When senior Divij Motwani first came to the Bay Area in 2017, he discovered virtual reality and augmented reality. Since, the technology has sparked an interest in him that has captivated him, boosted his productivity and his gaming experiences.
Motwani, the editor-in-chief of “Veritas,” Paly’s science publication, has used VR for studying and gaming, and has owned both Meta VR goggles and the Apple Vision Pro.
“I’m originally from Georgia, and I visited Palo Alto once when I was younger,” Motwani said. “The first time I visited, I went and tried out the Oculus Rift at Meta headquarters when it was just slowly coming into action. And then a few years ago, I bought an Oculus Quest Two.”
There is also growth in the market as the global VR market size is expected to be above $22 billion in 2025, according to Statista.
Mattia Crespi, the founder of Qbit, a Bay Area based tech startup that specializes in VR and AR, said part of this growth is due to easier access to the technology as more companies join the field.
“The increase of attention is essentially due to the technology developments that are new,” Crespi said. “More performing headsets. More people have tried it. More software is available, especially in gaming.”
Since his discovery, Motwani said he has experimented with augmented reality in other ways too.
“I’ve tried the Apple Vision Pro…” Motwani said. “I’ve also used other forms of AR on phones, like putting objects in space to understand how clothes or furniture would fit.”
Because of its ability to work in space, VR and AR programming may seem different than computer gaming. But junior and avid programmer Boris Nezlobin said VR and AR are created through 3D programming, which is similar to how most traditional games are made.
“The way most VR and AR rendering engines work is (by) building some 3D representation of the environment,” Nezbolin said. “Then they add objects to it and transform that 3D representation into a two-dimensional digital display, which isn’t too different from the way games work on your laptop.”
Crespi said childhood movies, along with his desire to explore technology sparked his VR and AR interest.
“It was a passion in the sense that I was fascinated by the ability of computers to create a virtual space, a vertical dimension in which you could do things,” Crespi said. “I had seen that in movies like ‘Tron,’ ‘The Lawnmower Man’ (and) ‘The Matrix.’”
Because of interest in VR sparked by movies or other passions, Motwani said it’s more possible than ever to enjoy content.
“Because of how many people are starting to use it, I’ve seen more games and experienced development,” Motwani said. “The Apple Vision Pro released an app that could let you watch F1 races on your desk. These types of experiences wouldn’t have been possible a few years ago.”
Despite its limitations, Motwani said he has noticed more students taking an interest in VR and AR, especially because of its price, with the Meta Quest 3 being $499.99.
“A few of my friends at Paly have started getting VR headsets, and that’s mainly because of Meta,” Motwani said. “The Meta Quest is one of the easiest ways to get in at a low cost.”
Beyond lowering cost, Motwani said recent aesthetic changes have made VR glasses more accessible.
“The biggest thing we’re going to see with VR and AR, at least, like the coolest new thing, is going to be when we get our goggles into glasses,” Motwani said.
But Motwani said comfort remains a large factor in consumer hesitance.
“With any headset, and like ski goggle type design, it’s going to be uncomfortable for a while, and so until we switch to, like, a full glass of system,” Motwani said.
“Early on, when I needed the systems, or I was doing a lot of productivity, and I needed the screen real estate, I could use my VR headset to mirror my display and then make massive monitors,” Motwani said. “I can have, like five monitors in virtual reality.”
However, before these improvements are implemented, Motwani said Meta VR glasses price must decrease to become more popular and usable.
“The price to produce each of those pairs of glasses as per the (Chief Technology Officer) of Meta is $10,000, and the reasoning for that is that they require something called a silicon carbide lens. When you’re projecting an image onto the lens of your glasses, it has to hit it in a very separate way, so that that light can get projected back into your eyes,” Motwani said. “You can’t just project it on a lens, or else it will be distorted in a way.”
In addition to price concerns, Nezlobin said programming-wise, building AR can also be a difficult process, especially when it concerns speed.
“Getting it to run fast is pretty difficult with AR. Especially, building the three-dimensional environment is difficult to do in real-time, so it’s often fixed by using like sensor,” Nezlobin said
Motwani said he believes that VR has high potential.
“I really do think that in the future, once we get better systems for virtual reality and augmented reality, we’ll see those appear a lot in our daily lives,” Motwani said. “Whether it’s having a pair of glasses that can run your calendar on your side or many of the things that you do on the phone, you can do your messages on your glasses, or you can use it as your computer display, so that you don’t need to be looking or you can have multiple monitors at the same time.”
