Last week, my colleague Justin shared a link for a video game that uses heartrate monitors and other bio sensors to detect a players mood to adjust what is happening in the game itself according to the player’s emotions. Interestingly enough, I had also read about Virtual Reality glasses that were connecting to bio sensors to detect heart rates as well as Virtual Reality glasses that had built in eye motion sensors. So we are seeing VR connect with other tools like wearables and drones. Other senses are probably not far behind – olfactory devices that recreate smells? Atmospheric devices that help us feel wind and rain? Haptic gloves that help us feel virtual objects? The question becomes – will we keep connecting devices to VR headsets, or expand VR into a immersive environment like a Holodeck? Only time will tell, but I could image a spherical room that has a 3-D high-res screens wrapped around as a bubble. The user climbs in from the bottom and is sealed in with an omni-directional treadmill. They put on a an inexpensive set of 3-D glasses that covers their entire field of view. The screen creates the 3-D environment all around. Olfactory devices create smells, while atmospheric devices embedded in the screens recreate humidity, wind, etc. Sensors in the screen also detect movement. Lasers create sensations of touch when interacting with 3D virtual objects. Could all be down the road and expensive, but you never know. Someday, they will figure out how to convert light into matter and holodecks will be born, but I guess we are seeing the early phases now? You never know.