Two thousand five hundred reais is the average price of a good virtual reality headset. If you opt for the full experience, shell out another four thousand reais to add sensors and controllers. These models must be connected to a high-performance computer to process information and transform spaces into 3D models, costing at least five thousand reais. In addition to the headset, sensors, and computer, software is also required, with annual licenses that likewise run into the thousands. In short, keeping up with technology nowadays is quite a costly endeavor.
The example above is based on the comprehensive experience virtual reality can offer: immersive content, a VR application, and an immersive headset. However, other lower-cost strategies—which are still far from truly accessible—should be noted, keeping in mind that the quality of the experience drops proportionally. These include, for instance, systems that pair a headset with a smartphone, costing an average of four thousand reais for the set, or the experimental, budget-friendly Google Cardboard, which connects to a mobile phone and costs around 200 reais. While efforts to democratize immersive technology certainly exist, most still serve merely as entryways to the virtual reality world rather than as professional-grade tools.
Of course, the democratization of these tools is part of an ongoing adoption process, suggesting that immersive technology might follow the same path as augmented reality. Unlike virtual reality, AR overlays digital elements onto a view of the real world without the feeling of total immersion. Like many technological breakthroughs, it originated in US government research that, through testing cutting-edge technology, improved data-tracking equipment, implementing its first device in 1968. Since then, the widespread adoption of this technology has integrated it into various free smartphone applications, allowing users to seamlessly overlay sharp, high-quality digital elements onto their faces when taking a photo.
