Why 5G Is More Important to Virtual Reality Than You Think –

The factors currently limiting wider adoption of virtual reality aren’t just cost, content, or quality of headsets. The core problem is that the industry has a problem packing enough computing power onto a headset to make the technology easily accessible.

A high-end VR system today requires a headset wired to a computer, which has an expensive graphics card (usually from NVIDIA), and trackers strategically placed in a room. All of that technology and the space required combine to make the cost, content, and quality hurdles for the industry.

Some of these barriers are coming down. Inside-out tracking (which eliminates external trackers) exists, but it only makes sense on a headset that doesn’t have to be wired to a computer. And a headset that’s untethered from a computer can’t physically handle a modern graphics card. The cards are physically too big, they take too much power, and they’d overheat the device on people’s heads.

Getting around this challenge is what’s really holding VR back. But the answer may be here sooner than you think.

The holy grail for VR would be the ability to move both graphics card and computer chip to the cloud, and connect to them wirelessly. This would eliminate the need for a cord to a computer; trackers could be moved to the headset; and the weight and cost of headsets would come down dramatically. What’s needed to get to cloud computing is a superfast connection to the graphics chips that wouldn’t interfere with the VR experience. What we need is…5G.

Slowly but surely, Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile are building out the 5G networks that will provide the speed that cloud-based VR needs. From there, the industry has to build the technology to exploit that speed.

Some companies are already preparing to send some of the computing power to the cloud.