It's making a longer sword not inventing firearms.
A 19th century stereoscope is a more complete VR system than this. Bonus, they can cover the entire box with 3d scenes.
Strapping a phone and some lenses to your face isn't revolutionary.
VR has always been about strapping displays, lenses and motion sensors to your head at a minimum. Smartphones drove pixel densities, the Wii drove down sensor costs. This isn't a new idea, it's not revolutionary by any definition of the word. It's an iteration that might bring us to a tipping point of mass consumer adoption, and it might not.
Millions of people might buy these things, try them out for a few months and decide the fuss isn't worth the stereoscopic immersion. Or my Mom might find she really likes playing driving games in VR. Who knows?
But not a single thing here is conceptually new in any way. It literally is the same idea, with the same use cases done in basically the same way with better tech at a cheaper cost. That's not a revolution.
CDs were not a revolution over cassette tapes. Recording audio was a revolution over not being able to record it at all.
This is neat stuff, it's very cool, and it's nice that it's far more accessible to more people. But it's not revolutionary, and it doesn't fix the major problems that have been identified by many very smart people who've been working on this problem for decades.
You keep pulling out this non sequitur. "variation on theme, therefore core problems not resolved." You've never enumerated what those core problems are. Because as far as I'm concerned, iteration to higher resolution and higher framerate solves several core problems with the old VR systems.
Are you just disappointed that it's all headsets and you won't be able to get your dick virtually sucked yet? Oh wait, no, you can get that, too. No, I won't link to it. Use your own googlefu.
There's literally decades of research into VR that you pretend like doesn't exist: from medical and psychological to input and feedback systems that you're blissfully unaware of. Listing it would be like listing the contents of a library. You seem to want to cast yourself as some kind of VR expert or aficionado, but aren't even aware of the long history of your own field! At this point you're just a poser.
However, people who aren't ignorant internet blowhards are aware of this body of work, have been around VR for much longer than your synapses have been capable of firing on the topic, and end up having a much more measured response to the technology. We all know more about what you are doing than you do. We all know who Heilig, Furness, Sutherland, Engelbart, Lanier and Waldern, their works and the limitations of their vision. We're not the idiots in this exchange.
We were learning to fly planes, drive tanks, overcome phobias, shoot guns, find medicines, map the stars, explore cyberspace and meatspace in VR while you were still learning to drink juice from an adult cup.
You seem to take some kind of personal umbrage with people who have a long view of the topic not finding the precious toy you've hitched your wagon to to be the revolutionary second coming. Grow up and maybe learn something first so you can do something better than the mistakes of all the giants who's footsteps you are treading in.
VR is here, it's been here, it's great, but it's not everything, there is no revolution here only evolution. That screen strapped to your head? That's just this year's model of car, not the invention of the horseless wagon. We've all been driving for a long time, congratulations on getting your license.
Let us know when you stop being a road hazard.
The fact that you keep harping on "no compelling use cases", when games are a clearly a legitimate use case, how completely different things like racing games feel in VR versus on a TV (I can't play racing games on a TV anymore) means you know nothing about modern VR. There are already people using even Google Cardboard-class devices to do medical visualizations and planning surgeries that they are claiming would have been too difficult without it. Companies like AltspaceVR are already proving that 3D chat can now be done correctly and it's better and more personal than Skype. I know of several architecture firms that have jumped on this, are developing tools in-house to visualize new designs for clients, with stories that it has helped the client rethink bad design decisions. I know of real estate agents who are hopping on this to show off their stock of dwelling units. This is all right now. What more do you want to prove that there are at least some compelling use cases, and why do you assume that, once the devices are in hand, we wouldn't be able to figure out more?
Games like Tilt Brush and Fantastic Contraption are proving that there is a compelling CAD use case that could be developed further into more productive tasks. Have you ever done any 3D modelling? It's ridiculously hard. It's almost as hard as "individually position 1 million vertices" sounds. The sorts of things people are whipping up in these games I can't even imagine trying to build in a tool like Blender or Maya on a PC work station in any amount of time approaching under 6 months.
"Oh, but how many people really need to do 3D modelling?" I don't know, how many people really needed to do email on the go? IF you make it accessible and available, people will figure out their own use cases.
I still challenge you to prove you actually know anything about VR other than having read about it in TIME every once in a while.
I thought HN was supposed to be a board of cutting edge technology enthusiasts, startup visionaries, early adopters, etc. There is a hell of a lot of lack of imagination here.