Is Virtual Reality Dead?

DarkZero asks: "In the early '90s, virtual reality was considered to be 'right around the corner'. Books, magazines, movies, and TV specials told us it'd be around in the next five years, and in 1995 Nintendo's Virtual Boy gave us a brief glimpse of 'the future of video games'. Well, the Virtual Boy died pretty quickly, and now, in 2001, the books, magazines, movies, and TV specials about virtual reality are gone, and web searches about virtual reality lead to web sites that stopped updating in 1996 and corporations that went bankrupt long ago. Is there any hope left for VR hardware and software in ANY fashion, corporate or independant?"