The term "virtual reality" has been around for years, and for about the same length of time we've been promised that it's the next big thing we'll have in our lives.
Like so many technological promises, however, it's been mostly vapourware when it comes to consumer products, with only a few baby steps taken on the journey to immersive virtual worlds for us to play in. But it appears to be coming, and if a couple of demonstrations I attended over the past couple of months are any indication, there should be some really cool stuff available over the next few years.
I can also see such technology being very handy when it comes to training (why read a dry textbook or suffer through an insufferable lecturer when you can "experience" something first hand?) and in other applications.