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virtual reality

 

n. (Abbr. VR)
A computer simulation of a real or imaginary system that enables a user to perform operations on the simulated system and shows the effects in real time.


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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia:

virtual reality

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Use of computer modeling and simulation to enable a person to interact with an artificial three-dimensional visual or other sensory environment. A computer-generated environment simulates reality by means of interactive devices that send and receive information and are worn as goggles, headsets, gloves, or body suits. The illusion of being in the created environment (telepresence) is accomplished by motion sensors that pick up the user's movements and adjust his or her view accordingly, usually in real time. The basis of the technology emerged in the 1960s in simulators that taught how to fly planes, drive tanks, shoot artillery, and generally perform in combat. It came of commercial age in the 1980s and is now used in games, exhibits, and aerospace simulators. It has potential for use in many fields, including entertainment, medicine and biotechnology, engineering, design, and marketing.

For more information on virtual reality, visit Britannica.com.

A form of human-computer interaction in which a real or imaginary environment is simulated and users interact with and manipulate that world. Users travel within the simulated world by moving toward where they want to be, and interact with things in that world by grasping and manipulating simulated objects. In the most successful virtual environments, users feel that they are truly present in the simulated world and that their experience in the virtual world matches what they would experience in the environment being simulated. This sensation is referred to as engagement, immersion, or presence, and it is this quality that distinguishes virtual reality from other forms of human-computer interaction. See also Human-computer interaction.

When a user interacts with a virtual environment, the computer-generated graphics display must be updated with each turn of the head or movement of the hand. The virtual environment must be able to generate and display realistic-looking views of the simulated world quickly enough that the interaction feels responsive and natural. See also Computer graphics.

Hardware

Virtual reality relies on a variety of specialized input and output devices to achieve this sense of natural interaction.

The most important of the input devices used in a virtual environment, a tracker is capable of reporting its location in space and its orientation. Tracking devices can be optical, magnetic, or acoustic. A tracker is sometimes combined with a traditional computer input device, such as a mouse or a joystick. See also Computer peripheral devices.

An attempt to provide a truly natural input device, the data glove is outfitted with sensors that can read the angle of each of the finger joints in the hand. Wearing such a glove, users can interact with the virtual world through hand gestures, such as pointing or making a fist. See also Fiber-optic sensor; Strain gage.

The real-world visual experience is approximated in virtual environments by using stereoscopic displays. Two views of the simulated world are generated, one for each eye, and a stereoscopic display device is used to show the correct view to each eye.

Applications

Virtual reality can be applied in a variety of ways. In scientific and engineering research, virtual environments are used to visually explore whatever physical world phenomenon is under study. Training personnel for work in dangerous environments or with expensive equipment is best done through simulation. Airplane pilots, for example, train in flight simulators. Virtual reality can enable medical personnel to practice new surgical procedures on simulated individuals. As a form of entertainment, virtual reality is a highly engaging way to experience imaginary worlds and to play games. Virtual reality also provides a way to experiment with prototype designs for new products. See also Aircraft design; Computer-aided design and manufacturing.


virtual reality

The creation of images and tactile sensations by means of a computer, producing the illusion of reality. Images are often projected onto special goggles to strengthen the illusion. (See cyberspace.)

TechEncyclopedia:

virtual reality

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An artificial reality that projects the user into a 3D space generated by the computer. A virtual reality system uses stereoscopic goggles that provide the 3D imagery and some sort of tracking device, which may be the goggles themselves for tracking head and body movement, or a "data glove" that tracks hand movements. The glove lets you point to and manipulate computer-generated objects displayed on tiny monitors inside the goggles.

Serious Work or Entertainment

Virtual reality (VR) can be used to create an illusion of reality or imagined reality and is used both for amusement as well as serious training. Flight simulators for training airplane pilots and astronauts were the first form of this technology, which provided a very realistic and very expensive simulation.

Spatially Immersive Environments

Virtual reality has other variants. Spatially immersive displays use multi-sided rooms that you walk into, and an "immersive theater" or "immersive wall" uses a large flat or curved screen (8-24' long) that completely fills your peripheral vision. Desktop virtual reality (desktop VR) uses a computer to play games and view environments that you move around in, although they lack the 3D reality of true VR systems. See head mounted display, 6DOF, cyberspace, VRML, augmented reality, virtual world, 3D visualization and Second Life.

Virtual Reality at the Dentist
In this application, the child is looking through the goggles and manipulating the scenes that he sees with a game controller. (Image courtesy of I-O Display Systems, www.i-glasses.com)

Spatially Immersive Systems
Fakespace Systems' CAVE products simulate a VR environment for various purposes, such as testing the design of a new building (train station above) or learning how to operate a Caterpillar bulldozer (below). In the latter, the steering wheel on the left meets the real steering wheel on the right in virtual space. CAVE was developed by the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois in the early 1990s. (Images courtesy of Fakespace Systems Inc., a subsidiary of Mechdyne Corporation, www.mechdyne.com)

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Barron's Marketing Dictionary:

virtual reality

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A seemingly realistic three-dimensional environment created totally with computer hardware and software. Virtual reality had its beginnings in computer games where participants would wear special helmets and gloves and stand on special platforms that simulate the sights, sounds, and movements of characters in a real environment. In marketing, virtual reality allows marketers to create presentations that penetrate consumer perceptual filters in a way not possible with any other form of media. For example, consumers can tour resort areas in a virtual reality setting before they book an actual trip to the resort, or prospective computer buyers can walk through the inside of a computer they are considering for purchase. See also virtual mall; virtual storefront.

Oxford Companion to the Body:

virtual reality

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Virtual reality (VR) is a technology that allows people to enter and interact with three-dimensional computer graphics worlds. Another term for these worlds is virtual environments. When a person uses a virtual world the sensory information that is present in the real world is replaced by computer-generated information, which may be of sufficient fidelity to allow the person effectively to believe that they are in the virtual world.

VR is currently used in applications such as aircraft pilot training, medical rehabilitation, training for surgical procedures, engineering and scientific visualization, manufacturing design, the control of remote (tele-operated) vehicles, and computer games. Some of the worlds used for these applications are designed to be virtual equivalents of real-world (i.e. physical) environments. Other virtual worlds exist only in their virtual form and for these worlds the term virtual ‘reality’ is something of a misnomer.

A view inside a typical virtual building
A view inside a typical virtual building



The variety and fidelity of sensory information provided by VR applications varies widely and is typically limited by a trade-off between cost and benefit. A person's sense of presence is one nebulous, subjective measure of the degree to which they feel that they are actually inside a virtual world, and this quantity is influenced by factors that include the size of the visual field of view, the inclusion of auditory information, and the use of head-tracking, where the person's physical movements control their direction of view. Although an increase in presence does not necessarily produce a corresponding increase in the accuracy or speed with which tasks are performed, it does provide a general measure of the degree to which real-world sensory information is replaced by information contained in the virtual world.

Three-dimensional computer graphics allow the shape and form of objects to be perceived, and the use of photo-realistic textures for colour provides detailed visual information. The patterns contained in textures help to increase optic flow and this increases a person's perception of movement as they travel through a virtual world. Technical and cost limitations often restrict a person's field of view to an angle as small as 50 degrees (compared with the 200 degrees or more of normal vision). This effectively means that the person looks at the virtual world using blinkers. The lack of peripheral vision seems to inhibit people's ability to develop mental ‘models’ of the layout of virtual worlds and frequently causes people to miss events that occur just outside the field of view, but which they would detect in the real world.

Some virtual worlds provide auditory and haptic information. Simple sounds such as a ‘bump’ can be added to indicate that a person has collided with a ‘solid’ object. More realistic, spatial sounds can be provided using binaural, stereophonic technology. Force feedback is particularly useful in virtual worlds that are used for pharmaceutical drug research, where it may be used to simulate the powerful forces that are present between different atoms in molecules.

When a person initially navigates a virtual world they tend to become very disoriented but, if they are given sufficient time, they can develop knowledge of the virtual world's layout which is as accurate as the knowledge they develop of the real world environments in which they live and work. The amount of visual detail which is present in a virtual world has an effect on the rate at which a person learns spatial knowledge, because these details are frequently used as landmarks that aid the learning of routes. Other devices such as a compass or a map can also provide effective navigational aids.

In some virtual worlds no interaction is allowed apart from a person's movement (the world is visualized but little else). In more complex worlds each object can have its own behaviour. Thus, doors may be opened, a phone can be used to have a conversation with another person, or a virtual computer can be used to send real electronic mail. Virtual worlds that contain complex object behaviours are time-consuming to develop but are becoming more commonplace. Of course, there is nothing to stop a virtual world redefining the laws of physical reality so that objects can, for instance, ‘fall’ upwards when they are dropped!

Finally, a significant proportion of people who view virtual worlds using helmet-mounted displays (HMDs) suffer from the side-effects of VR sickness, common symptoms of which include eye-strain, nausea, and a loss of balance. VR sickness seems to be related to motion sickness and has many contributory causes. One is the vestibular conflicts which are caused by the (small) time delays that occur between a person's actual bodily movements and the HMD being updated to reflect those movements. Another is the optical quality of the displays themselves. The magnitude of the problems caused by VR sickness is likely to reduced gradually as improvements take place in display and sensor technology, and a better understanding is reached of the factors which contribute toward the sickness.

— Roy A. Ruddle, Robert J. Snowden

Bibliography

  • Rheingold, H. (1992). Virtual reality. Mandarin, London

See also illusions; motion sickness; vection.

Houghton Mifflin Word Origins:

virtual reality

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Origin: 1989

In the late 1980s, inhabitants of cyberspace (see Cybernetics 1948) were virtually certain they were inventing a new reality. It would be far better than the reality sought by philosophers, poets, and scientists in earlier ages because virtual reality could be custom-made. Medieval philosophers had found reality sometimes in things, sometimes in ideas, sometimes in the mind of God. More recent thinkers had looked to nature, society, or the workings of the human mind. But in the late 1980s, computer geeks were busy constructing their own world of virtual reality, bounded only by the limitations of electronic inner space.

This virtual reality had its modest beginnings thirty years earlier in the invention of virtual memory (1959), a method of overcoming the physical limits of a computer by making it think it had more random-access memory (RAM) than it actually did. The computer would use space on a storage drive as if it were its own RAM. That led to the use of virtual for anything involving a computer that was other than it seemed. The proper software could give a computer virtual storage (1966) and other virtual hardware.

In the late 1980s, virtual was applied to users of computers too. A community of people who did not meet face to face but only by computer became known as a virtual community. To bring members of a virtual community literally in touch with one another was one of the purposes of virtual reality. It involved haptics, "the use of computer-actuated gloves or body wraps to stimulate the sense of touch." Virtual reality would even enable them to engage in virtual sex.

As the end of the century neared, virtual reality remained a programmer's dream, but it was coming closer and closer to reality. With continuing improvement in computer technology, it is virtually assured of success.



1. Computer simulations that use 3-D graphics and devices such as the Dataglove to allow the user to interact with the simulation. See cyberspace.

2. A form of network interaction incorporating aspects of role-playing games, interactive theater, improvisational comedy, and ‘true confessions’ magazines. In a virtual reality forum (such as Usenet's alt.callahans newsgroup or the MUD experiments on Internet), interaction between the participants is written like a shared novel complete with scenery, foreground characters that may be personae utterly unlike the people who write them, and common background characters manipulable by all parties. The one iron law is that you may not write irreversible changes to a character without the consent of the person who ‘owns’ it. Otherwise anything goes. See bamf, cyberspace, teledildonics.


Gale Encyclopedia of US History:

Virtual Reality

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Virtual Reality refers to computer-generated, three-dimensional simulations that allow a participant to experience and interact with a setting or situation. In the most intense forms of virtual reality, a participant wears a headset that incorporates high-resolution video displays and audio speakers, immersing the participant in a computer-generated experience. The participant also wears a special glove or body suit studded with sensors that monitor all movement. Data from the participant's movements are then fed into a computer, which modifies the simulation accordingly. Virtual reality systems allow a participant to experience, navigate through, and manipulate a hypothetical area filled with imaginary structures and objects. This area is often referred to as "cyberspace," a term first used by author William Gibson in his 1984 novel, Neuromancer. By the end of the twentieth century, virtual reality not only encapsulated a specific technology, but also signaled a broader set of cultural questions about the place of technology in modern life.

The growth of the Internet, along with the advent of inexpensive and increasingly powerful computers and the development of sophisticated computer graphics techniques, has led to faster and more detailed virtual reality systems, adding to the realism of the experiences they deliver. The use of virtual reality technology in the entertainment industry holds the potential to provide consumers with a choice of exotic, surreal, or breathtaking experiences without any physical risk. Virtual reality has also been employed for more serious ends. Astronauts at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration used virtual reality devices as part of their training for the 1993 space shuttle flight, during which they repaired the Hubble Space Telescope. Department of Energy experts employ a virtual reality version of a nuclear weapon in a shipping container to train emergency workers to handle trucking accidents involving such devices. Another application of virtual reality technology is telepresence, or giving the participant a sensation of being in a distant location. Telepresence systems, for example, can allow a physician in a hospital to perform emergency surgery on a soldier by remote control while the soldier is still on the battlefield, rather than wait until the soldier is transported to the hospital. Telepresence also holds the potential to be used for operating robotic rovers on the moon or on Mars for scientific purposes, or for profit-generating entertainment ventures.

While virtual reality provides the possibility of creating new communities in cyberspace, critics of virtual reality—and of technology in general—warn that it might overwhelm and erode established networks of human existence. Some educators, for instance, debate the effectiveness of virtual reality to provide a "distance learning" experience that could substitute for the traditional, four-year undergraduate education. At the most extreme, however, criticism of technology has taken the form of terrorism, as in the case of the Unabomber, Theodore Kaczynski.

Bibliography

Heim, Michael. The Metaphysics of Virtual Reality. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.

———. Virtual Realism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Rheingold, Howard. Virtual Reality. New York: Summit, 1991.

Columbia Encyclopedia:

virtual reality

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virtual reality (VR) or virtual environment (VE), computer-generated environment with and within which people can interact. The advantage of VR is that it can immerse people in an environment that would normally be unavailable due to cost, safety, or perception restrictions. A successful VR environment offers users immersion, navigation, and manipulation. VR encompasses a range of interactive computer environments, from text-oriented on-line forums and multiplayer games to complex simulations that combine audio; video, animation, or three-dimensional graphics; and scent. Some of the more realistic effects are achieved using a helmetlike apparatus with tiny computer screens, one in front of each eye and each giving a slightly different view so as to mimic stereoscopic vision. Sensors attached to the participant (e.g., gloves, bodysuit, footwear) pass on his or her movements to the computer, which changes the graphics accordingly to give the participant the feeling of movement through the scene. Computer-generated physical feedback adds a "feel" to the visual illusion, and computer-controlled sounds and odors reinforce the virtual environment. Other VR systems, such as flight simulators, use larger displays and enclosed environments to create an illusion. Less-complicated systems for personal computers manipulate an image of three-dimensional space on a computer screen. In a virtual network many users can be immersed in the same simulation, each perceiving it from a personal point of view. VR is used in some electronic games, in amusement-park attractions, in military exercises, and to simulate construction designs. Experimental and envisioned uses include education, industrial design, surgical training, and art.

Bibliography

See H. Rheingold, Virtual Reality (1991); R. A. Earnshaw, Virtual Reality Systems (1993); L. C. Larijani, The Virtual Reality Primer (1994); J. Levy, Create Your Own Virtual Reality System (1995); D. N. Chorafas and H. Steinmann, Virtual Reality: Practical Applications in Business and Industry (1995).


Science Q&A:

What is virtual reality?

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Virtual reality combines state-of-the-art imaging with computer technology to allow users to experience a simulated environment as reality. Several different technologies are integrated into a virtual reality system, including holography, which uses lasers to create three-dimensional images; liquid crystal displays; high-definition television; and multimedia techniques that combine various types of displays in a single computer terminal.

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The rotation speed. It is at this speed that the nose should be lifted to attain the takeoff attitude. It is normally a function of aircraft weight and flap setting, but it can vary with height and temperature. It should be such that rotation at this speed will result in the aircraft becoming airborne and rapidly attaining the takeoff safety speed (V2 ).

Random House Word Menu:

categories related to 'virtual reality'

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Random House Word Menu by Stephen Glazier
For a list of words related to virtual reality, see:
  • General Technology - virtual reality: creation of imaginary, animated, three-dimensional landscape that one may explore and change by means of sensors attached to one’s body and connected to computer that generates scenes; cyberspace


Wikipedia on Answers.com:

Virtual reality

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U.S. Navy personnel using a VR parachute trainer
World Skin (1997), Maurice Benayoun's virtual reality interactive installation

Virtual reality (VR), also known as virtuality[citation needed], is a term that applies to computer-simulated environments that can simulate physical presence in places in the real world, as well as in imaginary worlds. Most current virtual reality environments are primarily visual experiences, displayed either on a computer screen or through special stereoscopic displays, but some simulations include additional sensory information, such as sound through speakers or headphones. Some advanced, haptic systems now include tactile information, generally known as force feedback, in medical and gaming applications. Furthermore, virtual reality covers remote communication environments which provide virtual presence of users with the concepts of telepresence and telexistence or a virtual artifact (VA) either through the use of standard input devices such as a keyboard and mouse, or through multimodal devices such as a wired glove, the Polhemus, and omnidirectional treadmills. The simulated environment can be similar to the real world in order to create a lifelike experience—for example, in simulations for pilot or combat training—or it can differ significantly from reality, such 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, the technology's proponents hope that such limitations will 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 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 by Michael R. Heim, seven different concepts of virtual reality are identified: simulation, interaction, artificiality, immersion, telepresence, full-body immersion, and network communication. People often identify VR with head mounted displays and data suits.[citation needed]

Contents

Background

Terminology and concepts

The term "artificial reality", coined by Myron Krueger, has been in use since the 1970s; however, 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, in Erik Davis's words, "characters, objects, and images take on the phantasmagoric force of alchemy's visionary internal dramas".[1] Artaud claimed that the "perpetual allusion to the materials and the principle of the theater found in almost all alchemical books should be understood as the expression of an identity [...] existing between the world in which the characters, images, and in a general way all that constitutes the virtual reality of the theater develops, and the purely fictitious and illusory world in which the symbols of alchemy are evolved".[2] The term has also 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",[3] but the article is not about VR technology. The concept of virtual reality was popularized in mass media by movies such as Brainstorm and The Lawnmower Man. The VR research boom of the 1990s was accompanied by the non-fiction book Virtual Reality (1991) by Howard Rheingold.[4] The book served to 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.[citation needed] According to Zhai, virtual reality could be made to have an ontological status equal to that of actual reality. Digital Sensations: Space, Identity and Embodiment in Virtual Reality (1999), written by Ken Hillis, offers a more critical and theoretical academic assessment of the complex set of cultural and political desires and practices culminating in the development of the technology.[citation needed]

Timeline

Virtual reality can trace its roots to the 1860s, when 360-degree art through panoramic murals began to appear. An example of this would be Baldassare Peruzzi's piece titled, Sala delle Prospettive. In the 1920s, vehicle simulators were introduced[citation needed]. Morton Heilig wrote in the 1950s of an "Experience Theatre" that could encompass all the senses in an effective manner, thus drawing the viewer into the onscreen activity. He built a prototype of his vision dubbed the Sensorama in 1962, along with five short films to be displayed in it while engaging multiple senses (sight, sound, smell, and touch). Predating digital computing, the Sensorama was a mechanical device, which reportedly still functions today. Around this time, Douglas Englebart uses computer screens as both input and output devices. In 1966, Thomas A. Furness III 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 and realism, and the HMD to be worn by the user was so heavy it had to be suspended from the ceiling. 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 program was a crude virtual simulation of Aspen, Colorado in which users could wander the streets in one of three modes: summer, winter, and polygons. The first two were based on photographs—the researchers actually photographed every possible movement through the city's street grid in both seasons—and the third was a basic 3-D model of the city. In the late 1980s, the term "virtual reality" was popularized by Jaron Lanier, one of the modern pioneers of the field. Lanier had founded the company VPL Research in 1985, which developed and built some of the seminal "goggles and gloves" systems of that decade. In 1991, Antonio Medina, a MIT graduate and NASA scientist, designed a virtual reality system to "drive" Mars rovers from Earth in apparent real time despite the substantial delay of Mars-Earth-Mars signals. The system, termed "Computer-Simulated Teleoperation" as published by Rand, is an extension of virtual reality.[5]

Impact

There has been an increase in interest in the potential social impact of new technologies, such as virtual reality. In the new book (2011) Infinite Reality: Avatars, Eternal Life, New Worlds, and the Dawn of the Virtual Revolution, Blascovich and Bailenson review the literature on the psychology and sociology behind life in virtual reality.

In addition, Mychilo S. Cline, in his book Power, Madness, and Immortality: The Future of Virtual Reality, argues that virtual reality will lead to a number of important changes in human life and activity.[6] He argues that:

  • Virtual reality will be integrated into daily life and activity, and will be used in various human ways. Another such speculation has been written up on how to reach ultimate happiness via virtual reality.[7]
  • Techniques will be developed to influence human behavior, interpersonal communication, and cognition.[8]
  • 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.[9]
  • 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.[citation needed]
  • Virtual reality can also be used to induce body transfer illusions.[citation needed]

Heritage and archaeology

The use of VR in heritage and archaeology has potential in museum and visitor centre applications, but its use has been tempered by the difficulty in presenting a "quick to learn" real time experience to numerous people at any given time. Many historic reconstructions tend to be in a pre-rendered format to a shared video display, thus allowing more than one person to view a computer generated world, but limiting the interaction that full-scale VR can provide.[citation needed] The first use of a VR presentation in a heritage application was in 1994, when a museum visitor interpretation provided an interactive "walk-through" of a 3D reconstruction of Dudley Castle in England as it was in 1550. This consisted of a computer controlled laserdisc-based system designed by British based engineer Colin Johnson. One of the first users of virtual reality was Queen Elizabeth II, when she officially opened this visitor centre in June 1994.[citation needed] The system was featured in a conference held by the British Museum in November 1994, and in the subsequent technical paper, Imaging the Past - Electronic Imaging and Computer Graphics in Museums and Archaeology.[citation needed]

VR reconstruction

Virtual reality enables heritage sites to be recreated extremely accurately, so that the recreations can be published in various media.[10] The original sites are often inaccessible to the public, or may even no longer exist.[citation needed] This technology can be used to develop virtual replicas of caves, natural environment, old towns, monuments, sculptures and archaeological elements.[11]

Fiction

Many science fiction books and films have imagined characters being "trapped in virtual reality".

A comprehensive and specific fictional model for virtual reality was published in 1935 in the short story Pygmalion's Spectacles by Stanley G. Weinbaum. In the story, the main character, Dan Burke, meets an elfin professor, Albert Ludwig, who has invented a pair of goggles which enable "a movie that gives one sight and sound [...] taste, smell, and touch. [...] You are in the story, you speak to the shadows (characters) and they reply, and instead of being on a screen, the story is all about you, and you are in it." A more modern work 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. Other science fiction books have promoted the idea of virtual reality as a partial, but not total, substitution for the misery of reality, or have touted it as a method for creating breathtaking virtual worlds in which one may escape from Earth.

Stanisław Lem wrote a short story in early 1960 called "IJON TICHY'S MEMORIES", 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.[citation needed] Lem further explored the implications of what he termed "phantomatics" in his nonfictional 1964 treatise Summa Technologiae. 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 slowly succumbing to insulin shock. This novel toys with the idea of both the potential positive therapeutic uses, such as allowing the paralyzed to experience the illusion of movement while stimulating unused muscles, as well as virtual realities' dangers. Vernor Vinge's True Names, published in 1981, imagines a virtual world which is probably the first to represent a metaverse. In the story, characters interact with each other in a complete world, where they own homes and are represented using avatars. This type of virtual world was later to be realized as Second Life, which was launched in 2003.[citation needed]

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.

The Doctor Who serial "The Deadly Assassin", first broadcast in 1976, introduced a dream-like computer-generated reality, known as the Matrix.

The first major American television series to showcase virtual reality regularly was Star Trek: The Next Generation. Several episodes featured a holodeck, a virtual reality facility that enabled its users to recreate and experience anything they wanted. One difference from current virtual reality technology, however, was that replicators, force fields, holograms, and transporters were used to actually recreate and place objects in the holodeck, rather than illusions.

The New Zealand post-apocalyptic soap opera The Tribe shows Virtual Reality being used by an advanced enemy tribe named the Technos.

British BBC2 sci-fi series Red Dwarf featured a virtual reality game titled "Better Than Life", in which the main characters had spent many years connected. 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 that all of 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".[citation needed]

The popular .hack multimedia franchise is based on a virtual reality MMORPG dubbed "The World" 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, and breaks down the atoms of the person inside, digitizes them, and recreates an incarnation on Lyoko. The Saban show VR Troopers also made use of the concept.

Motion pictures

  • Steven Lisberger's 1982 film Tron was the first mainstream Hollywood picture to explore the idea of virtual reality; transporting real-life characters into an alternate, computer-generated world.[citation needed]
  • One year later in 1983, the Natalie Wood / Christopher Walken film Brainstorm revolved around the production, use, and misuse of a VR device. The device could record a person's feelings and experiences, and share these with anyone else.
  • A VR-like system, used to record and play back dreams, figures centrally in Wim Wenders' 1991 film Until the End of the World.
  • The 1992 film The Lawnmower Man (which bore little resemblance to the Stephen King story on which it was ostensibly based) tells the tale of a research scientist who uses a VR system to jumpstart the mental and physical development of his mentally handicapped gardener.
  • Outside the genre of science fiction, 1994's Disclosure, starring Michael Douglas (based on the Michael Crichton's novel) depicts a VR headset being used as a navigation device for a prototype computer file system.
  • In 1999, The Matrix and later sequels explored the possibility that our world is actually a vast Virtual Reality (or more precisely, Simulated Reality) created by artificially intelligent machines.
  • Ryan Chester's Virtually Reality (2011) depicts a future world in which most natural wonders have been destroyed and developed upon, and virtual reality systems provide the only way for humans to experience the nature they never knew for real.

Radio

In 2009, British digital radio station BBC Radio 7 broadcast Planet B, a science-fiction drama set in a virtual world. Planet B was the largest ever commission for an original drama programme.[12]

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), and 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), and World Skin (1997). Other pioneering artists working in VR have include Luc Courchesne, Rita Addison, Knowbotic Research, Rebecca Allen, Perry Hoberman, Jacki Morie, Margaret Dolinsky and Brenda Laurel. All mentioned artists are documented in the Database of Virtual Art.[citation needed]

Music

Immersive virtual musical instruments build on the trend in electronic musical instruments to develop new ways to control sound and perform music such as evidenced by conferences like NIME and aim to represent musical events and sound parameters in a virtual reality in such a way that they can be perceived not only through auditory feedback, but also visually in 3D and possibly through tactile as well as haptic feedback, allowing the development of novel interaction metaphors beyond manipulation such as prehension.

Therapeutic uses

The primary use of VR in a therapeutic role is its application to various forms of exposure therapy, ranging from phobia treatments to newer approaches to treating PTSD. A very basic VR simulation with simple sight and sound models has been shown to be invaluable in phobia treatment, like zoophobia, and acrophobia, as a step between basic exposure therapy such as the use of simulacra and true exposure. A much more recent application is being piloted by the U.S. Navy to use a much more complex simulation to immerse veterans suffering from PTSD in simulations of urban combat settings. Much as in phobia treatment, exposure to the subject of the trauma or fear leads to desensitization, and a significant reduction in symptoms.[13][14]

Other research fields in which the use of virtual reality is being explored are physical medicine, rehabilitation, physical therapy, and occupational therapy. In adult rehabilitation, a variety of virtual reality applications are currently being evaluated within upper and lower limb motor rehabilitation for individuals recovering from stroke or spinal cord injury. In pediatrics, the use of virtual reality is being evaluated to promote movement abilities, navigational abilities, or social skills in children with cerebral palsy, acquired brain injury, or other disabilities.[citation needed] Research evidence is emerging rapidly in the field of virtual reality for therapeutic uses. A number of recent reviews published in peer-reviewed journals have summarized the current evidence for the use of Virtual Reality within pediatric and adult rehabilitation. One such review concluded that the field is potentially promising.[15]

Implementation

To develop a real time virtual environment, a computer graphics library can be used as embedded resource coupled with a common programming language, such as C++, Perl, Java, or Python. Some of the most popular computer graphic libraries are OpenGL, Direct3D, Java3D, and VRML, and their use are directly influenced by the system demands in terms of performance, program purpose, and hardware platform. The use of multithreading can also accelerate 3D performance and enable cluster computing with multi-user interactivity.

Manufacturing

Virtual reality can serve to new product design, helping as an ancillary tool for engineering in manufacturing processes, new product prototypes, and simulation. Among other examples, Electronic Design Automation, CAD, Finite Element Analysis, and Computer Aided Manufacturing are widely utilized programs.[citation needed] The use of Stereolithography and 3D printing shows how computer graphic modeling can be applied to create physical parts of real objects used in naval,[16] aerospace,[17] and automotive industries,[18] which can be seen, for example, in the VR laboratory of VW in Mladá Boleslav. Beyond modeling assembly parts, 3D computer graphics techniques are currently used in the research and development of medical devices for therapies,[19][20][21] treatments,[22] patient monitoring,[23] and early diagnoses[24] of complex diseases.

Urban design

3D virtual reality is becoming widely used for urban regeneration and planning and transport projects.[25]

Pioneers and notables

Artists using Virtual Reality Technology

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Erik Davis, Techgnosis: myth, magic and mysticism in the information age, 1998.
  2. '^ Antonin Artaud, "The Alchemical Theater", in The Theater and its Double, trans. Mary Caroline Richards, New York: Grove Press, 1958, p. 49, emphasis in original. See also Samuel Weber, "'The Virtual Reality of Theater': Antonin Artaud", in Theatricality as Medium, New York: Fordham University Press, 2004, pp. 277-94.
  3. ^ Garb, Yaakov (Winter 1987). "Virtual reality". Whole Earth Review (57): 118ff. 
  4. ^ Rheingold.com-howard Virtual Reality. 1991. ISBN 0262681218. http://www.rheingold.com/howard/ Rheingold.com-howard. 
  5. ^ Gonzales, D. (editor) (1991). "Automation and Robotics for the Space Exploration Initiative: Results from Project Outreach". [1]. 92 (17897): 35. 
  6. ^ Cline, Mychilo Stephenson (2005). Power, Madness, & Immortality: the Future of Virtual Reality. Virtualreality.universityvillagepress.com. http://books.google.com/?id=7OxbJWzIaVEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=power+madness+and+immortality&q=. Retrieved 2009-10-28. 
  7. ^ http://www.boloji.com/index.cfm?md=Content&sd=Articles&ArticleID=3247
  8. ^ "The Future of Virtual Reality with Mychilo Cline » Introduction to the Future of Virtual Reality". Virtualreality.universityvillagepress.com. http://virtualreality.universityvillagepress.com/index.php?itemid=25&catid=4. Retrieved 2009-10-28. 
  9. ^ Castranova, E. (2007). Exodus to the Virtual World: How online fun is changing reality. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.
  10. ^ Pimentel, K., & Teixeira, K. (1993). Virtual reality. New York: McGraw-Hill. ISBN 9780830640652
  11. ^ "Architecture's Virtual Shake-Up" Tayfun King, Click, BBC World News (2005-10-28)
  12. ^ Hemley, Matthew (2008-09-30). "BBC radio launches major cross-station sci-fi season". The Stage. http://www.thestage.co.uk/news/newsstory.php/21930/bbc-radio-launches-major-cross-station-sci-fi. Retrieved 2009-04-09. 
  13. ^ A Dose of Virtual Reality
  14. ^ http://www.onr.navy.mil/media/article.asp?ID=86
  15. ^ Sandlund M, McDonough S, Häger-Ross C. "Interactive computer play in rehabilitation of children with sensorimotor disorders: a systematic review.", Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, v51 n3 p173-179 Mar 2009. Retrieved on 2010-07-22
  16. ^ Rapid Marine Prototype -[Marine Prototyping, Yacht Prototyping, Marine Design, Boat Modeling, Design, and Engineering ]- » Case Study[dead link]
  17. ^ "CEI : News". Legacy.ensight.com. http://legacy.ensight.com/news/ncc.html. Retrieved 2009-10-28. [dead link]
  18. ^ "Werkzeug- und Formenbau — Motion Control Systems — Siemens". Automation.siemens.com. http://www.automation.siemens.com/mc/mc-sol/en/977978ba-1d82-47b3-a560-eb298ce89d42/index.aspx. Retrieved 2009-10-28. [dead link]
  19. ^ "Silicone Medical Device Testing". Dynatek dalta. http://www.dynatekdalta.com/silicone_medical_device_testing.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-28. 
  20. ^ "Special Feature: Emerging Technologies | Medical Product Manufacturing News". Mpmn-digital.com. http://www.mpmn-digital.com/mpmn/200803/?pg=24. Retrieved 2009-10-28. 
  21. ^ Shantesh Hede, Nagraj Huilgol. ""Nano": The new nemesis of cancer Hede S, Huilgol N, - J Can Res Ther". Cancerjournal.net. doi:10.4103/0973-1482.29829. http://www.cancerjournal.net/article.asp?issn=0973-1482;year=2006;volume=2;issue=4;spage=186;epage=195;aulast=Hede. Retrieved 2009-10-28. 
  22. ^ "IngentaConnect Nanotechnology: Intelligent Design to Treat Complex Disease". Ingentaconnect.com. 2006-06-16. doi:10.1007/s11095-006-0284-8. http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/klu/pham/2006/00000023/00000007/00010284;jsessionid=8tqn6da8a03l0.alice. Retrieved 2009-10-28. 
  23. ^ "Over the Horizon: Potential Impact of Emerging Trends in information and Communication Technology on Disability Policy and Practice". Ncd.gov. http://www.ncd.gov/newsroom/publications/2006/emerging_trends.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-28. 
  24. ^ "Nanomedicine - 1(1):67 - Summary". Future Medicine. http://www.futuremedicine.com/doi/abs/10.2217/17435889.1.1.67. Retrieved 2009-10-28. 
  25. ^ Roudavski, S. (2010). Virtual Environments as Techno-Social Performances: Virtual West Cambridge Case-Study, in CAADRIA2010: New Frontiers, the 15th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia, ed. by Bharat Dave, Andrew I-kang Li, Ning Gu and Hyoung-June Park, pp. 477-486

References

  • Blascovich, J Bailenson, J. Infinite Reality: Avatars, Eternal Life, New Worlds, and the Dawn of the Virtual Revolution, Harper Collins, 2011.
  • TechCast Article Series, Mateo Fernandez, Metaverse
  • TechCast Article Series, Aaron Druck, When will Virtual Reality become reality?
  • Brooks Jr., F. P. (1999). "What's Real About Virtual Reality?", IEEE Computer Graphics And Applications, 19(6), 16
  • Burdea, G. and P. Coffet (2003). Virtual Reality Technology, Second Edition. Wiley-IEEE Press.
  • Goslin, M, and Morie, J. F., (1996). "Virtopia" Emotional experiences in Virtual Environments", Leonardo, vol. 29, no. 2, pp. 95–100.
  • Oliver Grau, (2003) Virtual Art: From Illusion to Immersion (Leonardo Book Series). Cambridge/Massachusetts: MIT-Press.
  • Hayward V, Astley OR, Cruz-Hernandez M, Grant D, Robles-De-La-Torre G. Haptic interfaces and devices. Sensor Review 24(1), pp. 16–29 (2004).
  • Hillis, Ken (1999). Digital Sensations: Space, Identity and Embodiment in Virtual Reality. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, Minnesota.
  • Kalawsky, R. S. (1993). The Science of Virtual Reality and Virtual Environments: A Technical, Scientific and Engineering Reference on Virtual Environments, Addison-Wesley, Wokingham, England ; Reading, Massachusetts
  • Kelly, K., A. Heilbrun and B. Stacks (1989). "Virtual Reality; an Interview with Jaron Lanier", Whole Earth Review, Fall 1989, no. 64, pp. 108(12)
  • Klein. D, D. Rensink, H. Freimuth, G.J. Monkman, S. Egersdörfer, H. Böse, & M. Baumann — Modelling the Response of a Tactile Array using an Electrorheological Fluids - Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, vol 37, no. 5, pp794–803, 2004
  • Klein. D, H. Freimuth, G.J. Monkman, S. Egersdörfer, A. Meier, H. Böse M. Baumann, H. Ermert & O.T. Bruhns — Electrorheological Tactile Elements. Mechatronics - Vol 15, No 7, pp883–897 - Pergamon, September 2005.
  • Krueger, M. W. (1991). Artificial Reality II, Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts
  • Lanier, J., and F. Biocca (1992). "An Insider's View of the Future of Virtual Reality." Journal of Communication, 42(4), 150
  • Monkman. G.J. ‑ An Electrorheological Tactile Display ‑ Presence (Journal of Teleoperators and Virtual Environments) ‑ Vol. 1, issue 2, pp. 219–228, MIT Press, July 1992.
  • Monkman. G.J. - 3D Tactile Image Display - Sensor Review - Vol 13, issue 2, pp. 27–31, MCB University Press, April 1993.
  • Joseph Nechvatal, Immersive Ideals / Critical Distances. LAP Lambert Academic Publishing. 2009
  • Rheingold, H. (1992). Virtual Reality, Simon & Schuster, New York, N.Y.
  • Robinett, W. (1994). "Interactivity and Individual Viewpoint in Shared Virtual Worlds: The Big Screen vs. Networked Personal Displays." Computer Graphics, 28(2), 127
  • Robles-De-La-Torre G. The Importance of the Sense of Touch in Virtual and Real Environments. IEEE Multimedia 13(3), Special issue on Haptic User * Interfaces for Multimedia Systems, pp. 24–30 (2006).
  • Roudavski, S. (2010). Virtual Environments as Techno-Social Performances: Virtual West Cambridge Case-Study, in CAADRIA2010: New Frontiers, the 15th International Conference on Computer Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia, ed. by Bharat Dave, Andrew I-kang Li, Ning Gu and Hyoung-June Park, pp. 477–486
  • Slater, M., Usoh, M.(1993). "The Influence of a Virtual Body on Presence in Immersive Virtual Environments" Virtual Reality International 93, Proceedings of the Third Annual Conference on Virtual Reality, London, April 1993, pages 34–42. Meckler, 1993
  • Stanney, K. M. ed. (2002). Handbook of Virtual Environments: Design, Implementation, and Applications. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc., Mahwah, New Jersey
  • Sutherland, I. E. (1965). "The Ultimate Display". Proceedings of IFIP 65, vol 2, pp. 506–508
  • Warwick, K., Gray, J. and Roberts, D. eds. (1993). Virtual Reality in Engineering, Peter Peregrinus.
  • Zhai, Philip. (1998). Get Real: A Philosophical adventure in Virtual Reality, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, New York and Oxford.

External links

External videos
Virtual Reality, Computer Chronicles (1992)
  • Mixed Reality Scale - Milgram and Kishino’s (1994) Virtuality Continuum paraphrase with examples.
  • 3D City World - 3D City World - the realtime virtual World of 3D City


 
 

 

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