I got a chance to write another longer piece, this one about 3D audio and how it can make headphones sound more like real life, particularly important for virtual reality and augmented reality. It’s been a while since I last wrote a tech-focused article, and this was also my first piece for Wired’s Backchannel publication.

It was a fun one to report–I got to visit a local startup called VisiSonics based out of the University of Maryland and try out their 3D audio tech demos. This included my first experience of the new Oculus virtual reality headsets, which was exciting.

The last time I tried any VR was back in the early 90s, when I played some Virtuality arcade games (What I like to call the “Lawnmower Man” era of VR…). Needless to say, VR has definitely come a long way since then.

One of the nice parts of writing this piece was getting to know DC’s virtual reality startup scene. There are a lot of interesting startups and developers working on some exciting ideas (of course, there are far more in Silicon Valley and other large tech hubs). It’s one of the reasons I think it’s an exciting time for VR, there’s so much innovation happening around both hardware and software and so many smart people excited about it that I figure it will make some sort of an impact, even if no one’s quite sure what the consumer market will actually look like. But with the first consumer VR headsets expected within the next year, I guess we’ll find out soon.