Virtual Reality has become a recurring theme throughout 2016 already, and we’ve not finished February yet. During CES 2016, Oculus made waves by putting up the Rift for pre-order, and HTC, with their partner, Valve, will be doing the same for the Vive before the month is over. They’re not the only people to get involved in VR however, as LG announced a new, lighter headset over the weekend, while Alcatel took a more conservative approach (pictured above). It seems like there’s no shortage of VR hardware out there these days, and firms like LG and Samsung are even producing small cameras capable of creating the content. To hit the mainstream however, big broadcasting names will be required to make people see the platform has genuine potential, and that’s just what IM360 and ABC’s Good Morning America hope to achieve.
Come Tuesday, February 23rd, Good Morning America will be broadcasting a Virtual Reality report at the same time as the standard broadcast is live on ABC. The broadcast will be from 7:00 AM EST to 9:00 AM EST, and people will be able to immerse themselves in the report by downloading the IM360 app from the Play Store. The report, presented by Amy Robach, will come from the Crater Lands in Tanzania, as part of the show’s GMA on Safari feature. This VR feature will give users the opportunity to view the Ngorongoro region like never before, and will presumably highlight one of VR’s biggest uses; education. Google has been using their affordable and flexible Cardboard virtual reality solution in classrooms for some time now, and while it seems to be just a trial at this point, it could become an effective teaching tool in the future.
Over the past year, virtual reality has gone from something that had us thinking it was the reserve of geeks and nerds the world over, to something that has genuine potential to entertain, educate and help people experience things they might not get a chance to. As we noted above, Android users can “tune in” so to speak to Tuesday’s broadcast by downloading the IM360 app from the Play Store here.