Virtual reality: the next big thing for business?

Analysts say that virtual reality could be used mobile working and remote collaboration

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When Facebook acquired Oculus Rift in the middle of 2014, virtual reality was placed very much back on the agenda. The concept was conceived by Doug Englebart and then Evans and Sutherland in the 1960s, but has wavered in and out of fashion since then. This time round, with some big names behind the competing technologies, virtual reality, or VR for short, could become something truly mainstream, with significant implications for business mobility.

The last time VR was fashionable was the 1990s. Phrases like "cyberspace" and the "information superhighway" were being coined and bandied around, and movies like TRON, The Lawnmower Man and The Matrix had suggested that this new online realm would be a three-dimensional representation. In the early 1990s, researchers and software developers were attempting to imagine and prototype ways that this 3D realm could be used in business. Suggestions included avatar-based telepresence during voice communications, and 3D graphics of financial information through which you could fly to get a better understanding of trends.

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was a promoter and DJ in East London. He is now marketing executive of The First Post.