Can WebVR further the adoption of Virtual Reality?

Abstract

The market for Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) as a means to experience Virtual Reality has grown tremendously over the past years. HMDs operate on their own platform (e.g. Cardboard, Vive), even though interaction techniques are similar across platforms and each platform has to be programmed individually. Manufacturers also advertise their HMDs with exclusive apps and games for their own platform. Though game engines like Unity or Unreal provide unified APIs to ease cross-platform development, the VR software market is still pretty scattered through the different platforms. The biggest challenge for VR right now is not hardware, but the slow growth in content that appeals to a mass audience, combined with the confusion associated with a lack of cross-platform support (Jiteshi Ubrani). Because of its inherent openness, the web can be a means to tackle this problem. Developers and consumers could have easier access to VR. In this article I explore how the web and VR can benefit each other.