VIRTUAL REALITY IS still a long way from reaching its potential, but while the immediate applications may be for gaming, it opens up the doors for more intimate moments.

In this case, it was livestreaming a birth to a father that was based almost 4,000km away from his family.

The catch was instead of watching it through a webcam, the event was displayed through a virtual reality device, Samsung’s Gear VR, allowing the father to witness the birth of his third son.

The reason why he was unable to attend is because he works as a electrical engineer who must take a ‘fly in, fly out’ contracts to support his family. This means he’s away from home for months at a time and where Samsung decided to come in.

While this is a way promote Samsung, the idea is still there. Many people work from afar for months at a time and end up missing out on moments like this. VR could be a way of bridging the gap between the two and allowing people to immerse themselves in moments they may not be physically present for.

It’s not a perfect solution – chances are those on the receiving end would only have a camera or see the father with a headset on and it doesn’t beat being there in person – but as a way to show off the non-gaming potential of the technology, it gets its message across.

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