The PSFK Technology Debrief explores the applications of virtual reality (VR) across various industries, including health, entertainment, and retail, highlighting its potential for empathy and interactive storytelling. The report features insights from industry experts and key strategies for brands to leverage VR effectively. It emphasizes the technological advancements since Facebook's acquisition of Oculus, which have shifted VR from a niche to a mainstream medium.

1. @PSFK | #FutureofVR
TECHNOLOGY DEBRIEF
SUMMARY
VIRTUAL REALITY : STEPPING INTO THE NEW WORLD OF STORYTELLING

2.
GET THE REPORT
The PSFK Technology Debrief investigates how
various industries are experimenting with the new
medium of Virtual Reality.
The 24-page report includes:
• Implications for Health & Fitness, Entertainment, Retail
& Marketing and other industries
• Key Takeaways for Brands
• Experts to Follow
• Conversation With Aaron Koblin, Co-Founder of VRSE
• Q&A with VR producer Peter Martin
• Plus a 29-page full presentation deck
Download the Full Report at :
psfk.com/vr-virtual-reality
Access all Debriefs and Reports
as a PSFK Member: psfk.com/membership
@PSFK | #FutureofVR

3. Piers Fawkes
Founder & Editor-In-Chief
PSFK.com & PSFK Labs
Scott Lachut
President of Research &
Strategy, PSFK Labs
A Brief Introduction
To Virtual Reality
In some industries the answer is more
straightforward. Travel resorts and
retailers are rushing headlong into the
idea that VR can inspire travel and
provide assurances leading up to the
point of sale. The story of a 12-year-old
girl who lived in a Syrian refugee camp
for 18 months suggests that it can be a
tool for empathy. Healthcare
professionals are harnessing the mind’s
ability to help itself by using VR
experiences of snowy landscapes to
help burn victims. As developers and
storytellers alike rush for the holy grail
of digital experiences many will fail, but
it will not be because of the technology.
The excitement around VR is and always
has been embedded in possibility of
presence. If we can achieve that now,
rest assured the best and worst is still
yet to come.
To know VR today is to understand its
checkered past. A concept conceived
in the 1960s, VR was propelled
forward technologically by gamers
and researchers who pushed its limits
but also found that those limits
pushed back. For various reasons the
technology never went mainstream in
the decades that followed, but it
wasn’t for lack of trying.
Why now? Facebook’s acquisition of
Oculus in 2012 signaled a sea change
in the supporting technology around
VR as having finally caught up to the
concept’s initial vision. At once a
nauseating, disorientating experience,
unaffordable to the masses is now just
the opposite. Remove technological
limitations from the equation and
you’re left with only possibilities.
Download the Full Report at :
psfk.com/vr-virtual-reality
Published June 2015

4. TECHNOLOGY DEBRIEF
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07Health & Fitness
Travel & Hospitality
Gaming & Storytelling
Media & EntertainmentRetail & Marketing
Art & Architecture
Culture & Social
Innovation
Market Opportunities For Virtual Reality
@PSFK | #FutureofVR

5. Key Strategies
#1
#2
#3
#4
#5Try Before
You Buy
Narratives Become
Interactive
Boundaries
Disappear
Industries
Reimagined
Empathy Gets
Ignited
TECHNOLOGY DEBRIEF
@PSFK | #FutureofVR

6. READ THE
FULL REPORT
The PSFK Technology Debrief investigates how
various industries are experimenting with the new
medium of Virtual Reality.
The 24-page report includes:
• Implications for Health & Fitness, Entertainment, Retail
& Marketing and other industries
• Key Takeaways for Brands
• Experts to Follow
• Conversation With Aaron Koblin, Co-Founder of VRSE
• Q&A with VR producer Peter Martin
• Plus a 29-page full presentation deck
Download the Full Report at :
psfk.com/vr-virtual-reality
Access all Debriefs and Reports
as a PSFK Member: psfk.com/membership
@PSFK | #FutureofVR

7. ACCESS
INNOVATION
PSFK membership provides you a constantly updated
database of over 50,000 ideas for you to leverage as
you build the future.
PSFK Membership includes access to:
•360+ Innovation Stories Monthly
•Archive of over 55,000 Ideas
•All PSFK Published Debriefs And Reports
•Events and Networking Opportunities
Become A PSFK Member to access all
PSFK Labs Reports: psfk.com/membership
PREMIUMPURPLEBASIC

8. ABOUT
PSFK LABS
PSFK Labs is an innovation agent. We leverage
the research skills, expert network and editorial
reach of PSFK.com to offer consulting and
thought leadership services to the world's most
future forward companies, helping them develop
new products, services, and ways to interact
with their consumers. PSFK Labs has worked
with Apple, BMW, Google, Nike, Red Bull,
Samsung, Target and many other leading brands.
If you are interested in seeing a presentation of
this report or would like to understand how
PSFK can help your team ideate new possibilities
for your brand, contact us at sales@psfk.com

9. @PSFK | #FutureofVR
TECHNOLOGY DEBRIEF
SUMMARY
VIRTUAL REALITY : STEPPING INTO THE NEW WORLD OF STORYTELLING