Recently a breakthrough with the device known as the Oculus Rift allowed a father to experience the birth of his child 2,500 miles away. What is the Oculus Rift you may ask? The oculus rift is a device that was originally used for gaming experience. Jean-Luc Burhop who is studying at UAH, works with designing the software for the oculus describes how he makes the software as, “In simple terms, Oculus releases tools (SDK) to pair with their headset so that developers can make applications for the Rift without understanding how it works internally. All that is left is for the programmer to call certain commands with correct conditions to make the Rift do something. A quick example: You want to put a picture (video) on a wall (rift), but the picture won’t stick by itself, so instead of learning out to make tape (functions), you go get some, and hang the picture to the wall.”

Currently the Rift is being used for research at UAH. It has also been used to make a 3D model of the building to show how easily it can be done.

We asked Mr. Burhop about his thoughts on using the Oculus Rift for a live stream birth. “Using the Rift for a live stream birth is a really interesting idea. It shows that despite the original intention of being a gaming device, the Rift has a lot of potential as a way to share experiences around the world.”

When asked about the potential uses for the Rift, Daniel Darnell, a student at Bob Jones said, “It could be used for panoramic movies.” We interviewed another student, Alex Daniel, “I like it, I wish it could be used to scan the rooms and make them more interactive when using the Oculus.” Chris Morris said, “You could use it to see different places you want to go to.”  As for the future of the Rift, its only limit seems to be what the imagination can create.