For a couple of decades now, virtual reality has been the next big thing – without actually quite delivering.

But Facebook’s purchase of a new headset device called Oculus Rift last year has sent developers into a frenzy.

Gavin Winter, visualisation and eResearch manager at Queensland University of Technology’s (QUT) Institute for Future Environment, said he believed it was a game changer.

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“We are heading towards a major change in the way we interact with our computers,” he told the ABC’s 7.30.

“A range of new devices for your home PC are about to hit the market and will revolutionise the way we interact with electronics.”

In 2011, Californian teenager Palmer Luckey came up with an early prototype of the Oculus Rift headset.

He began working on it in his parents’ garage but is now one of the richest men under 30, selling the technology to Facebook for about $2 billion.

The breakthrough has opened a new world of opportunities for software engineers, film producers and media agencies.

“It’s an amazing feeling,” Mr Winter said.

“It can be a little unsettling at times but the point is, when you see someone equip themselves with a headset who start pointing things out to the people around them, you can just tell how real the situation is.”

New virtual reality projects offer immersive experience

UN documentary maker Gabo Arora heard about the potential to make movies for the headset.

With a small team of producers he created one of the world’s first virtual reality documentaries, Clouds Over Sidra.

Clouds of Sidra follows the life of a real 12-year-old Syrian girl in a refugee camp. Photo: Supplied/ABC

It follows the life of a real 12-year-old Syrian girl in a refugee camp and comes with a screen-width of 360 degrees.

Mr Arora says it is groundbreaking.

“It’s an incredibly cutting-edge pioneering technology as you know, and not something that’s easy; it can be very expensive and difficult to produce,” he told 7.30.

“We wanted to really get people as close as possible to a visceral experience of what it’s like to be a vulnerable person.

“I think everyone has been really moved by what it can do to change people’s perspectives and hopefully change the situation of the people living in these types of circumstances.”

The New York Times has been dabbling in immersive news and current affairs by creating Walking New York.

The nine-minute piece about street art shows a 360-degree view of the streets of New York, from both the ground and then in a helicopter.

Interaction with computers to change in near future

QUT creative industries lecturer Dr Deb Polson said the way people interacted with computers would dramatically change in the next five years.

The Oculus Rift headset is a game changer, QUT’s Gavin Winter says. Photo: ABC

“It’s not going to be, ‘here’s our hands and here’s a screen’, but we’ll have a physical presence,” she said.

“Our whole body will become a cursor; we’ll become an avatar in that space.”

QUT students are working on other applications for utilities like emergency services, who may need to record and re-assess a crime scene.

University developers also gave 7.30 a sample of one of their works in progress, which augments the real Brisbane skyline with animations of famous world landmarks.

Dr Polson said she believed the scope for applying the new technology would be unlimited.

“I think what will happen is as more and more people experiment with different ways of using this technology, our imagination of how we’re going to use that and in what context is going to expand,” she said.

-ABC