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Virtual Reality Jessica Dent MCCNM 336 December 2003 · Virtual Reality in the Working World · Virtual Reality in Interactive Media IntroductionVirtual Reality sounds like science fiction. But it is science fact; a new interactive technology that creates the completely convincing illusion that one is immersed in a world that exists only inside a computer. Already the subject of major newspaper, magazine, and television reports, virtual reality is revolutionizing everything from telecommunications to toys, from medicine to engineering, from education tools to amusement parks, from aids for disabled people to potentially addictive sensory experiences that could make reality seem pale by comparison. Virtual Reality is a technology that allows the person using it to enter the computer and become part of the computer world. First UsesVirtual Reality or VR can be described in many ways but usually it is thought of as mentioned above, an imaginary 3-D world that allows the user to fully experience feelings. It started from flight simulation research during the second World War and used in computer graphics research in the early 1960s. [3] InventorsVirtual Reality has its origins in the 1965 work of Ivan Sutherland. He said that a television screen was a window through which you see a virtual or almost real world. His challenge was for researchers to make that world look, behave, sound, and even feel real. That didn't sound too difficult but it took until the 1990s before the technology was developed. At the time computers were very large and complicated. [3] But a young engineer named Douglas Engerlbart had high hopes for them. Instead of limiting computers to mindless tasks, saw them as tools for visual display. Experience with radar told him that digital information could possibly be shown on a screen. So he connected the computer to a screen to display readouts. [3] One of the first acts of VR was with the training of pilots. They would sit in a small room with a replica of a cockpit's instrument panel. The windshield of the simulator is actually a small computer screen that shows the outside world, as it would appear from the real cockpit. [3]
Types of Virtual RealityToday there are three types of virtual reality: Immersion VR is where you where a viewing helmet to see computer generated images. For virtual touch you can slip on a data glove and for an even more realistic effect, a bodysuit. A data glove is lined with sensors that allow the wearer to touch and feel objects in a virtual environment as if they were real. Desktop VR is based standard computer terminals. It involves a moving 3-D screen environment through which you can navigate using a keyboard and a mouse. Third person VR allows you to see yourself in a virtual world. You need a video camera to give the computer an image of yourself to work with. You can play simple virtual games and sports. Immersion VR demands a great deal from computers. To get a smooth flowing real time experience, you need a lot of computer processing power. Any delay in image movement spoils to illusion. It can also give you simulator sickness, the dizzy effect when you sense of balance says one thing and your eyes say another. The world is scaled down to view through the helmet but is of proper size. [2] Desktop VR is becoming popular in using it for locating areas around the world and seeing what the area is like without even leaving your computer. [6] Third person Virtual Reality is the most intriguing. First you need a computer to input all your information, but then afterward, you can actually see yourself in a virtual world. You wouldn't be able to touch objects without the data glove, but actually being in the world is the difference. [10] The flight simulator was one of the first uses of virtual reality in war games as above mentioned. Of course it is much safer to train pilots on the ground before sending them up in the air. The simulators were pretend cockpits on the ground on platforms that rolled back and forth. In the front was an actual replica of a planes' instrument panel. [3] As the years progressed, computer-generated graphics replaced the models. The graphics were primitive, but while playing the game one could learn more about an actual plane and how it maneuvers. [3] Gaming IndustryOf course one cannot mention virtual reality without bringing up the gaming industry. Computer and video games have really taken hold of the last decade. As they get more advanced and more intricate, it almost seems as if you are actually there in the game. Whether you are fighting ninjas or trying to save the galaxy. [1] Virtual Reality has also had a large impact on the entertainment industry. By the 1970s, Hollywood had created many incredible special effects using Virtual Reality. Some breakthrough uses included battle scenes in Star Wars , and then elaborate explosions in movies like The Terminator , to creating life-like dinosaurs in Jurassic Park . [3] Spinning from the entertainment industry came the data glove. It was a computer interface device that detects motions of the hand. It was originally created for linking hand movements to a music synthesizer to produce music, but sold big to Mattel. Mattel used it to make a Power Glove; the device used in some Nintendo games. [3]
Virtual Reality in the Working WorldThe business world is starting to take hold of Virtual Reality, especially Desktop VR. Some travel agencies have experimented with VR brochures, so that you can look around a vacation spot before deciding to go. Virtual reality has even been used in medicine to save people's lives. It began in 1997, when a surgeon in Italy carried out a minor operation. What makes it so incredible was that the patient was in a hospital in Lisbon, Portugal, roughly 1000 miles away. The surgeon used cyberspace to link with a needle equipped robot arm. Video cameras were used to keep an eye on the patient. The robot arm was thought to be more accurate and steady than a human surgeon hand. It had a shoulder, wrist, elbow and hand, plus special sensors that stop it from pushing too hard on the patient's skin. In fact, the robot arm had one big benefit over a human surgeon; the incisions it makes can be much smaller. [8] Future of Virtual RealityThe future of virtual reality promises to be very exciting. The use of virtual reality will be expanded into areas not even thought of before. One might even learn to drive one day using virtual reality. Using a steering wheel and sitting in front of a screen, one may safely learn the devices of driving without ever going outside. Virtual Reality is connected to interactive media in a number of ways. One example would be Michigan State University Design Lab. The lab was built to research how humans communicate and work inside virtual environments. Visitors can walk around a virtual city in the Amazon, participate in surgery, and talk to computers while wearing a wearable computer. [5] Virtual Reality in Interactive MediaMost people born around or since the 1950s will have usually spent as much as seven years watching television. As for the children of today, they have many more devices to choose from. Many new interactive media replace the telephone and television every year. If you combine all those up together you will realize people are using them or are “inside” them for as long as 15-20 years of their lives, over a 70 year life span. [5] ConclusionVirtual Reality continues to grow and become more ingenious. Soon everything one does will have something to do with computers. Whether it is working on rockets for NASA or simply just playing a game with a friend in China. ReferencesAtlanta Cyberspace Inc. A review on how virtual reality is connected to gaming and information on VR centers worldwide . [Online] http://www.vratlantis.com/800v/index.htm (2000)
Beier, K. P. Virtual Reality, A Short Introduction [Online] http://www-vrl.umich.edu/intro/ (Jan 2003)
The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. The History, Timing and Science of Virtual Reality. [Online] http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/VETopLevels/VR.History.html (Oct, 1995) Masters, Michelle Montgomery. Description of Virtual Reality types along with virtual reality used in medicine. [Online] http://www.dcs.gla.ac.uk/~michelle/Slides/VR/sld008.htm (1999) Michigan State University. Science Daily . [Online] http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/1999/01/990119080608.htm (Jan.1999) Springer, Roxanna . Virtual Reality, What and Why? [Online] http://coe.sdsu.edu/eet/Articles/VROver/start.htm (Spring 1997) Sutherland, Ivan. The Ultimate Display [Online] http://www.desoto.k12.ms.us/hlhs/courses/history.htm (May 1965)Universiity of Sheffield. Virtual Reality in Medicine and Biology Group. [Online] http://www.shef.ac.uk/~vrmbg/ (8-1998) Return to EIM home Jessica Dent MCCNM 336 December 2003 |