When this first came out I initially didn't pay a whole lot of attention to it because it didn't look too different from virtual reality equipment I've seen before. But when the POV office obtained one while I was interning there last semester, I realized that it is the beginning of a powerful tool for films and interactive media. Brian Chris works as the digital technology developer at POV and has a interesting blog involving the oculus rift and what it means for documentary film makers. Here is a link to his blog where you can find it all explained much better than here.
Brian Chris's Blog - POV. One of the uses for documentary films is to show the audience physically what the numbers represent since in so many films it's difficult to communicate what the numbers actually mean. Or for issues like climate change it's difficult to show it's affects since it's happening at such a comparatively slow rate to how we exist although in reality the changes are significant. So with this tool people are able to design entire 3D worlds or alternate realities for the audience to simply play around in. For example Brian posted a 3D city that you can navigate through.
Animation and 3D design seems to be bridging the gap between reality and a virtual reality. Animation has been an amazing tool to help share and explain ideas in a simple way but now that we can emerge ourselves in a world that we can design. We can even use it as a medium to interact with our own world. When it comes to films I feel like we will be able to gain a much stronger perspective on what the directors are trying to communicate.
