Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality



Introduction

Virtual Reality (VR) is simulated experience that can be completely different from or similar to the real world. Virtual reality was popularized by Jaron Lanier in 1980. He had founded the company VPL research in 1985. So what basically is virtual reality? Virtual reality is the computer-generated simulation of a three-dimensional image or environment that can be interacted with in a seemingly real or physical way by a person using special electronic equipment, such as a helmet with a screen inside or gloves fitted with sensors.



History

In the early-mid 1990s, video game companies first released consumer virtual reality headsets. In 1991, Sega had announced the Sega VR headset for arcade games and the Mega drive console. In 1992, Computer Gaming World predicted to have “affordable VR by 1994”. In the same year, Nicole stinger created Angels which was the first real-time interactive immersive movie where the interaction was facilitated with a data glove and high-resolution goggles. By 1994, in SegaWorld amusement arcades, Sega released the Sega VR-1 motion simulator arcade attraction. Apple released QuickTime VR, which, despite using the term “VR”, was unable to represent virtual reality, and instead displayed 360 photographic panoramas. Nintendo's Virtual Boy console was released in 1995. In 1999, entrepreneur Philip Rosedale formed Linden Lab with an initial focus on the development of VR hardware.



21^th Century and present

In 2001, Barco, Z-A Production (Maurice Benayoun, David Nahon), and Clarté developed SAS Cube (SAS3) which became the first PC-based cubic room. In 2007, Google introduced Street View, a service that shows panoramic views of an increasing number of worldwide positions such as roads, indoor buildings and rural areas. It also features a stereoscopic 3D mode, introduced in 2010. In 2014, Sony announced Project Morpheus (its code name for the PlayStation VR), a virtual reality headset for the PlayStation 4 video game console. By 2016, there were at least 230 companies developing VR-related products. Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Sony and Samsung all had dedicated AR and VR groups.

In 2016, HTC shipped its first units of the HTC Vive SteamVR headset. This marked the first major commercial release of sensor-based tracking, allowing for free movement of users within a defined space.[46] A patent filed by Sony in 2017 showed they were developing a similar location tracking technology to the Vive for PlayStation VR, with the potential for the development of a wireless headset. The Oculus Rift S was released on 20 March 2019.



Applications

Virtual reality is most commonly used in entertainment applications such as video games and 3D cinema. Beginning in the 2010s, next-generation commercial tethered headsets were released by Oculus (Rift), HTC (Vive) and Sony (PlayStation VR), setting off a new wave of application development. Since 2015, roller coasters and theme parks have incorporated virtual reality to match visual effects with haptic feedback. In the case of education, the uses of virtual reality have demonstrated being capable of promoting higher order thinking, promoting the interest and commitment of students, the acquisition of knowledge, promoting mental habits and understanding that are generally useful within an academic context.



Health care and safety


Virtual reality sickness (also known as cyber sickness) occurs when a person's exposure to a virtual environment causes symptoms that are similar to motion sickness symptoms. The most common symptoms are general discomfort, headache, stomach awareness, nausea, vomiting, pallor, sweating, fatigue, drowsiness, disorientation, and apathy. Approximately 25–40% of people experience some kind of VR sickness when using VR machines, companies are actively looking for ways to reduce VR sickness.



Types of VR technology

          

Distinct types of VR style technology include augmented reality and mixed reality. They are further defined as:

1. Augmented Reality (AR) is a type of virtual reality technology that blends user-generated digital content into their real environment.

2. Simulated reality is an imaginary virtual reality that is immersed in something just like real reality, enabling an enhanced lifetime experience or even virtual eternity. This can often be made using the brain-computer interface and quantum computing.

3. Mixed Reality (MR) is a combination of real world and virtual worlds that create new environments and visualizations where physical and digital objects interconnect and interact in real time.



Statistics

Facebook has also invested heavily in VR. The social network’s aim has always been to connect the world, and with its immersive videos, it’s doing just that. In 2014, the company bought Oculus, a start-up creating a wearable VR headset, for $2 billion. And the Oculus Rift headset is due to launch in early 2016. Early buzz for the product is the same as its competition: It’s a head-turner.

The statistic shows the investment directions of virtual/augmented reality technology worldwide in 2016, 2018, and 2019. As of January 2019, 54 percent of the respondents said that the gaming sector was going to witness the most investment directed to the development of VR/AR/MR/XR technology or content in the next 12 months.



Essentials

Virtual reality is essentially:

1.    Believable: You really need to feel like you're in your virtual world (on Mars, or wherever) and to keep believing that, or the illusion of virtual reality will disappear.

2.    Interactive: As you move around, the VR world needs to move with you. You can watch a 3D movie and be transported up to the Moon or down to the seabed—but it's not interactive in any sense.

3.    Computer-generated: Why is that important? Because only powerful machines, with realistic 3D computer graphics, are fast enough to make believable, interactive, alternative worlds that change in real-time as we move around them.

4.    Explorable: A VR world needs to be big and detailed enough for you to explore. However realistic a painting is, it shows only one scene, from one perspective. A book can describe a vast and complex "virtual world," but you can only really explore it in a linear way, exactly as the author describes it.

5.    Immersive: To be both believable and interactive, VR needs to engage both your body and your mind. Paintings by war artists can give us glimpses of conflict, but they can never fully convey the sight, sound, smell, taste, and feel of battle. You can play a flight simulator game on your home PC and be lost in a very realistic, interactive experience for hours (the landscape will constantly change as your plane flies through it), but it's not like using a real flight simulator (where you sit in a hydraulically operated mock-up of a real cockpit and feel actual forces as it tips and tilts), and even less like flying a plane.