Virtual Reality Full Version
Virtual Reality Full Version
Virtual Reality Full Version
Virtual
Reality
For a next generation
Department of IT (6020)
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Shantilal Shah Engineering College,
Bhavnagar.
CERTIFICATE
Examiner Convener
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ABSTRACT
INDEX
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NO. CHAPTER PAGE NO.
1 Introduction 5
2 Concept of Virtual Reality 13
3 History 14
4 Types of VR 19
5 Virtual Reality Environment 26
6 How Virtual Reality Works 29
7 Applications of Virtual Reality 32
8 Future 47
9 Impact of Virtual Reality 54
10 Drawback of Virtual Reality 64
11 Conclusion 68
12 Bibliography 69
1. INTRODUCTION
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Virtual reality (VR) is a computer-simulated environment, whether that
environment is a simulation of the real world or an imaginary world. Most current
virtual reality environments are primarily visual experiences, displayed either on
a screener through special or stereoscopic displays, but some simulations include
additional sensory information, such as sound through speakers or headphones.
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significantly from reality, as in VR games. In practice, it is currently very difficult
to create a high-fidelity virtual reality experience, due largely to technical
limitations on processing power, image resolution and communication bandwidth.
However, those limitations are expected to eventually be overcome as processor,
imaging and data communication technologies become more powerful and cost-
effective over time.
Virtual Reality is often used to describe a wide variety of applications,
commonly associated with its immersive, highly visual, 3D environments. The
development of CAD software, graphics hardware acceleration, head mounted
displays, database gloves and miniaturization have helped popularize the notion. In
the book The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality, Michael R. Heim identifies seven
different concepts of Virtual Reality: simulation, interaction, artificiality,
immersion, telepresence, full-body immersion, and network communication. The
definition still has a certain futuristic romanticism attached. People often identify
VR with Head Mounted Displays and Data Suits.
Virtual Reality (VR) is stimulating the user’s senses in such a way that a
computer generated world is experienced as real. In order to get a true illusion of
reality, it is essential for the user to have influence on this virtual environment.
All that has to be done in order to raise the illusion of being in or acting upon
a virtual world or virtual environment, is providing a simulation of the interaction
between human being and this real environment. This simulation is -at least- partly
attained by means of Virtual Reality interfaces connected to a computer. Basically,
a VR interface stimulates one of the human senses. This has not necessarily got to
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be as complex as it sounds, e.g. a PC-monitor stimulates the visual sense; a
headphone stimulates the auditory sense. Consequently, these two kinds of
interfaces are widely employed as Virtual Reality interfaces.
With the gustatory and olfactory sense left out of consideration, the hardest
part of simulating the interaction between human being and real environment is
stimulating the tactile sense and the proprioceptive system (kinesthetic sense). This
can be done using a so-called haptic interface. This is a device configured to
provide haptic information to a human. Just as a video interface allows the user to
see a computer generated scene, a haptic interface permits the user to “feel” it.
Haptic displays generate forces and motions, which are sensed through both touch
and kinesthesia.
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Currently, there are two main kinds of haptic interfaces, namely the off-body
interface and the on-body interface. The main difference is that the mass of the on-
body interface is supported by the operator while the off-body interface rests on the
floor. Nowadays, most commercially available devices are off-body.
The VR-lab
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Virtual Reality as an engineering tool
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A Virtual Prototyping environment for gearboxes
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A specific part of Virtual Prototyping is Virtual Assembly (VA). Usually,
during the design process, the assembly of a conceptual product is already taken
into account. Therefore, a detailed assembly procedure has to be developed without
the actual components present. In order to track down the potentially critical
operations and geometric conflicts during assembly, physical prototypes are
employed. Those physical prototypes have a number of drawbacks, e.g. costly and
time-consuming manufacturing, invariability in case of CAD model modifications
and immovability caused by mass or extensions. A solution to these problems lies
in the application of Virtual Assembly. By utilizing VR technology, various
assembly operations can be simulated. This way, not only potentially critical
operations and geometric conflicts during assembly can be detected, but also a
training tool for shop floor workers is provided.
Patients nowadays expect the best treatment possible. The common way for
a surgeon student to acquire experience is by “on the fly” learning from an
experienced surgeon. This way of teaching has besides many good points some
drawbacks. Patients are needed for these educational purposes. These operations
take more time thus expensive extra operating-room time is used. The quality
depends highly on the educational skills of the experienced doctor.
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The aim of using Virtual Reality as a medical training tool is to offer
additional means to teach surgeon student. The goal is to halve the “on the fly”
learning in the operating room with real patients and to improve the quality of the
medical treatment.
Within a virtual operating room the student will be able to practice the
technical skills, the procedures and the theoretical background of operations and
diseases.
The term "artificial reality", coined by Myron Krueger, has been in use since
the 1970s, but the origin of the term "virtual reality" can be traced back to the
French playwright, poet, actor and director Antonin Artaud. In his seminal
book The Theatre and Its Double (1938), Artaud described theatre as "la réalite
virtuelle", a virtual reality "in which characters, objects, and images take on the
phantasmagoric force of alchemy's visionary internal dramas". It has been used
in The Judas Mandala, a 1982 science-fiction novel by Damien Broderick, where
the context of use is somewhat different from that defined above.
The earliest use cited by the Oxford English Dictionary is in a 1987 article
titled "Virtual reality", but the article is not about VR technology. The concept of
virtual reality was popularized in mass media by movies such as
Brainstorm (filmed mostly in 1981) and The Lawnmower Man (plus others
mentioned below). The VR research boom of the 1990s was accompanied by the
non-fiction book Virtual Reality (1991) by Howard Rheingold. The book served to
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demystify the subject, making it more accessible to less technical researchers and
enthusiasts, with an impact similar to that which his book The Virtual
Community had on virtual community research lines closely related to
VR. Multimedia: from Wagner to Virtual Reality, edited by Randall Packer and
Ken Jordan and first published in 2001, explores the term and its history from an
avant-garde perspective. Philosophical implications of the concept of VR are
systematically discussed in the book Get Real: A Philosophical Adventure in
Virtual Reality (1998) by Philip Zhai, wherein the idea of VR is pushed to its
logical extreme and ultimate possibility. According to Zhai, virtual reality could be
made to have an ontological status equal to that of actual reality.
3. HISTORY
In the 1560s 360-degree art through panoramic murals were believed to have
started the idea of virtual reality. An example of this would be Baldassare Peruzzi's
piece titled, "Sala delle Prospettive".
In 1966 Tom Furness introduces a visual flight stimulator for the Air Force.
In 1968, Ivan Sutherland, with the help of his student Bob Sproull, created what is
widely considered to be the first virtual reality and augmented reality (AR) head
mounted display (HMD) system. It was primitive both in terms of user interface
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and realism, and the HMD to be worn by the user was so heavy it had to be
suspended from the ceiling, and the graphics comprising the virtual environment
were simple wireframe model rooms. The formidable appearance of the device
inspired its name, The Sword of Damocles. Also notable among the earlier
hypermedia and virtual reality systems was the Aspen Movie Map, which was
created at MIT in 1977.
The creation of virtual reality has been slow going, arduous and, up until the
mid-‘90s, largely theoretical in nature. In 1965 Ivan Sutherland, an ARPA scientist,
published his grand oeuvre “The Ultimate Display.” In his essay Sutherland
predicted all sorts of advances in computer technology: computer mice, drag and
drop interfaces and voice recognition software. But most importantly, he wrote
about the ultimate display—“a room within which the computer can control the
existence of matter.” Sutherland’s essay might have been full of fanciful
speculations about the future of digital technology, but his wild (and shockingly
accurate) predictions helped plant the seed of VR in the minds of scientists and
non-scientists to follow.
In 1968 with the help of one of his assistants, Sutherland created one of the
first head mounted augmented reality display systems—what would come to be
known through movies and TV as a VR helmet—known to some as The Sword of
Damocles because it was so big and heavy that it had to be suspended precariously
over the user’s head with a series of cables. The display only showed the users
crude outlines of a virtual environment.
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generation when he wrote of a cyber-punk society where a brain-computer
interface was possible in Neuromancer. Ray Bradbury took the concept of a VR
room to its most horrific extreme in The Veldt.
And while VR charged ahead in the realm of fiction, in the field of science it
scrambled to keep up.
The first major technical leap forward came in the mid-‘70s in the form of
Myron Krueger’s VIDEOPLACE. Using cameras, computers and projectors,
people in a VR room were able to see and interact with silhouettes of people in
other similar rooms. Compared to the advances that writers and directors of the
time were coming up with, VIDEOPLACE was crude, but Krueger’s experiments
showed that science was at least trying to move forward with VR.
So, Virtual reality had bounded forward in one of the five senses—sight—
but that left the other four to conquer. Soon scientists were trying to combine
systems like VIDEOPLACE with data gloves and tactile interfaces. The leader in
this field was Jaron Lanier.
Initially, the video game market, captivated by the possibilities of VR, tried
to cash in on the early advancements. Who could forget that seminal scene in the
classic movie Wizard where the badass townie unlocks a Nintendo power glove
from a carrying case and proceeds to school all those who dare come up against
him? Or the phase in the mid-‘90s where you could stand on a giant platform, put
on a ridiculously large helmet and box a 16-bit opponent with Nintendo Wii-like
controllers?
But all of these attempts to game with VR would quickly fade away—most
in less than a year. The tech was too expensive, the equipment was too bulky and
the graphics and game play offered weren’t up to par. So, gaming companies
quickly cut their losses and left VR to the scientists and the artists, and they had a
field day.
Since the late ‘80s virtual reality has been popping up everywhere in movies
and TV. The Lawnmower man, VR5, Virtuosity, eXistenZ, and most famously The
Matrix imagined worlds where the goggles and gloves were obsolete; it was all
about beaming the information directly into the user’s brain.
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Science too kept pursuing the elusive brass ring of VR, but direct to brain
transmission was and is still a little invasive for the scientific community
(However, this didn’t stop Sony from patenting the idea that information could
someday be beamed into a human’s brain earlier this year). Instead, they
concentrated on better, less intrusive helmets, more efficient interfaces and more
realistic 3D modeling.
But science is getting tired of this plateau it’s been stuck on. In the last few
years, researchers in the field of VR have been stretching themselves to hit more of
the five senses.
One of the biggest innovations in VR came earlier this year. Sight and sound
have always been the go-to senses for virtual reality researchers, but few have
ventured into the realm of taste and smell. In March 2009 a team of scientists from
the Universities of York and Warwick in the U.K. revealed what they saw as a
giant leap forward in VR tech, the Virtual Cocoon. The cocoon not only simulates
the looks and sounds of a 3D environment on the inside of a portable helmet, it also
has a library of smells and tastes it can feed to the user to correspond to the world
they are experiencing.
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Which just leaves one last aspect of creating a truly immersive virtual reality
system–the ever elusive locomotion? You can create life-like graphics and simulate
realistic sounds, you can feed them tastes and smells, but as soon as your test
subject takes their first step to explore your virtual world, you’re in trouble, and a
virtual world the size of your living room just doesn’t do it for most people.
To get around this problem, a company called Cyberwalk has started work
on an omni-directional treadmill they call the CyberCarpet. This would allow
people to walk in any direction for as long as they want without hitting a wall or
walking into traffic. When combined with something like the Virtual Cocoon,
we’re the closest we’ve ever been to escaping this troublesome world in favour of
an ideal one of our own making.
We may have waited a long time, and the technology might be in its infancy,
but we may have our VR rooms and Holodecks sooner that we think.
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4. MAIN TYPES OF VR
(Classified by display technology)
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including level of interactivity, image complexity, stereoscopic view, field of
regard and the update rate of the display. For example, providing a stereoscopic
rather than monoscopic view of the virtual environment will increase the sense of
immersion experienced by the user. It must be stressed that no one parameter is
effective in isolation and the level of immersion achieved is due to the complex
interaction of the many factors involved.
The non-immersive system has advantages in that they do not require the
highest level of graphics performance, no special hardware and can be
implemented on high specification PC clones. This means that these systems can
be regarded as the lowest cost VR solution which can be used for many
applications. However, this low cost means that these systems will always be
outperformed by more sophisticated implementations, provide almost no sense of
immersion and are limited to a certain extent by current 2D interaction devices.
Additionally, these systems are of little use where the perception of scale is
an important factor. However, one would expect to see an increase in the
popularity of such systems for VR use in the near future. This is due to the fact that
Virtual Reality Modelling Reality Language (VRML) is expected to be adopted as
a de-facto standard for the transfer of 3D model data and virtual worlds via the
internet. The advantage of VRML for the PC desktop user is that this software runs
relatively well on a PC, which is not always the case for many proprietary VR
authoring tools. Furthermore, many commercial VR software suppliers are now
incorporating VRML capability into their software and exploring the commercial
possibilities of desktop VR in general.
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Semi-Immersive Projection Systems
In many ways, these projection systems are similar to the IMAX theatres
discussed in section 1.1. Using a wide field of view, these systems increase the
feeling of immersion or presence experienced by the user. However, the quality of
the projected image is an important consideration. It is important to calibrate the
geometry of the projected image to the shape of the screen to prevent distortions
and the resolution will determine the quality of textures, colours, the ability of
define shapes and the ability of the user to read text on-screen. The resolutions of
projection systems range from 1000 - 3000 lines but to achieve the highest levels it
may be necessary to use multiple projection systems which are more expensive.
Shutter Glasses
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liquid crystal lens placed over each eye. Stereopsis works on the principle that in
order to perceive depth in a scene, the observer must see slightly different images
of the scene under regard in each eye. In the real world this occurs because the two
eyes are placed slightly apart in the head, and so each eye views the scene from a
slightly different position.
The graphics computer used displays slightly different left and right views (known
as a stereo pair) of the virtual environment sequentially on the display system. To
achieve the stereoscopic effect, the glasses either pass or block an image that is
produced on the VDU or projected display. When the left image is displayed, the
left eye lens is switched on, allowing the viewer’s left eye to see the screen. The
right eye lens, however, remains off, thus blocking the right eyes view. When the
right image is displayed, the opposite occurs. This switching between images
occurs so rapidly that it is undetectable by the user, who fuses the two images in
the brain to see one constant 3D image.
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Again however, the increased performance of this VR implementation
comes at a cost. Setting up a projection screen system is far more difficult than a
desktop system and is considerably more expensive. Additionally, there are
problems with current interaction devices for these systems. Firstly, one must
consider carefully the applications that such a system may be used for. For a flight
simulation system it is possible to simply used an inceptor (joystick) which can be
interpreted by the aircraft model as the flight control input. This is acceptable as
the simulator is not used for any other applications but becomes problematical
when one considers that a semi-immersive installation may have multifarious uses
that may require different interaction strategies. Secondly, one must consider
multi-user issues, as this is one of the main advantages of these systems. The
handover of control between users is one of the issues that must be considered as
this technology develops.
An HMD uses small monitors placed in front of each eye which can provide
stereo, bi-ocular or monocular images. Stereo images are provided in a similar way
to shutter glasses, in that a slightly different image is presented to each eye. The
major difference is that the two screens are placed very close (50-70mm) to the
eye, although the image, which the wearer focuses on, will be much further away
because of the HMD optical system. Bi-ocular images can be provided by
displaying identical images on each screen and monocular images by using only
one display screen.
The most commonly used displays are small Liquid Crystal Display (LCD)
panels but more expensive HMDs use Cathode Ray Tubes (CRT) which increase
the resolution of the image. The HMD design may partially or fully exclude the
users view of the real world and enhances the field of view of the computer
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generated world. The advantage of this method is that the user is provided with a
360°; field of regard meaning that the user will receive a visual image if they turn
their head to look in ANY direction.
All fully immersive systems will give a sense of presence that cannot be
equalled by the other approaches discussed earlier, but the sense of immersion
depends of several parameters including the field of view of the HMD, the
resolution, the update rate, and contrast and illumination of the display.
Figure 2. The major components of an HMD. This illustration shows the two
screens capable of producing stereo images and speakers located to provide
stereo sound.
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Kalawsky (1996) provides a good comparison between the various VR
implementations (see Table 2.1). It is also important that these implementations are
not regarded as distinct boundaries for implementations. For example, it is possible
to turn a desktop system into a semi-immersive system by simply adding shutter
glasses and the appropriate software, or a fully immersive system by connecting an
HMD.
Table 2.1
Qualitative Performance
(navigation
skills)
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Sense of None - low Medium - High Medium - High
immersion
Other sensory output from the VE system should adjust in real time as a user
explores the environment. If the environment incorporates 3-D sound, the user
must be convinced that the sound’s orientation shifts in a natural way as he
maneuvers through the environment. Sensory stimulation must be consistent if a
user is to feel immersed within a VE. If the VE shows a perfectly still scene, you
wouldn’t expect to feel gale-force winds. Likewise, if the VE puts you in the
middle of a hurricane, you wouldn’t expect to feel a gentle breeze or detect the
scent of roses.
Lag time between when a user acts and when the virtual environment
reflects that action is called latency. Latency usually refers to the delay between
the time a user turns his head or moves his eyes and the change in the point of
view, though the term can also be used for a lag in other sensory outputs. Studies
with flight simulators show that humans can detect a latency of more than 50
milliseconds. When a user detects latency, it causes him to become aware of being
in an artificial environment and destroys the sense of immersion.
USING an inventive new method in which mice run through a virtual reality
environment based on the video game Quake, researchers from Princeton
University have made the first direct measurements of the cellular activity
associated with spatial navigation. The method will allow for investigations of the
neural circuitry underlying navigation, and should lead to a better understanding of
how spatial information is encoded at the cellular level.
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In mice, spatial navigation involves at least four different cell types located
in the hippocampus and surrounding regions. Place cells increase their activity
when the animal is in a specific location within its environment, called the place
field.
Grid cells, by contrast, fire periodically as the animal traverses a space; each
has a unique periodicity, and apparently measures out the space using its own
scale. Head direction cells, as their name implies, fire when the animal is facing a
particular direction and border cells, which were identified only last year, encode
the animal's distance from the borders within its environment.
Place cells were discovered almost 40 years ago and are the most extensively
studied of these cell types. Their activity is typically recorded using small arrays of
microelectrodes implanted within the hippocampus of a freely moving rodent. The
arrays can remain in place for days or weeks, during which time they can be used
to monitor changes in place cell firing rates, and how the acitivty of cells is related
to the animal's movements within its environment. They record from afar, because
the animal's movements prevent them from coming into, and maintaining, close
contact with the cells.
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In this virtual environment, the place cells behaved as expected. All the cells
from which recordings were made generated short, regular bursts of nervous
impulses, separated by intervals of about one tenth of a second,.
This produced a low level of background activity called the theta oscillation,
which has a frequency of 6-10 cycles per second, and which is characteristic of the
hippocampus. The actvity of individual place cells was modulated by location. As
the animal entered a given place field, the corresponding place cell increased its
firing rate almost five-fold, to generate a rhythmic discharge with a higher
frequency than the background.
Because the animals were stationary, the electrodes could be used to record
directly from the place cells, enabling the researchers to measure their dynamical
electrical properties. This revealed how their firing rate increases: as the mouse
approached a place field, the corresponding cell would ramp up its resting
membrane voltage. This would cause the cell to increase the frequency of its
impulses while the mouse ran through the field. When the animal emerged from
the other side of the field, the membrane voltage would go back down to its normal
level, and the frequency of impulses would decrease again. The background
activity of single cells was also found to increase while the animal was in the
appropriate location.
These findings are consistent with the predictions of a model which states
that place cell activity is modulated by interactions between two separate
oscillating inputs. The data do not exclude other possibilities, however, and the
availablity of this virtual reality system will enable researchers to study the
activity of place cells in greater detail, because it offers researchers the ability to
design highly customized environments, and can be used in combination with other
techniques such as two-photon laser scanning microscopy.
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6. HOW VIRTUAL REALITY WORKS
What do you think of when you hear the words virtual reality (VR)? Do
you imagine someone wearing a clunky helmet attached to a computer with a thick
cable? Do visions of crudely rendered pterodactyls haunt you? Do you think of
Neo and Morpheus traipsing about the Matrix? Or do you wince at the term,
wishing it would just go away?
If the last applies to you, you're likely a computer scientist or engineer, many
of whom now avoid the words virtual reality even while they work on technologies
most of us associate with VR. Today, you're more likely to hear someone use the
words virtual environment (VE) to refer to what the public knows as virtual
reality.
Fig: A virtual reality CAVE display projecting images onto the floor, walls and
ceiling to provide full immersion.
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Naming discrepancies aside, the concept remains the same - using computer
technology to create a simulated, three-dimensional world that a user can
manipulate and explore while feeling as if he were in that world.
Scientists, theorists and engineers have designed dozens of devices and
applications to achieve this goal. Opinions differ on what exactly constitutes a true
VR experience, but in general it should include:
• Three-dimensional images that appear to be life-sized from the
perspective of the user
• The ability to track a user's motions, particularly his head
and eye movements, and correspondingly adjust the images on the user's
display to reflect the change in perspective.
Have you ever wondered how does virtual reality work? Well, you are not
alone. Virtual reality is overtaking the real world and you cannot help but come
into contact with virtual environments.
To understand how virtual reality works you must understand the concept of
immersion. Immersion allows users to feel as if they exist within the virtual world.
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In order for a user to feel he is in a virtual world the world must appear to be a
regular sized world where perspectives and movement can be achieved effortlessly.
Immersion includes such concepts as sight and sound. A user must be able to
see in the virtual world as he does in the real world. If looking at a tree the user
must be able to walk around the tree and view it from many perspectives.
Sound is a major component of how virtual reality works. In the real world
sounds are heard in different volumes, pitches, and tones depending on where you
are and how you are moving. A virtual world must recreate this experience.
If a user becomes aware of the real world environment the virtual world has
failed. The goal of immersion is for the virtual world to mimic the real world to the
point that a user will be “lost” in the virtual environment and forget he is using a
computer or that the real world exists.
The second component of a virtual world, and a driving force behind how a
virtual world works, is interaction. Users in the virtual world must be able to
interact with other users and the virtual environment.
Interaction with the environment means that the user has the ability to move
objects in his environment. The virtual user can move in the virtual environment
and do many things he would in the real world.
Understanding how virtual reality works will make your life easier. Many
virtual reality programs are currently being created to make users’ daily lives more
pleasant. Once you understand how virtual reality works you can dive into the
virtual world.
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7. APPLICATIONS OF VIRTUAL REALITY
VIRTUAL REALITY IS WELL KNOWN for its use with flight simulators and
games. However, these are only two of the many ways virtual reality is being used
today. This article will summarize how virtual reality is used in medicine,
architecture, weather simulation, chemistry and the visualization of voxel data. In
addition, links to web pages where other uses of virtual reality are detailed are
included at the end of this article.
Medicine
Finally, Billinghurst and his associates are working at developing a toolkit for
physicians which will help them create their own expert assistants for other types
of surgery.
Architecture
With light simulation architects can examine how outdoor light will fall inside and
outside their building before it is built. If the lighting needs to be redesigned, the
architect can redesign the building on the computer and examine the new outdoor
light effects.
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In addition to outdoor light, lighting engineers use virtual reality to examine the
effects of point lights, spotlights and other indoor light sources. An interior
designer could examine how light will affect different room arrangements.
Weather Simulation
The data gathered and analyzed by the TriVis system is used by television weather
reporters to show their audiences storm systems. TriVis has been used in television
weather forecasts since 1993.
Chemistry
RealMol displays molecules in three ways: ball and stick model, stick model and
CPK model. The molecules are rendered through a molecular dynamics simulation
program.
Voxel Data
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version of the visualization of the voxel data that depicts the solar wind patterns.
Flight Simulator
Financial Data
The departments using the system range from those which traditionally
might use virtual reality, such as the Computer Science department, the Mechanical
Engineering department and the Architecture department, to fields not generally
associated with the technology such as the Biomedical Engineering department and
the Performing Arts department. All these disciplines' projects use the technology
in ways that create images and objects that otherwise would take a long time to
construct, or not be feasible to construct at all.
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In particular, software is currently under development for Mechanical
Engineering students that extends CAD/CAE software to virtual reality. Instead of
clicking keystrokes to try to alter perspective views, a user is able to wear a helmet
and by moving their head around are able to view an object as if it were before
them. Moreover one is able to look through different layers of an object to view
how the device is operating internally. Although these are all things that CAD/CAE
software allows, the virtual reality system gives a user a more natural way to view
an object, which accordingly allows one to easier ask the question, "what if?"
People in the Performing Arts department use virtual reality for Stage
Lighting and Stage Design Courses.
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Similarly, a model of a "ship in a bottle" was created using CAD/CAE
software viewed through the virtual reality software, and then made.
The virtual reality machines nicely compliment the polymer machine. One is
able to thoroughly view an object before making a prototype, thus saving on the
production costs of making a prototype.
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As with Steve's Room, the user is able via voice commands to move about
the room. The next picture is an image of what one might see through the helmet
after a request to move has been made.
The visual results from these projects are amazing, both in a practical sense
and in a pure aesthetic sense. The images created are useful in understanding the
structure of an object, as well as being suitable for framing. However, what is
equally impressive is that various departments were able to get together and pool
their resources so that this system could be acquired. By doing this, they have
provided themselves, and more importantly, their students, an opportunity to use
computer systems today that will no doubt be commonplace in the future.
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Mass Media:-
Mass media has been a great advocate and perhaps a great hindrance to its
development over the years. During the research “boom” of the late 1980s into the
1990s the news media's prognostication on the potential of VR — and potential
overexposure in publishing the predictions of anyone who had one (whether or not
that person had a true perspective on the technology and its limits) — built up the
expectations of the technology so high as to be impossible to achieve under the
technology then or any technology to date. Entertainment media reinforced these
concepts with futuristic imagery many generations beyond contemporary
capabilities.
Fiction books
Many science fiction books and movies have imagined characters being
"trapped in virtual reality". One of the first modern works to use this idea was
Daniel F. Galouye's novel Simulacron-3, which was made into a German teleplay
titled Welt am Draht ("World on a Wire") in 1973 and into a movie titled The
Thirteenth Floor in 1999. Other science fiction books have promoted the idea of
virtual reality as a partial, but not total, substitution for the misery of reality (in the
sense that a pauper in the real world can be a prince in VR), or have touted it as a
method for creating breathtaking virtual worlds in which one may escape from
Earth's now toxic atmosphere. They are not aware of this, because their minds exist
within a shared, idealized virtual world known as Dream Earth, where they grow
up, live, and die, never knowing the world they live in is but a dream.
Stanislaw Lem wrote a short story in early 1960 called "dziwne skrzynie
profesora Corcorana” in which he presented a scientist who devised a completely
artificial virtual reality. Among the beings trapped inside his created virtual world,
there is also a scientist, who also devised such machines creating another level of
virtual world.
The Piers Anthony novel Killobyte follows the story of a paralyzed cop
trapped in a virtual reality game by a hacker, whom he must stop to save a fellow
trapped player with diabetes slowly succumbing to insulin shock. This novel toys
with the idea of both the potential positive therapeutic uses, such as allowing the
paralysed to experience the illusion of movement while stimulating unused
muscles, as well as virtual realities' dangers.
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An early short science fiction story — "The Veldt" — about an all too real
"virtual reality" was included in the 1951 book The Illustrated Man, by Ray
Bradbury and may be the first fictional work to fully describe the concept.
Phillip K Dick's 1964 The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch includes Perky
Pat 'layouts', small physical representations of the world exact in every detail
complete with dolls. With the help of an interface in the form of a drug, people
immerse, or 'translate', themselves totally into these worlds to escape the tedium of
their lives as colonists on other planets of the solar system.
Other popular fictional works that use the concept of virtual reality include
William Gibson's Neuromancer which defined the concept of cyberspace, Neal
Stephenson's Snow Crash, in which he made extensive reference to the term avatar
to describe one's representation in a virtual world, and Rudy Rucker's The Hacker
and the Ants, in which programmer Jerzy Rugby uses VR for robot design and
testing.
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Alexander Besher's Rim: A Novel of Virtual Reality is similar to Otherland,
however it also shows the urban decay that obsession with VR has caused, and the
devastating effects to the economy it causes after a major crash leaves millions of
users in a coma and some dead.
Television
In Japan and Hong Kong, the first anime series to use the idea of virtual
reality was Video Warrior Laserion (1984).
Cult British BBC2 sci-fi series Red Dwarf featured a virtual reality game
titled Better Than Life, featuring a plot where the main characters had spent many
years connected to the game. This was elaborated on in the book, based on the
series' episodes, of the same name. Virtual reality has also been featured in other
Red Dwarf episodes including Back to Reality, where venom from the despair
squid caused the characters to believe all their experiences on Red Dwarf had been
part of a VR simulation. Other episodes that feature Virtual reality include Gunmen
of the Apocalypse, Stoke Me a Clipper, Blue, Beyond a Joke, and Back in the Red.
Children's television show Are You Afraid Of The Dark? uses the concept of
virtual reality as the premise of the episode "The Tale Of The Renegade Virus"
(1993).
Channel 4's Gamesmaster (1992 – 1998) also used a VR headset in its "tips
and cheats" segment.
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BBC 2's Cyberzone (1993) was the first true "virtual reality" game show. It
was presented by Craig Charles.
FOX's VR.5 (1995) starring Lori Singer and David McCallum, used what
appeared to be mistakes in technology as part of the show's on-going mystery.
In 2002, Series 4 of hit New Zealand teen sci-fi TV Series, The Tribe
featured the arrival of a new tribe to the city, The Technos. They tried to gain
power by introducing Virtual Reality to the city. The tribes would battle each other
in the Virtual World in a "game" designed by the leader of The Techno's, Ram.
However, the effects of VR on the people turned nasty when they started to fight in
the real world as well, after too much use made them unable to tell the difference
between what was real and what was virtual.
In the anime version of Yu-Gi-Oh!, one three-part episode sees the heroes
entering a virtual world based on the game Duel Monsters, where the players must
use their cards to work their way through a series of story-based challenges,
including simulated monsters. Later, another anime-only arc forces the heroes to
enter another virtual world, similar in concept but with a different set of rules. In
both arcs, the bodies of the humans entering the virtual world are confined to
special pods for the duration of their stay there.
The French animated series Code Lyoko is based on the virtual world of
Lyoko and the Internet. The virtual world is accessed by large scanners which use
an atomic process which breaks down the atoms of the person inside, digitizes
them and recreates an incarnation on Lyoko.
Motion pictures
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Steven Lisberger's 1982 movie TRON was the first mainstream Hollywood
picture to explore the idea. One year later, it would be more fully expanded in the
Natalie Wood film Brainstorm.David Cronenberg's film EXistenZ dealt with the
danger of confusion between reality and virtual reality in computer games.
Cyberspace became something that most movies completely misunderstood, as
seen in The Lawnmower Man. This idea was also used in Spy Kids 3-D: Game
Over. Another movie that has a bizarre theme is Brainscan, where the point of the
game is to be a virtual killer. A more artistic and philosophical perspective on the
subject can be seen in Avalon. One of the non-Sci Fi movies that uses VR as a
story driver is 1994's Disclosure, starring Michael Douglas and based on the
Michael Crichton book of the same name. A VR headset is used as a navigating
device for a prototype computer filing system. There is also a film from 1995
called "Virtuosity" with Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe that dealt with the
creation of a serial killer, used to train law enforcement personnel, that escapes his
virtual reality into the real world. Written by William Gibson himself, Johnny
Mnemonic uses extensive VR, depicting Keanu Reeves playing a "cyber-courier"
(Johnny Mnemonic) who smuggles data in his brain. James Cameron's 2009 movie
Avatar depicts a future time when people's consciousness are virtually transported
into biologically grown avatars.
Music videos
The lengthy video for hard rock band Aerosmith's 1993 single "Amazing"
depicted virtual reality, going so far as to show two young people participating in
virtual reality simultaneously from their separate personal computers (while not
knowing the other was also participating in it) in which the two engage in a steamy
makeout session, sky-dive, and embark on a motorcycle journey together.
Games
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Classic Virtual reality HMD with glove
In the Mage: The Ascension role-playing game, the mage tradition of the
Virtual Adepts is presented as the real creators of VR. The Adepts' ultimate
objective is to move into virtual reality, scrapping their physical bodies in favour of
improved virtual ones. Also, the .hack series centers on a virtual reality video
game. This shows the potentially dangerous side of virtual reality, demonstrating
the adverse effects on human health and possible viruses, including a comatose
state that some players assume.
Metal Gear Solid bases heavily on VR usage, either as a part of the plot
(particularly Metal Gear Solid 2 which focuses on the blur between reality and
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virtual reality), or simply to guide the players through training sessions. In System
Shock, the player has implants making him able to enter into a kind of cyberspace.
Its sequel, System Shock 2 also features some minor levels of VR. In Black and
White users could download a patch to use the P5 glove to control the game.
Attractions
Fine Art
David Em was the first fine artist to create navigable virtual worlds in the
1970s. His early work was done on mainframes at III, JPL and Caltech. Jeffrey
Shaw explored the potential of VR in fine arts with early works like Legible City
(1989), Virtual Museum (1991), Golden Calf(1994). Canadian artist Char Davies
created immersive VR art pieces Osmose (1995) and Ephémère (1998). Maurice
Benayoun's work introduced metaphorical, philosophical or political content,
combining VR, network, generation and intelligent agents, in works like Is God
Flat (1994), The Tunnel under the Atlantic (1995), World Skin (1997). Other
pioneering artists working in VR have include Luc Courchesne, Rita Addison,
Knowbotic Research, Rebecca Allen, Perry Hoberman, Jacki Morie, and Brenda
Laurel. All mentioned artists are documented in the Database of Virtual Art.
Marketing
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A side effect of the chic image that has been cultivated for virtual reality in
the media is that advertising and merchandise have been associated with VR over
the years to take advantage of the buzz. This is often seen in product tie-ins with
cross-media properties, especially gaming licenses, with varying degrees of
success. The NES Power Glove by Mattel from the 1980s was an early example as
well as the U-Force and later, the Sega Activator. Marketing ties between VR and
video games are to be expected, given that much of the progress in 3D computer
graphics and virtual environment development (traditional hallmarks of VR) has
been driven by the gaming industry over the last decade. TV commercials featuring
VR have also been made for other products, however, such as Nike's "Virtual
Andre" in 1997, featuring a teenager playing tennis using a goggle and gloves
system against a computer generated by am co-operation..
While its use is still not widespread, virtual reality is finding its way into the
training of health care professionals. Use ranges from anatomy instruction to
surgery simulation. Annual conferences are held to examine the latest research in
utilizing virtual reality in the medical fields.
Therapeutic uses
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Another research field for the use of Virtual Reality is Physical Medicine
and Rehabilitation and Occupational Therapy. Virtual Reality is being tested in
upper and lower limb motor rehabilitation after stroke and spinal cord injuries, and
also for cerebral palsy and other disabilities. Researchers use haptic devices and
rehabilitation robots with virtual reality games to improve motivation during
exercises. Examples of this robotic applications are for upper limbs, Armeo form
Hocoma, Gentle from Reading University, or Manus from MIT. An example of
haptic device for upper limbs rehabilitation is Curictus. Examples for lower limb
rehabilitation robot and haptic devices used with virtual reality systems are
Lokomat (from Hocoma Company) and Haptic Walker from Reading University.
Radio
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8. FUTURE
Within existing technological limits, sight and sound are the two senses
which best lend themselves to high quality simulation. There are however attempts
being currently made to simulate smell. The purpose of current research is linked
to a project aimed at treating Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in veterans by
exposing them to combat simulations, complete with smells.
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Although it is often seen in the context of entertainment by popular culture,
this illustrates the point that the future of VR is very much tied into therapeutic,
training, and engineering demands. Given that fact, a full sensory immersion
beyond basic tactile feedback, sight, sound, and smell is unlikely to be a goal in the
industry.
It is worth mentioning that simulating smells, while it can be done very
realistically, requires costly research and development to make each odor, and the
machine itself is expensive and specialized, using capsules tailor made for it. Thus
far basic, and very strong smells such as burning rubber, cordite, gasoline fumes,
and so-forth have been made. Japan's NTT Communications, of Tokyo, has just
finished testing an Internet-connected odor-delivery system to be used by retailers
and restaurants to attract customers. But as new trials and applications are tried out
and more data gathered, Hamada says he is sure the technology “will take
communications to a new level in content richness, compared to today's
communications, which only offers images and sounds”.
In order to engage the other sense of taste, the brain must be manipulated
directly. This would move virtual reality into the realm of simulated reality like the
brain interface ports used in The Matrix. Although no form of this has been
seriously developed at this point, Sony has taken the first step. On April 7, 2005,
Sony went public with the information that they had filed for and received a patent
for the idea of the non-invasive beaming of different frequencies and patterns of
ultrasonic waves directly into the brain to recreate all five senses. There has been
research to show that this is possible. Sony has conducted tests and says that it is a
good idea.
Virtual reality is a costly development in technology. Because of this, the
future of VR is dependent on whether or not those costs can be reduced in some
way. If VR technology becomes affordable, it could be very widespread but for
now major industries are the sole buyers that have the opportunity to utilize this
resource.
Long before there was the Internet, there were artifacts of virtual reality. For
example, the U.S. Navy's 1944 Whirlwind computer project to create a flight
simulator was the first use of a graphical display generated by computer on a
cathode ray tube (CRT).
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Fast-forward nearly 60 years and virtual reality — a collection of digital and
graphic techniques used to build computer worlds, a surround sound for the mind,
as it were — still fascinates with its promise. Already, there are VR rooms where
researchers dabble with data in 3-D and VR devices that can help people overcome
simple fears.
The third resembles the Holodeck, the virtual reality theater on the popular
television series Star Trek. Introduced by the Electronic Visualization Laboratory
at the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1992, it is a room with images projected
on three walls as well as on the floor. Users move inside what is called the CAVE
and view the images with stereo glasses. As they move, a supercomputer updates
the images and the perspective.
Beyond entertainment and flight simulation, the CAVE lets engineers and
scientists visualize and manipulate complex data. For example, they can study
pollution emission, design vehicle interiors and exteriors, simulate surgery,
conduct psychological testing, experiment with package design, analyze
architectural site plans and test handling procedures for hazardous material.
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For example, wearing a headset that tracks motion and strapped in a typical
airline seat complete with vibrations, a person can be exposed in a managed
environment to sensations that simulate air travel to help her overcome a fear of
flying.
On the distant horizon are efforts at virtual reality therapy to treat a range of
phobias, from those involving elevators and escalators — not to mention dogs,
snakes, mice and insects — all the way to fear of doctors and laboratories.
For example, their InterTrax2, a lightweight headset which retails for $995,
lets users look up, down and around through 360 degrees to explore their virtual
environment.
The company was founded in 1996 by Eric Foxlin, an MIT researcher whose
academic work helped reduce the jitter, distortion and lag — the delay in resolving
an image as you move your head from side to side — of traditional magnetic-based
motion tracking systems.
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The company says its patented technology jump-starts the next generation of
e-commerce, entertainment, distance learning, design and manufacturing. Yet, like
most technology under development today, it is a solution searching for
applications that entice or excite consumers and business.
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First Virtual Reality Technology To Let You See, Hear, Smell, Taste
And Touch
To date, though, Virtual Reality devices have not been able to stimulate
simultaneously all five senses with a high degree of realism.
Scientists from the Universities of York and Warwick now believe they have
been able to pinpoint the necessary expertise to make this possible, in a project
called 'Towards Real Virtuality'.
'Real Virtuality' is a term coined by the project team to highlight their aim of
providing a 'real' experience in which all senses are stimulated in such a way that
the user has a fully immersive perceptual experience, during which s/he cannot tell
whether or not it is real.
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Teams at York and Warwick now aim to link up with experts at the
Universities of Bangor, Bradford and Brighton to develop the 'Virtual Cocoon' – a
new Real Virtuality device that can stimulate all five senses much more
realistically than any other current or prospective device.
For the user the 'Virtual Cocoon' will consist of a headset incorporating specially
developed electronics and computing capabilities. It could help unlock the full
potential benefits of Real Virtuality in fields such as education, business and
environmental protection.
A key objective will be to optimize the way all five senses interact, as in real
life. The team also aims to make the Virtual Cocoon much lighter, more
comfortable and less expensive than existing devices, as a result of the improved
computing and electronics they develop.
There has been considerable public debate on health & safety as well as on
ethical issues surrounding Real Virtuality, since this kind of technology
fundamentally involves immersing users in virtual environments that separate them
from the real world.
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9. IMPACT OF VIRTUAL REALITY
There has been increasing interest in the potential social impact of new
technologies, such as virtual reality (as may be seen in utopian literature, within the
social sciences, and in popular culture). Mychilo S. Cline, in his book, Power,
Madness, and Immortality: The Future of Virtual Reality, published in 2005,
argues that virtual reality will lead to a number of important changes in human life
and activity. He argues that:
Virtual reality will be integrated into daily life and activity and will be used
in various human ways.
Techniques will be developed to influence human behavior, interpersonal
communication, and cognition (i.e., virtual genetics).
As we spend more and more time in virtual space, there will be a gradual
“migration to virtual space,” resulting in important changes in economics,
worldview, and culture.
The design of virtual environments may be used to extend basic human
rights into virtual space, to promote human freedom and well-being, and to
promote social stability as we move from one stage in socio-political
development to the next.
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The Potential Impact of Virtual Reality in Various Psychosocial Domains:
I will begin with a domain that I label “private experience.” By this term, I
mean a large category of human life, that which occurs outside of the contexts of
work, social service, one’s worship community, and the family. Basically, private
experience is what one does and experiences when no one else is watching.
Perhaps ironically, a consideration of the societal impact of VR must include a
consideration of private experience.
It is fair to say that many of Freud’s concepts have at least an heuristic value.
From this angle, several Freudian notions cast VR in a very interesting light.
In particular, these involve the notion of primary instincts, and the role of
delayed gratification in the development of both individual personality and social
structure.
Freud postulated the existence of two primary instincts, Eros and Thanatos,
or, crudely put, sex and death (Freud, 1923/1961b). For our purposes, it may be
useful to recast these as primal impulses for sexuality and aggression.(These
hypothetical impulses are, at the least, compatible with contemporary conceptions
of evolutionary psychology; see Buss, 1995, 1996.) On the one hand, Freud
considered these urges to be primary, primal, and powerful. On the other hand, for
Freud, the very pillars of society involve the suppression, repression, and
sublimation of these primal urges. As Freud put it, “a progressive renunciation of
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constitutional instincts, whose activation might afford the ego primary pleasure,
appears to be one of the foundations of the development of human civilization”
(Freud, 1907/1995a, p. 435).
For Freud, the whole process of socialization involves redirecting the child’s
energy away from immediate gratification, and towards delayed gratification. This
is necessary in order to move the child away from operating on the basis of the
pleasure principle (basically, a combination of ‘if it feels good, do it,’ and ‘I want
it all, and I want it now’) and towards operating on the basis of the reality principle
(the idea that behavior should address external or real world constraints, demands,
and opportunities). Without delay of gratification to strengthen the adherence to the
reality principle, in Freud’s scheme, there would be little work, certainly no art, no
science, no social organization above that of the family (if that), actually no
civilization at all. (See: Freud, 1911/1995b, 1930/1961a.)
In the future world that I have described, VR will place many impulses
within reach of instant virtual gratification, with no immediate social or legal
consequences. By doing this, VR will radically change some of the fundamental
rules on which the game of life has been played throughout the entire length of
human history. Surely this may have momentous social consequences. What will
these be?
The issue of impulse gratification is worth consideration by itself. Will the
immediate gratification of impulses available on VR make people less capable of
delaying gratification in the real world? Or, will the release of tension provided by
gratification in the virtual world make people more capable of focusing on work
and life in the real world? Or, as is so often the case today, will we see one
outcome with certain personality configurations, and the other with different
personality configurations? Beyond the matter of impulse gratification generally
are the issues of aggressive and sexual impulses specifically. Let us consider these
separately.
Will the acting out of violent or aggressive scenarios in the virtual world
make us more likely to act violently or aggressively in the real world? Or, will the
release of violent impulses make us more peaceful in the real world? Or, here
again, will it be one way for some sorts of people, and a different way for others?
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The first two of these points of view are well expressed in the episode of The
X-Files to which I made reference earlier. In the episode, the protagonists are
discussing an immersive first-person-shooter-type seamless VR game.
SCULLY: Mulder, what - what purpose does this game serve except to add to a
culture of violence in a country that's already out of control?
SCULLY: You think that taking up weapons and creating gratuitous virtual
mayhem has any redeeming value whatsoever? I mean, that the testosterone frenzy
that it creates stops when the game does?
MULDER: That's rather sexist, isn't it? (Beat. Scully won’t go there, so Mulder
takes a different tack.) I mean, maybe the game provides an outlet for certain
impulses, that it fills a void in our genetic makeup that the more civilizing effects
of society failed to provide for.
SCULLY: Well, that must be why men feel the great need to blast the crap out of
stuff. (Gibson, Maddox, & Carter, 2000; unofficial transcript)
Evidence from social science research is not hopeful in this regard. Exposure
to violent video games seemed to increase interpersonal aggression, at least in the
laboratory, for certain kinds of people (Anderson & Bushman, 2001; Anderson &
Dill, 2000; Irwin & Gross, 1995; cp. Ivory, 2001). Participating in a violent VR
game produced more aggressive thoughts than either watching this game or acting
out the physical movements (Calvert & Tan, 1994); indeed, playing violent video
games seems to lead people to think of themselves as more aggressive people
overall (Uhlmann & Swanson, 2004). Pop folklore is also discouraging; as one T-
shirt slogan puts it, among the pearls of wisdom that one learns from video games
is the lesson that “there is no problem that cannot be overcome by violence”
(“Everything,” n.d.). Humor like this is often a vehicle for conveying widespread
but socially unacceptable attitudes. The issue of aggression, violence, and VR is
one that deserves comprehensive research.
It appears to be the case that many people use the Internet to fulfill sexual
needs, sometimes in ways that strongly suggest the need for professional
therapeutic intervention (Cooper, 2002). How much more likely will it be the case
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that people will use VR to fulfill sexual needs, especially when haptic sensing and
haptic feedback mechanisms become more highly developed?
Calvert (2002) has pointed out several issues involving the acting out of
sexual impulses via VR. On the positive front, this author suggested the possibility
that people will be able to learn social skills through virtual environments (VE) that
are transferable to real world contexts. Calvert used the analogous experience of
current Internet users interacting via multiuser domains (MUDs):
Users also are engaged in an experience with another person, allowing them
to participate within the boundaries of a shared sexual fantasy rather than an
individual one. By knowing how a partner feels and what a partner enjoys, a
player may become better able to interact with real partners by
understanding their needs. (Calvert, 2002, p. 674, citation omitted)
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Calvert also noted areas in which VR sexual experiences might have
negative social effects.
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In addition, although the broader societal effects of large-scale divorce rates
are only dimly known, one cannot imagine that increasing the divorce rate would
add to social stability. Certainly it would be ironic for VR technology, which is
intended to help individuals better adapt to the demands of the real world, to
instead cause the deterioration of relationships in the real world. This is a good
point at which to consider specifically the domain of home and family.
Most people marry and have children; the resulting family groups have been
the basic units of essentially all human cultures. What will happen when a VR
simulation of this experience is available? The popularity of The Sims—“the best-
selling computer game ever” (Hamilton, 2004, p. 78)—suggests that people want
to try out alternative simulated lives and relationships. How will the availability of
virtual family life affect people’s desire or intention to pursue family life in the real
world?
Consider this scenario. A single person, Jane or John Smith, ends work for
the day and is at home. “Home,” in a real-world sense, consists of a chair or two, a
bed, a closet, a refrigerator, a table that serves as both dining and work space, a
food preparation area, and a personal hygiene area, all of which fits into a studio
apartment. However, this home also includes a personal VR system. Through this
system, Smith lives in a mansion, with marble staircases, sauna, an Olympic-sized
pool, private helipad, and other accoutrements. In this mansion lives, not only
Smith, but an attractive, caring partner, who may exist as an AI construct. Perhaps
there are children living in the home as well, an entire family or extended family
unit. Family and friends come by and visit, perhaps based in distributed VR
networks that enable Smith’s real-world friends to interact in real time, or perhaps
based on AI constructs. Family life, recreation, and adventure—almost every
aspect of human life, short of the intake of nutrition and the elimination of waste
products—can be simulated through VR. But how will this affect the individual or
society?
One can imagine different possible outcomes here. One that seems plausible
is that fewer people will marry and form family units. Although marriage and
family life have their benefits, they also pose inevitable challenges and frustrations.
VR, on the other hand, can provide a virtual simulation of a stress-free life.
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One’s virtual partner can be programmed to be continually and unfailingly
attentive, considerate, forever youthful, and eternally compliant with the wishes of
the user of the VR system. One’s virtual children can be programmed to be
consistently polite and deferent; some other virtual character will change the
diapers. In the short run, the opportunity to visit such a virtual world might be an
enticing prospect for many people. However, in the long run, continual exposure to
such a virtual world might raise unrealistic expectations concerning people in the
real world. Frequent immersion in such a virtual world might allow one to escape
from the tasks of adult life rather than attend to them. Ultimately, such immersion
might make people less willing, or even less capable, of dealing with the
frustrations involved in participating in real-world marriages and family units.
(Consider my earlier comments on instant gratification, of which the flip side is
intolerance for frustration.)
A decrease in the rate at which marriages and family units are formed and
maintained should be considered a major negative consequence. As it is, the
current rates of birth in developed countries are so low as to instigate major
negative consequences in society in coming years (Kotlikoff & Burns, 2004;
Longman, 2004; e.g., Faiola, 2005). A development that would retard the
formation of stable family units in which children would enter the world would
exacerbate what will already be a difficult situation. (An exception to this would
involve areas where longstanding sexist, infanticidal practices involving the
selective murder of female infants has left a surplus male population; because a
male surplus is associated with increased crime and even warfare [Hudson & den
Boer, 2004], it may be advisable to encourage virtual families in such areas.)
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9.3 Religion and Spirituality
However, as can be seen with other comparisons between the Internet and
virtual environments, VR has the potential to take things in a very different
direction than the Internet. It is one thing to interact with others in a virtual space,
and engage in the act of worshipping a god or goddess. It is another thing
altogether to react in this virtual space with the gods themselves—something that
VR can emulate. To go farther, it is yet another thing for one to become the
embodiment of a god or goddess (the original meaning of “avatar”)—another
experience that VR can emulate. What might be the societal consequences of such
circumstances?
What will it mean when spiritual rituals can be enacted virtually by anyone?
At any time, or place? Will something be lost by divorcing rituals from their
traditional context in time or space? Or, will the potentially greater amount of
participation add to the spiritual lives of the people who enact these rituals? Will
the process of being involved with an in-person worship community become
passé? Or, will the experience of private spirituality change independently of the
evolution of communal spirituality?
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In American consumer culture, some people already practice a form of what
some sociologists call “supermarket religion,” picking what they want from this or
that tradition. In the VR world of 2025, however, these opportunities will be
considerably expanded. One may pick any tradition, of any time, existing in the
real world or in the imagination, and try it on for size. For that matter, one may
create one’s own tradition, and populate it with ritual, symbol, and virtual co-
worshippers (either avatars of real world humans, or AI constructs).
No doubt this will come with social consequences, as well. Will real world
spiritual communities decline as virtual private spiritual pseudo-communities
flourish? Or, will people try on the virtual experience and find that they now want
to engage the real world counterpart? Will people reconfigure worship
communities in a distributed VR environment? Will people more easily change
(i.e., convert) from the religious communities of their heritage? If so, what will that
do to traditions that have added some stability to their communities for millennia?
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10. DRAWBACKS OF VIRTUAL REALITY
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Virtual reality is already being used in a wide range of fields: business,
various industries, the military, entertainment, education, and medicine. In the
future, the Air Force, commercial airlines, and medical schools will use virtual
reality more extensively for training purposes and the on-line clothing stores will
use virtual reality to facilitate shopping and boost sales.
Businesses use virtual reality to analyze data through the use of 3D charts
and graphs. In the design stage, simulations allow programmers to see products
without having to build the actual product, saving money and time. Automotive
industries use virtual reality to test designs and safety and check for passenger
comfort. Airlines use virtual reality to train pilots and factories use it to train
employees working with dangerous equipment. The military similarly uses virtual
reality for simulated training. NASA used virtual reality to simulate every
imaginable situation that might occur in space to familiarize astronauts with the
situations and consequently improved their performance and comfort level during
unexpected occurrences.
Entertainment has long used virtual reality through games such as Atari,
Nintendo, and computer games. Now, there is laser tag and games used by
restaurants such as Dave and Busters, in Dallas, where customers waiting for food
can lead each other through virtual mazes. Virtual reality education can take the
forms of virtual tours and labs. "If you can’t afford the time or the ticket to get to
India and see the Taj Mahal, slap on a pair of VR goggles and there you are".
Virtual reality allows students and adults to travel abroad, tour famous sites, and
learn all about them without leaving a room. Virtual labs allow students to dissect
animals without having to kill them and to perform experiments without requiring
costly equipment.
In the medical field, psychiatrists are using virtual reality to treat phobias by
exposing patients to their fears in risk-free situations. Virtual reality advances are
already being made in surgery. By making small incisions, watching 3D images
taken by a camera inside the patient, and inserting a robotic arm, a surgeon can
move tools inside a patient without having to cut them open--reducing pain and
recovery time. This technique is still a long way from everyday use, but was first
used in 1997 to perform a gallbladder operation.
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The future of virtual reality is looking very bright. Various fields are
continuously looking for new ways to improve and expand their uses of virtual
reality. Developments in virtual reality will drastically change the way pilots fly
and are trained, medical students are educated, surgeons practice and hone their
skills, and people shop. While these changes are developing, it will take time and
money to fully implement them.
The medical field is developing ways to perform virtual surgery to train its
surgeons. Through the use of 3D glasses, surgeons will also be able to see and feel
the results of each of his or her movements. These techniques will "allow [the
surgeons] to train in a safe, predictable, and reproducible setting,...review their
work and enhance their skills,...and learn and practice new techniques or
procedures". Soon, virtual reality will allow physicians and their patients to
simulate the surgery experience before actually undergoing it. Medical and nursing
students will practice their skills on simulated patients before seeing actual
patients, reducing mistakes, but some fear that this may threaten the "humanistic
elements of the doctor-patient relationship" . Finally, medical schools will replace
complex diagrams with virtual skulls to learn more about the brain.
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visualize how clothes would look on their bodies, in the hopes that this would
encourage more customers to buy.
But with new technology also comes disadvantages. These techniques take
time, effort, and money to implement. People may experience a feeling of a loss of
reality and a feeling of isolation as they interact with an artificial world, instead of
a real world with real people. Finally, virtual reality can increase unemployment as
fewer people are needed to design projects: products in their design stage no longer
need to be built. However, new jobs will open up in the field of designing virtual
reality technology.
Despite these disadvantages, the benefits of using virtual reality far outweigh
them. It is a force that everyone needs to know about and be able to use. It will
soon become a dominant force in all industries. In order to fully utilize this
technology people will have to become as familiar with it as they are with the
Internet.
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11. CONCLUSION
Our prototype display has now been functional and in use for most of a year.
The entire system cost roughly $20,000 to construct; we estimate that a new one
could currently be built for about half that amount.
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12. BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/other-gadgets/virtual-
reality.htm
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality
3. http://www.geom.uiuc.edu/docs/forum/vr/
4. http://www.allfreeessays.com/topics/advantages-and-disadvantages-of-
virtual-reality/0
5. http://www.exampleessays.com/essay_search/disadvantages_virtual.html
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