Since Match.com, launched in 1995, acquired by Meetic in 2011, the idea of talking and meeting people in a digital space has spread through Facebook, Second Life and applications like Tinder.
With the advent of VR, we will know what happens when we combine reality and virtual. This new technology allows you to spend time in the same virtual space as your friend without being physically present. It's not like having a conversation about Tinder without ever meeting. Using this technique, it is possible that the rendering is very, very real.
Dredge 3.0
The entertainment industry is already capitalizing on VR romance: dredge 3.0. There is already a wide range of programs and applications showing how these technologies bring new ideas for dating. Facebook has launched a show called Virtually Dating, a sort of blind meeting using HTC Vive technology.
https://www.facebook.com/VirtuallyDating/videos/1323818351059949/
It is very surprising at first sight. Indeed, people are physically in the same place but can only see each other through their VR helmets. The bodies of people are scanned to create mobile avatars. The problem is that this program still contains bugs, which cause, as you can see in the video above, strange movements of avatars for example an arm that passes through a body.
Then, for people who have trouble meeting people, an application has been developed for users of the HTC Vive headset and offers lessons in immersion dredging for the modest sum of 8.98 euros ...
This game, criticized in the United States for its sexist character, offers to practice body language to adopt and teach you what to say during your date.
Where will all this lead us?
The effects of these virtual reality encounters on our social structures are still unknown, however researchers have already studied online dating and can offer us leads. A recent study conducted by a joint team at West Virginia University and Illinois University focused on the success of an actual appointment after a first online contact. In most cases, after the first face-to-face meeting, there is a drop in the attraction.
However, this slack is tempered by the duration and quantity of online interactions: the greater the number of messages exchanged, the less this feeling of disillusionment was observed. Could VR and immersive presence further improve this process? It's possible. An RV date could be a more intense and personal experience. Moving from the screen to the VR would give a greater sense of reality: actually being in the virtual space.
After all, advanced sex technologies already allow a couple to make love in VR. It's not hard to imagine scenarios where it could replace any physical contact, as did the writer Ernest Cline in his novel Player One where the world comes down to a virtual experience. One can also imagine that, in the future, the other person is not real, but a simple computer-generated avatar. In either case, VR encounters are there, will stay and change - perhaps - our way of finding love.