Reality check [virtual reality technology]

Interest in virtual reality (VR) technology has surged over the last few months since Facebook's acquisition of specialist startup Oculus Rift. A growing number of companies and software developers including Samsung, HP and Qualcomm have released products in an effort to grab a slice of a market that seems to have regained some of its promise. VR was one of the main talking points at this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. For Jim McGregor, founder and principal analyst at Tirias Research, the main reason for the rising interest in virtual reality is improvements in the technology itself. Although he admits there is still "room for improvement", he argues that VR has now become a good experience. Nic Mitham, CEO of KZero Worldwide and co-founder of WeArVR, agrees that significant improvements in the technology used in graphics cards, mobile devices and chips means that VR is now a much more consumer-friendly proposition.