The holodeck comes alive: Seattle at center of virtual reality boom

I’m standing on the ledge of a sheer tower, just one false step from falling to my death hundreds of feet below. Looking down, I see the precipice and feel the void at my feet. I jump back and swing my head just in time to see a drone wielding a light saber flying towards me. I dodge and swing my own light sabers, blocking the missiles and lasers shooting from the drone.

Actually, I’m wearing a customized virtual reality headset and vest in the high-rise downtown apartment turned office of Seattle’s Atomic VR, where co-founders Mike Lenzi and his partner Ben Teitler are working around the clock to develop custom virtual reality software and applications.

“What the goggles do and with audio and possibly haptics is transport you to another world,” said Lenzi. “Whatever it is that can be designed in the virtual world, you can place yourself in there.”

It’s been the vision of many since the days of the Star Trek holodeck. But thanks to advances in technology, virtual reality is poised to break out. Seattle is at the forefront, driven by all of the game developers and other tech companies that dominate the area.

Like me, GeekWire’s Todd Bishop became a believer after testing out several VR systems and applications.

“When it reaches the point that it’s tricking your mind into believing that you’re there even though reasonably you know that you’re not there. That’s the tipping point for me where you go, ‘Wow, this is real and it’s something very, very different,'” said Bishop.

While gaming is a logical application, Atomic VR’s Lenzi envisions countless commercial uses from design to real estate to buying your next car.

“The ability to visualize your next home, for instance, or take, for instance, an aircraft interior running through limitless configurations, seating, colors, lighting conditions,” he said.

The potential is limitless. It’s one of the things that’s drawn so many successful tech veterans with significant pedigrees and deep pockets to the industry.

Among them is Pop Cap games co-founder John Vechey, who brought the world wildly popular and massively selling games like “Plants Versus Zombies” and “Bejeweled.”

Just last week, Vechey unveiled his newest venture, a startup called Pluto VR that aims to develop a variety applications for the burgeoning new industry.

“It is really a next thing in terms of how society can be reshaped around a new technology and that’s just super exciting. Whether that’s games or entertainment or productivity etcetera, virtual reality has the capacity to fundamentally shift how we do a whole bunch of things,” he said.

For Vechey, one of the greatest promises of virtual reality is the ability to collaborate and connect with others anywhere, whether bringing teammates from all over the globe together or playing a board game with friends spread around the country.

“My favorite gaming moments are always with other people and they’re often in the same room,” said Vechey. “It’s not so much ‘oh it’s going to be super immersive.’ It’s going to be like ‘oh, you can be with other people and I can play games with other people around the country that I only see every three or four years and I’ll be able to have a much better connection with my friends.’ That’s what I’m excited about.”

Vechey’s new venture, Atomic VR and many other new Seattle-area ventures are focused primarily on software development and applications. The hardware, however, is just as critical. The Oculus Rift, Microsoft HoloLens and a new system from Bellevue’s Valve – set to be unveiled at the big Game Developer Conference in San Francisco this week – are among the platforms developers are working with.

“The technology has really reached a point where it’s much more feasible to do extremely realistic virtual reality,” said Bishop. “The processors are powerful enough and the video is realistic enough that it actually feels like you’re in the middle of an alternative reality.”

While significant advances are being made, most agree it’ll be at least a few years before virtually reality headsets and applications are widely available to the masses. Some developers envision you sitting on a couch with goggles tethered to a PC or device.

Atomic VR’s Ben Teitler sees a much freer future.

“We want people to be able to get up and walk around naturally in a space. It allows for a much more immersive experience. It allows for a lot more applications than just sitting down,” he said.

If my experience swinging light sabers and dodging drones is any indication, the promise of virtual reality is way more than just some far-fetched Star Trek scenario.