05/03/2016 Click - Short Edition

Hello, and welcome to a very unusual Click.

It is unusual because we have been asked to make a documentary by the

BBC all about virtual reality and the effects it might one day have on

Some of the stuff that is to do with VR and relationships is most

definitely adults-only, but don't panic - today we will bring you

the toned-down version of that documentary for family viewing.

We were lucky enough to recruit Tyger Drew-Honey to report for us

from some of the stranger corners of the web, and VR prototyping.

So for the next 23 minutes, I will leave you

Everybody wants in on virtual reality, it seems.

Video games in VR are supposed be much more immersive.

There are plans for social networking and hanging

The technology even has romantic potential, becoming a new way

for people on opposite sides of the planet to get together online.

I have heard a lot about VR, but I've never tried it.

I have come to St Albans and found a VR Boot Camp,

Hello. Hi there!

I'm Tyger. Nice to meet you, man.

I run a small company called Rewind, which is a VR production studio, and

we will run you through your paces and show you the technology we have.

This is not something I have done much of.

I've used one of these with my phone.

All of these are basically smartphone

The really good stuff is when you start getting into the good ones.

Let's get you down here and have a go.

Can you reach down and touch the dashboard?

Wow! And you're off!

My stomach went a little bit like I went over a big bump in the road.

Is it just my imagination or is anything moving?

Could it be a winning lap? It is!

The headset is covered in a whole bunch of tiny sensors.

The sensors are constantly being wiped by a laser.

You can walk anywhere within this universe.

You can't see me? No.

That in itself is incredibly powerful.

You didn't have to learn where they were, they physically were

If you sit down on the floor and make a balloon...

I feel like I am in a PlayStation game.

No. I think you're done.

What's it like coming back into the real world?

You don't have to worry in that world.

I wanted to stay there because everything was fine and fun.

When virtual reality does take off, do you think there may become

this generation of people who have no involvement

I don't think this will ever replace the real world, but for some people,

it will give them a version of the world they will enjoy more.

Virtual reality certainly turns this Minecraft-style game into

a super immersive block-building pastime.

But will people really be able to do more than play turbocharged

Facebook coughed up $2 billion in 2014 for VR headset outfit

Oculus Rift, so Mark Zuckerberg and his crew must think VR has

At the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, he revealed the social

network have set up a special virtual reality team to explore

Today, thanks to this partnership between Samsung and Facebook,

But what will social virtual reality look like, and what

Some VR experts believe we might use avatars to interact

Online worlds making use of avatars will allow people to

interact with one another are nothing new.

Sites like Second Life have been doing that for years.

But a new breed of these virtual worlds has cropped up online.

These are strictly adults-only sites, and are concerned with

allowing people to engage in romantic relationships, virtually of

But can people really meet and forge a lasting relationship

in virtual worlds like the one I've just seen?

To find out, I will have to travel to New York.

GPS: In 1000 feet, your destination will be on the right.

I'm told this is where I will find a couple who met via

an adults-only online world called Otherverse.

I'm very good. Nice to meet you.

Devon. Tyger.

We're married, and we met eight years ago.

Devon had three children, and we merged our families together

We met online, and it was a virtual world.

So how come you guys were in this world?

I was originally in there because a friend

It was something I had never seen before.

So I was torn between it being kind of sad and pathetic,

maybe a little bit creepy, or it being completely genius.

and what made you think it was genius?

When I went in, I was myself because I didn't know

I learned very quickly that people, when they get

behind a computer screen, they can be anybody they want to be.

The genius part was it allowed people to come in and experience

life in a way they maybe wouldn't be able to otherwise.

You said you went into it quite naively.

Did you always trust people were who they said they were?

There was one person who made friends with the entire community,

and then became very sick and he died, and everybody was

I found out later he didn't actually die.

He faked his death, came back as a different character

People faked brain tumours, and faked full personas.

Do you think there is a danger of people becoming so addicted to

the escapism that they could disregard their actual life?

I came across many people for whom the virtual world WAS their life.

I do believe people lose their real selves when they enter a virtual

world, because maybe they have created an

environment that they feel is better then what their real life was.

When was the last time you used the game?

Once I got her here, I didn't want to go back in anymore.

When you live on the computer screen for years

in a long-distance relationship, when it is finally done,

So, it's off to Vancouver, in Canada,

to the home of the Otherverse in its head office to find out

how virtual worlds and virtual realities could come together.

I guess this place is kind of like the nerve centre of the

I've used a couple of virtual worlds now, and I've used

a couple of virtual realities, but I haven't used them together.

So I'm really interested to see if that's going to make it more

I think you will find it is really a neat experience.

So much different than just playing in virtual worlds

Where's the line with it being cheating?

I always say that's a matter to be determined between

If I'm involved in a VR thing, and if we decide that's cheating,

If you decide, "we should be allowed to experiment with that",

If people could just have virtual relationships,

why would anyone want to bother with arguments that you have with your

girlfriend and the potential that they might go and cheat on you?

I look at social media and this concept of online personality

disorder, where a you're detached from really relating with people.

You get that little bit of anger and you can rage at people

Most people don't really want to be that way, they aren't that way

when they're interrelating with people in the real world.

Virtual reality has the potential to bring humanity much closer together.

Choose our friends, people will choose to be different ethnicities,

they will choose whatever suits them at the time and they will make

friends with people from different cultures and different ways of life.

At the very least, virtual reality social networks are on the way.

Perhaps in the not too distant future, instead of staring

at our smartphones all the time, we'll all be strapping on VR goggles

That is it for this week. Follow us on Twitter and check out our website

for more technology news throughout the week. Thank you for watching,

and we will see you seen. -- soon. Hello and welcome to Newswatch

with me, Samira Ahmed. Awards were being given out in

Hollywood on Sunday night, but