Let’s experience the world with Virtual Reality (VR)
What is Virtual Reality?
Virtual Reality (VR) refers to a computer-generated experience in which a person can use electronic devices, such as special goggles with a screen or gloves fitted with sensors, to interact within an artificial three-dimensional world. The customer is able to have a realistic feel and sense of reality in this simulated artificial world. Augmented reality (AR) differs from VR in that AR improves the real world as it exists with graphical overlays and does not construct an environment that is entirely interactive.
Key learning’s from Virtual Reality
- Virtual reality (VR) creates an immersive digital environment that, through the use of technology, can appear very realistic.
- Users can look up, down, or some other way, via a virtual reality viewer, as if they were actually there.
- There are several use-cases for virtual reality, like entertainment and gaming, or serving as a sales, education, or training tool.
What do we understand from Virtual Reality?
The theory of virtual reality is based on the natural mix of two words: the actual and the virtual. The former means “nearly” or “conceptually,” which by the use of technology contributes to an illusion that is near-reality. Software produces and serves immersive environments that users wearing hardware devices such as goggles, headphones, and special gloves encounter. Together, the user, as if from inside, can view and communicate with the virtual world.
Let’s draw a parallel with real-world findings in order to understand virtual reality. Via our senses and our body’s perception processes, we perceive our world. Senses, as well as spatial awareness and balance, include taste, touch, smell, sight and hearing. Our brains process the inputs obtained by these senses to establish representations of the objective world around us. Virtual reality aims to construct an illusory world of artificial knowledge that can be conveyed to our senses, allowing our minds believe that it is (almost) a reality.
The uses of Virtual Reality
A three dimensional (3D) movie is the simplest example of VR. One gets the immersive experience of being a part of the film with an on-spot appearance using special 3D glasses. In front of the audience, the leaf dropping from a tree tends to float right, or the shot of a speeding car heading over a cliff lets the viewer feel the depth of the chasm and can give some viewers the sensation of falling. Essentially, our vision and hearing senses assume that something happens right in front of us, while nothing exists in actual reality, due to the light and sound effects of a 3D movie.
Beyond regular 3D glasses, technological advancements have enabled further improvement. To learn even further, one can find VR headsets now. Aided by computer systems, by keeping sensor-fitted racquets for playing inside a computer-controlled game simulation, one can now play “real” tennis (or other sports) right in their living room. The VR headset worn on the eyes of players gives the feeling of being on a tennis court.
Depending on the pace and direction of the incoming ball, they switch and attempt to strike and hit it with sensor-fitted racquets. The accuracy of the shot is measured by the game-control machine, which is displayed accordingly inside the VR game, showing whether the ball was hit too hard and went out of bounds or hit too soft and stopped by the net.
Training and simulation provide other applications of this VR technology. For instance, those who want to get a driver’s license may use a VR setup that includes handling car parts such as the steering wheel, brake, and accelerator for a first-hand experience of road driving. Without the risk of having an accident, it provides the advantage of practice, because students can gain a certain degree of skill in driving until they are actually on the road.
Real estate sellers may also use a home or apartment’s VR-aided walkthroughs to provide a sense of a property without necessarily having to physically be with a prospective buyer at the place.
Training astronauts for space travel, discovering the intricacies of miniature artifacts and enabling medical students to perform surgery on computer-generated subjects are other emerging applications.