Next Big Thing: Bedtime VR stories
Your kids' sleepytime just got a VR upgrade...
Something tells me Samsung’s engineers don’t have kids…
You mean, they have awesome kids who were born straight into a VR headset and have already completed Eve Valkyrie.
Sure, ‘responsible’ parents might say that getting a child to bed is hard enough without an ultra-vivid Super AMOLED screen jammed in front of their faces.
And, yes, even parents who don’t mind their kids strapping on a VR headset might be baffled by the premise of over-stimulating young eyes and brains right before they’re supposed to shut down for the night. But, practicality aside, imagine how much better your dreams would have been if you’d been read The Magic Faraway Tree in VR…
So good I’d have had a magic, faraway look in my eyes at school no doubt…
There are worse things to have in your school report. Anyway, the aim of Bedtime VR Stories isn’t to replace book-based, sleepytime sessions. Samsung’s pitch is that parents who aren’t able to be around for bedtime, whether they’re off on a business trip, stuck at the office, or just work atypical hours, can briefly connect with their kids via virtual reality.
Mum or dad puts on the Gear VR headset wherever they are, while the kid tosses on a Google Cardboard-like shell that holds a phone and has an animal or robot face. Once linked, they share a dreamy and lightly interactive narrative journey together before the young’un tucks in for the evening.
Sounds lovely, but there’s something a bit The Wicker Man about those headsets…
Okay, ‘Jo the Robot’ could star in its own horror film, but ‘Jen the Penguin’ and ‘Dan the Dinosaur’ are a lot friendlier than a standard Google Cardboard headset. And anyway, what’s the alternative when you’re away on business? Your sprog would surely go for Samsung’s ‘Most Wonderful Place to Be’ adventure over seeing your pale, jet-lagged face wishing them goodnight via Skype.
Sadly, they’ll have to stick with that for the timebeing, as Bedtime VR stories is just a prototype that Samsung is testing with a few UK families. But if all goes well maybe parents will yet get an excuse to relive those Dr Seuss classics in VR form.
Andrew Hayward
Freelance Writer 
