Samsung ‘Bedtime VR Stories’ is Perfecting the remote parenting App

One of the most ignored aspects of virtual reality space is its potential to bring people in different locations together in one virtual place. The problem is that the emerging VR mainly focus on gaming or passive viewing experience. Somehow, this makes the users to detach themselves from the real life situations. Samsung is now changing that through the Bedtime VR Stories app.

However, a new application from Samsung known as Bedtime VR Stories provides an example of how virtual reality can be used to connect with someone located in faraway place. The app enables parents to link with their children in VR and narrate them bedtime stories using a combination of VOIP (VOICE OVER INTERNET PROTOCOL) and VR. Each story takes around six to seven minutes. It only requires the parents to have a smartphone and Samsung Gear VR and children to have a special cardboard viewer.

The illustrations video shows how fascinating the experience can be for the parent and the child. Another video demonstrates what both viewers see whenever a story is told.

Since many families are increasingly becoming dominated by a single parent or two parents who work away from home, spending good time with children is becoming a challenge. Consequently, this virtual reality tool is a perfect solution for connecting children and parents.

But, for now, the VR tool is still in development stage and has not been officially launched. After it is launched, it could provide many parents a reason to purchase both the Gear VR headset and Samsung smartphone, since iPhone has nothing like this available yet.

VR funs say that they are expecting the technology to unite people like never before. Samsung believed in that vision and that is the reason it have come up with Bedtime VR Stories app, a new prototype app intended to allow parents to tell their children stories over the virtual reality.

Samsung said that the app is currently being tested with some families in the United Kingdom. The child put on a Google Cardboard headset while the parent wears a Gear VR, and both are transferred to a similar virtual world. Then, the parent begins to tell a story, titled the Most Wonderful Place to Be. While still sitting on the bed, the app makes them travel between three “magical places”.

“First they move to the Arctic, in the Jean the Penguin’s company. Then, Dan the Dinosaur carries them to meet the other family members in a pre-historic world. Lastly, with Robot Jo, they fly into outer space, for a musical finale,” Samsung’s press release said.

The entire story is available and you can watch it at https://youtu.be/XRbAvieBXfc . The application itself looks like it can only operate with Gear VR headset and the Galaxy S7 Edge.

Although Samsung has not said when they might release the app to a wider abundance, the have come up with a very fantastic idea. Though the character animations and VR graphics look very basic, the idea of putting both a child and a parent on the same virtual bed as they travel and explore new places has a lot of potential.