News: vTime Brings Human Interaction to Virtual Reality

One of the major criticisms of virtual reality, and much modern technology in general, is the antisocial nature it creates. But vTime wants to overcome the isolating nature of VR headsets with a virtual hangout space for you and your friends.

As Engadget points out, with vTime you choose an avatar for yourself and connect with others to chat live in a 3D-rendered environment. You can sit by a campfire, converse under the sea, or even go ice fishing in the Arctic.

If you want to watch a movie with friends, you can do so in a virtual room and chat at the same time. vTime creates a three-dimensional audio environment to make the experience immersive for more than just your eyeballs.

If you wanted to be critical, you could argue that we ought to go out in the world to hang out with our friends in person. But there's a reason for this kind of software. We use Skype, FaceTime, text messages, and plenty of other means to keep in contact with each other remotely. While this might seem like a poor replacement for human interaction, it's really more of a pleasant supplement. It's not real, but you can feel like you're sitting in a room with a friend halfway across the globe.

So far vTime is only a concept, but we should see more and more social features enter the VR/AR/MR space as the technology continues to develop. The experience can be isolating, but that depends on how we use it.

vTime offers a look at how we can use virtual reality to connect with people in a way we couldn't before, offering an enhancement to human interaction rather than the other way around.

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