For decades now virtual realism ( VR ) has swing on the fringe of technology   without ever rightfully achieving accept mainstream acceptance or commercial-grade success . But according toCitigroup analyst Kota Ezawa , 2016 will be the year that VR ultimately gains widespread recognition and approval . By 2019 the VR market is require to top $ 200 billion after accounting for ironware , networks , and software program and content . And with number like that it ’s no wonder the emerging market has attracted the attention of more than just the gaming community . Virtual reality headset are now being used and developed for many different industry as a way of training people or offer new elbow room to perform task and experience things .

Here are 12 exciting ways that VR technology is being utilized outside the gaming diligence .

12. Movies

There are a pot of multitude who believe that movies , rather than secret plan , are going to be the killer app for VR headsets . Oculus has already started poach talent from Pixar for its very own practical world moving-picture show studio apartment so they can set forth making movies that profoundly immerse viewers in the storytelling experience . VR movies will be like give birth your very own private theater that places you inside the picture show itself with enamour mental imagery and well-grounded effect . However , since   traditional filmmaking techniques could be disorientate in a VR setting , animators and camera operator will likely have to come up new methods of draw up shots and transitioning between scenes to maximize engagement . Regardless of these challenges , the future of movies should be very interesting if Hollywood and indie film Maker settle to embrace VR whole heartedly .

http://www.roadtovr.com/samsung-gear-vr-preview-oculus-cinema-watching-a-2-hour-movie/ Via roadtovr.com

11. Live Events

For sports fans , companies like LiveLike and NextVR could be real biz changers . LiveLike is a VR platform that has built a practical stadium to bring the thrill of game - Clarence Shepard Day Jr. stadium experiences to the comfort of your life elbow room . NextVR has even fully grown aspirations .   The   Laguna Beach - based company wants become the Netflix of practical reality by making VR just as mainstream as streaming movies and TV shows is today . They made waves   in October after create an app that live streamed the first game of the NBA time of year straight from the spare-time activity . After the monstrance , they draw investiture from Comcast and Time Warner that raised over $ 30 million for continued development . NextVR is also planning to practical reality to enrapture substance abuser to stadium events like Cirque du Soleil and bragging ticket concert .

http://vrscout.com/news/mandalay-ceo-peter-guber-invests-nextvr/ Via vrscout.com

10. Museums

opine being able-bodied to see the Louvre , the Metropolitan Museum of Art , and the National Gallery all in one finish - filled good afternoon . practical reality is drive to make that possibility now that a phone number of museum have start collaborating with software program developers to make virtual blank space where masses can tour the museums ’ famous appeal . Last year , the British Museum in London allow for a practical - realness weekend and the   American Museum of Natural History   in New York City made some of its collections viewable nigh through Google Cardboard — enabling anyone with a smartphone and Cardboard VR headset to browse the museum .

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cardboard360images.parisvr Via play.google.com

9. Courtrooms

For decades jurist and panel member have had to rely on grainy , 2D photographs to identify mortal and evaluate crime scene . But regard a offense in 3D could give them a much more accomplished visualization of how event played out over sentence in a given space . In 2014 , researchers at the University of Zurich published a paper essay the potential habit of the Oculus Rift to realistically remodel events and scenarios discussed at trials . Their findings concluded that the consumption of interactional technology like VR headset made it well-heeled for people to understand the point of a vitrine and make informed decisions regarding a somebody suspected innocence or guilty conscience .

https://www.everythingvr.com/t/rift Via everythingvr.com

8. Military Training

For eld the U.S. war machine has been using virtual reality simulators to train soldiers for deployment . Through the exercise of special non - commercial developer platforms troop are grade in secret plan - like fight simulations where teams can do working together and using tactical equipment in accurately replicated 3D environments . The immersive vista bring home the bacon by VR headsets provides a lively training factor by capturing the full attention of trainee so the lesson and skills they learn are more easily retain and call in .

http://www.roadtovr.com/the-gulf-between-high-end-military-vr-and-consumer-vr-is-rapidly-shrinking/ Via roadtovr.com

7. Tourism

The latest industry await to tap VR engineering is the travelling business . According to analysts from the touristry market research house Phocuswright , the large opportunity involve help consumer make decisions about where they require to travel . Having the ability to explore locations and refuge from an immersive first - person view can be especially valuable for destination that might not have a top - tier attraction or much name identification . By supply masses with a virtual go , travellers will practically be able experience everything a vacation name and address has to pop the question before booking their trip-up . In other 2016 , Matoke Tours , a ecological niche African travel operator , launch an app that functions a mass like a practical travel folder , featuring 360 degree videos of six Ugandan holidaymaker attractions that involve experiences stray from hot air balloon rides to fold meeting with domestic wildlife .   Ascape is a free app for the iPhone that offers similar virtual tours of locations such as Berlin , San Francisco and Botswana .

Hotel operators are also using VR gadget to provide more experiences for their Guest . Last September , Marriott Hotels   launched the “ VRoom Service “ , permit guests to borrow a VR equipment and experience immersive tarradiddle where the exploiter can shoot the breeze places like Beijing , Chile or Rwanda .

https://eyes.kolor.com/video/4606ffb5e818a7f1a1b6f09316fc570e Via Kolor.com

A young woman wearing a VR headset.

6. Meditation

Would n’t it be great if , after a long stressful day at work , you could just transport yourself to a calm , relaxing beach where all your troubles seem to instantly unthaw away ?   With theGuided Meditation VRsoftware , user can out on an optic headset and become engulf in a variety of comfort environment .   Vision and auditory sense are primary mother wit , and debasing them provide compelling grounds to your brainpower that you are actually engross an entirely dissimilar space . Guided Meditationuses this vista to great essence , and makes it easier than ever to get a little breathing infinite from your blase woe .

Virtual - world tech could also provide a dependable environment for patients suffering from phobias   to come in striking with the thing they revere , while remaining in a safe , control surroundings . In a 2014 study published in the American Journal of Psychiatry , it was shown that this kind ofVR exposure therapywas effective when used on a group of war warhorse suffer from post traumatic tenseness disorderliness .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR6ybsm1OPA Via YouTube

5. HealthCare

Healthcare providers have been some of the other adopters of virtual world . In the past tense , the engineering has been used in skills preparation , surgery pretence , robotlike surgical process , and phobia treatment . VR allows health care professionals to practice raw science and refresh existing ones in a safe environment without posing any hazard to patient .   Virtual - reality simulation , such as those created by Surgical Theater and Conquer Mobile , utilize literal symptomatic images from CAT scan and ultrasounds to make unbelievably detailed 3D good example of a patient ’s anatomy . Surgeons can use these practical models to determine the safest and most effective way to settle tumors , make operative incisions , and carry out complicated procedure . Furthermore ,   practical realness could dish out as an engaging and effective tool for rehabilitation . In Europe , a society called MindMaze is aid patients hurt from brain trauma by using an immersive virtual - realness therapy that help them find motor and cognitive function faster than with traditional physical therapy . According to the caller , the practical exercises and substantial - time feedback in MindMaze are made to feel like game and help incite patient to use the action they ’ll need to perform in everyday aliveness .

http://medhacker.com/2025-05-18/interventional-cardiologist-explores-virtual-reality-in-medical-procedures-with-jaunt-vr/ Via medhacker.com

4. Automotive Manufacturing

tremendous sums of money are spent on research and development in the automotive industry .   practical reality allows for company to quiz new design in various scenarios and get a look for a products performance even before a prototype has been create .

In Ford ’s Immersion Lab in Dearborn , Michigan employee can put on a VR headset and test every nook and cranny of a car before it ’s fabricate .   The technology links straight to Ford’sAutodeskcomputer aid design ( blackguard ) system and permit technologist to scrutinise different design ingredient such as the locomotive engine or fascia , and name potential issues before they become complications , or worse , result in a pricy callback .

http://emmalouclark.com/the-race-is-on-vr-in-the-automotive-industry/ Via emmalouclark.com

3. Space

At this year ’s CES , NASA used VRto share with the world the experience of being on board a act of different space vessels . attender go the fortune to see what an astronaut does when they do things like climb into the new Orion ejection seat , which is scheduled for completion in 2018 .

well yet , by combining the Oculus Rift with motion - sensing hardware from the Xbox One ’s Kinect 2 sensor , researcher at NASA ’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory devised a method acting for controlling a robotic arm through the operator ’s motions and gestures . It ’s mean that the approach could one day be used to manipulate rovers or other instruments located trillion of land mile away from earth .

An ripe simulation was also created using aVirtuix Omni treadmilland VR headset running software designed to train cosmonaut for a Mars surface landing place .

http://www.geek.com/science/nasa-is-already-walking-on-mars-using-an-oculus-rift-and-omni-treadmill-1564592/ Via geek.com

2. Shopping and E-Commerce

Trillenium is a start - up that creates virtual stores for brands . Their aim is to merge the experience of real - animation shopping with the convenience of e - commercialism . The app improves on traditional on-line shopping by providing practical tours   of entire memory . Rather than appear through pages of flat schoolbook and pictures on a website , exploiter can engage in a existent - clock time shopping experience and even invite friends to join them . Since its promulgation in 2015 , the app has grab the aid of some large name retailers including online British fashion and beauty store ASOS . shopper can tour the virtual store by focusing their gaze on various point , reckon at products from unlike angles and socialise with other patrons . Trillenium is confident there will be no shortage of companies look to get in on the virtual shopping experience . According to the London - based grocery inquiry Mintel ,   British on-line retail sales are anticipate to increase 64 percent to 71.2 billion hammering ( $ 110 billion ) between now and 2020 .

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNRnyR-Z-bQ Via YouTube

1. Education

In 2015 , Google set in motion itsExpeditions Pioneerprogram in which thousands of school were introduce to a outfit contain   everything a teacher needs to take their course of instruction on a virtual trip : Asus smartphones , a tablet for the instructor to direct the tour , a router that allow Expeditions to move without an   net connection , and a depository library of over 100 practical trip that can transport students anywhere from the Eiffel Tower to the Great Wall of China .

New platforms likeLectureVRandAltspaceVRare also hop to bring newfangled teaching possibilities to educators of all sort by providing them the technology to create avatars and conduct “ multi - player ” Roger Huntington Sessions with an unparalleled tier of interaction and socialization .   Toyota is already using Oculus headsets as part of itsTeenDrive365campaign plan to educate teenager and parent about the dangers of distracted driving . The ship’s company believes the immersive experience offered by VR headsets have the potential difference to overturn all fields of instruction .

http://www.thestar.com/business/2025-04-03/google-expeditions-virtual-field-trip-program-coming-to-toronto-schools.html Via thestar.com