HTC VIVE Industry Application Manager Ma Jiesi: So this is what you are like in VR

As early as the early 1980s, Lanier, the founder of VPL in the United States, proposed virtual reality (VR). In the Internet age, humans have adopted a new way of communication and entered a new field - virtual reality. The so-called virtual reality is fake, and what you see is a three-dimensional virtual world synthesized by computers. Although VR was proposed a long time ago, we only knew about it in recent years. With the full support of foreign Internet giants for VR, the wave of VR has also aroused a domestic craze. Many game enthusiasts are eager to try it, but what exactly is VR, what can it do, and what can it bring to us? For this reason, we specially interviewed Ma Jiesi, the special lecturer of the first VR/AR Technology Conference in China and the head of industry applications of HTC vive.

Ma Jiesi currently works at HTC Vive, a world-leading VR company. He has previously worked in product and business fields in virtual reality, computer vision, artificial intelligence and other technical fields. He has his own thoughts and summaries on the VR industry structure and trends, product concepts and cognition, technical principles and boundaries. He studied for a doctorate at George Mason University in the United States and served as the chairman of the school's student union. He also holds a master's degree from Peking University and a bachelor's degree from Beihang University.

The most important thing about VR is immersion

When judging the quality of a game, the word "immersion" is often mentioned. This is also true for VR. Ma Jiesi said: "The most important thing for VR may be immersion." Immersion can be simply explained as the environment created by the designer allowing the user's body and mind to forget the real situation and experience pleasure and satisfaction in the current situation.

Ma Jiesi said that the current VR devices are lacking in form and mobility, and immersion is the only advantage that VR can differentiate from other media and smart devices. Users want to pursue a new life and may want to create another self in the virtual world. Many human emotions cannot be realized in the real world, so they want to live a different life in the virtual world, and immersion can bring users a real experience.

However, as VR computing performance becomes stronger and its form factor becomes more sophisticated, immersion will no longer be the only advantage of VR, but will become a powerful label. The improvement of VR equipment will attract more users to buy it.

VR and AR are complementary

The definition of AR is augmented reality, which simply means showing real and virtual information at the same time and complementing each other. Here we use a popular camera software to explain it - Faceu. The camera captures the user's head, and then superimposes accessories such as hats or eyes and virtual facial features onto the user's head information, and finally displays an augmented reality scene.

Some people have predicted that AR will eventually replace VR, because VR is completely virtual, but people still have to live in reality. In this regard, Ma Jiesi believes that VR and AR are still two different product directions. VR requires immersion, while AR pursues intelligent recognition of the real world. AR's usage scenarios are more about replacing the existence of smartphones, while VR is more about changing the way of home entertainment. The two have their own fields of use and target different users. VR and AR should be said to be two complementary existences, and they are likely to merge into the same product in the future.

The domestic VR industry has broad prospects

The wave of VR is sweeping across China. However, faced with the continuous “banning” of entertainment industries or products, will the VR industry also suffer setbacks in China?

Ma Jiesi, the head of industry applications at HTC VIVE, one of the three giants in the VR industry, has a different view. He believes that there are two major bottlenecks in the domestic VR industry. One is that the technology is not mature enough. The domestic application layer technology is very strong, but VR requires not only mature industry, but also more underlying technologies such as vision and interaction. Domestic VR technology needs to be continuously strengthened; the second is the lack of content. The VR industry in the United States started relatively early, so many well-known large companies have invested in the content field, and even Disney has made some small videos and related VR experiences. Domestic content developers have not come in so quickly, but as domestic VR technology continues to mature, more giants will invest in the content field within half a year.

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Many people think that VR is a "game console". Although VR is a way to change home entertainment, it is used in many fields. HTC vive is the best of all VR applications. It can be used in real estate, education and even tourism, not just limited to games.

Many science fiction movies describe the future world with technology that is beyond the times, and people are immersed in excellent technology and slowly lose communication with each other. When the reporter asked whether VR will change people's lifestyles in the future, Ma Jiesi said sincerely: "It is difficult to imagine the future, but HTC vive should be a way to change home entertainment." Good technology does not change humans, but improves the quality of human life.