I’ve never really been a fan of virtual reality, but it’s hard to dispute that it is growing in popularity.  Indeed, a recent study from academics from Oxford University found that VR simulations can help those suffering from paranoia.

“Paranoia all too often leads to isolation, unhappiness, and profound distress. But the exceptionally positive immediate results for the patients in this study show a new route forward in treatment. In just a thirty minute session, those who used the right psychological techniques showed major reductions in paranoia,” the authors say.

The range of applications for VR are certainly increasing, with everything from public speaking support to training for surgeons utilizing the technology.

This rapidly expanding range of applications creates something of a bottleneck in terms of the footage available for these various applications to use.

It’s a problem that a new service from VideoBlocks hopes to rectify.  They’re offering a stock video service much along the vein of stock image services.  They will offer a range of 2D and 3D virtual reality footage to customers to download on a royalty free basis.

Suffice to say, at the moment, the footage is relatively sparce, with four 4k videos currently available, with a further 30 videos available via the marketplace hosted on the site that matches up the VR community.

The lack of available footage is undoubtedly the core failing in the platform at the moment, but with VR usage set to rise, it will be an interesting site to monitor should they manage to beef up their archive.