South Africans can soon enter 'The Matrix'
The first virtual reality app developed in Africa, Engage VR, was launched last week and is available to everyone with a smartphone. The app enables users to become immersed in a virtual world using video and head-tracking technology.
©Stefano Tinti via 123RF
Priven Reddy, CEO of Kagiso Interactive, one of the app's developers, predicted that the adult entertainment industry would be quick to capitalise on it. "It [the app] could put the user inside a strip club," Reddy said.
"For the next 10 years the biggest thing in technology will be virtual reality. It is the future of mobile gaming. It's a booming industry that's not going to die."
Users could be immersed in a news story in real time, putting them at a protest or in parliament. Although this news-related VR technology is not yet available locally, it has been adopted by overseas media. Fortune magazine reported that over 200 million VR headsets would be sold worldwide by 2020.
Source: The Times