nausea and loss of balance. And while any user of the technology may experience these symptoms, the balance problems are likely to be worse for one particular demographic—older people.

Balancing excitement with balance

They call it “presence,” although no one is sure exactly what that means. VR simply creates the illusion of being present in a virtual environment. The illusion rests on a convincing 360-degree visual presentation combined with the ability to interact with objects in the virtual world using a handheld controller. When it all comes together seamlessly, the sense of being present in the virtual world can be overwhelming. This sense of actually being in a place you know is not real can lead to a euphoria, one that has been reported time and again by people who have experienced it.