Home improvement stores are rarely a joy to walk around. Sprawling shop floors packed with rack upon rack of disconnected fixtures make for a pretty miserable Sunday shopping trip. But in a PIRCH showroom, customers can take a shower or cook up a storm, all while they're still in store.

2015 will see an avalanche of virtual reality devices appear in the mass market, with the likes of Sony, Google, Facebook and Microsoft targeting gamers across the globe. The technology may now be an attainable reality, but will it be used for anything beyond video games?

Virtual reality travel has arrived. Appealing to 'next generation' travellers, Marriott is touring a 4D teleporter; a sophisticated immersive experience that combines virtual reality with multi-sensory stimuli to transport people around the world in 100 seconds.

Gun-wielding men stand atop a boat pitching and rolling on turbulent water, while a tank explodes in slow-motion. This is the TV spot for the Army Reserve and it’s accompanied by a roadshow in which potential candidates can use Oculus Rift to really get a taste of how life in the army could be.