The definition of virtual reality comes, naturally, from the definitions for both ‘virtual’ and ‘reality’. The definition of ‘virtual’ is near and reality is what we experience as human beings. So the term ‘virtual reality’ basically means ‘near-reality’. This could, of course, mean anything but it usually refers to a specific type of reality emulation.
We know the world through our senses and perception systems. In school we all learned that we have five senses: taste, touch, smell, sight and hearing. These are however only our most obvious sense organs. The truth is that humans have many more senses than this, such as a sense of balance for example. These other sensory inputs, plus some special processing of sensory information by our brains ensures that we have a rich flow of information from the environment to our minds.
Everything that we know about our reality comes by way of our senses. In other words, our entire experience of reality is simply a combination of sensory information and our brains sense-making mechanisms for that information. It stands to reason then, that if you can present your senses with made-up information, your perception of reality would also change in response to it. You would be presented with a version of reality that isn’t really there, but from your perspective it would be perceived as real. Something we would refer to as a virtual reality.
So, in summary, virtual reality entails presenting our senses with a computer generated virtual environment that we can explore in some fashion.
In technical terms…
Answering “what is virtual reality” in technical terms is straight-forward. Virtual reality is the term used to describe a three-dimensional, computer generated environment which can be explored and interacted with by a person. That person becomes part of this virtual world or is immersed within this environment and whilst there, is able to manipulate objects or perform a series of actions.
How is virtual reality achieved?
Although we talk about a few historical early forms of virtual reality elsewhere on the site, today virtual reality is usually implemented using computer technology. There are a range of systems that are used for this purpose, such as headsets, omni-directional treadmills and special gloves. These are used to actually stimulate our senses together in order to create the illusion of reality.
This is more difficult than it sounds, since our senses and brains are evolved to provide us with a finely synchronised and mediated experience. If anything is even a little off we can usually tell. This is where you’ll hear terms such as immersiveness and realism enter the conversation. These issues that divide convincing or enjoyable virtual reality experiences from jarring or unpleasant ones are partly technical and partly conceptual. Virtual reality technology needs to take our physiology into account. For example, the human visual field does not look like a video frame. We have (more or less) 180 degrees of vision and although you are not always consciously aware of your peripheral vision, if it were gone you’d notice. Similarly when what your eyes and the vestibular system in your ears tell you are in conflict it can cause motion sickness. Which is what happens to some people on boats or when they read while in a car.
If an implementation of virtual reality manages to get the combination of hardware, software and sensory synchronicity just right it achieves something known as a sense of presence. Where the subject really feels like they are present in that environment.
Why have virtual reality?
This may seems like a lot of effort, and it is! What makes the development of virtual reality worthwhile? The potential entertainment value is clear. Immersive films and video games are good examples. The entertainment industry is after all a multi-billion dollar one and consumers are always keen on novelty. Virtual reality has many other, more serious, applications as well.
There are a wide variety of applications for virtual reality which include:
- Architecture
- Sport
- Medicine
- The Arts
- Entertainment
Virtual reality can lead to new and exciting discoveries in these areas which impact upon our day to day lives.
Wherever it is too dangerous, expensive or impractical to do something in reality, virtual reality is the answer. From trainee fighter pilots to medical applications trainee surgeons, virtual reality allows us to take virtual risks in order to gain real world experience. As the cost of virtual reality goes down and it becomes more mainstream you can expect more serious uses, such as education or productivity applications, to come to the fore. Virtual reality and its cousin augmented reality could substantively change the way we interface with our digital technologies. Continuing the trend of humanising our technology.
Features of virtual reality systems
There are many different types of virtual reality systems but they all share the same characteristics such as the ability to allow the person to view three-dimensional images. These images appear life-sized to the person.
Plus they change as the person moves around their environment which corresponds with the change in their field of vision. The aim is for a seamless join between the person’s head and eye movements and the appropriate response, e.g. change in perception. This ensures that the virtual environment is both realistic and enjoyable.
A virtual environment should provide the appropriate responses – in real time- as the person explores their surroundings. The problems arise when there is a delay between the person’s actions and system response or latency which then disrupts their experience. The person becomes aware that they are in an artificial environment and adjusts their behaviour accordingly which results in a stilted, mechanical form of interaction.
The aim is for a natural, free-flowing form of interaction which will result in a memorable experience.
Summary
Virtual reality is the creation of a virtual environment presented to our senses in such a way that we experience it as if we were really there. It uses a host of technologies to achieve this goal and is a technically complex feat that has to account for our perception and cognition. It has both entertainment and serious uses. The technology is becoming cheaper and more widespread. We can expect to see many more innovative uses for the technology in the future and perhaps a fundamental way in which we communicate and work thanks to the possibilities of virtual reality.
This article is part of a series about Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality in which I will share my research and viewpoints about these emerging technologies. You can read my second article about AR here. here is no doubt that VR/AR will be the next major computing platform. I am fascinated with the potential of these amazing technologies to transform our lives, especially their enormous impacts on education, health care, and consumer behavior. The focus of this post is on the application space within VR. And while the specific VR applications that are available in the market may come and go in today’s rapidly changing technology, the concepts behind them remain the same. Understanding these core concepts is the initial step for one to consider on how to utilize VR in solving their personal or business problems, regardless of industry. With the above in mind, let’s learn about VR together through these three factors:
Virtual reality is a computer technology that immerses a user in an imagined or replicated world (like video games, movies, or flight simulation), or simulates presence in the real world (like gliding through the canals on a gondola in Venice, or attending a Grammy Awards ceremony). The user experiences VR through a headset, sometimes in combination with physical spaces or multi-projected environments, and is able to interact with the virtual world in real time. A fully immersive VR experience can provide synthetic stimuli to multiple physical senses of the user. The most common sensory displays in VR are visual, aural, haptic, and vestibular (balance).
In short, VR is a medium that puts you inside of the media. When VR is done well, your brain is going to treat that as if it were a real experience. It feels like you’re actually doing something.
The following short video is a good introduction to VR, and will answer your most basic questions:
Source: CNETKey VR concepts
Four key elements of VR experience
The key elements of experiencing VR — and differentiate it from other media — are a virtual world, immersion, sensory feedback (responding to user input), and interactivity.
A virtual world is a three-dimensional environment generated by a computer in which one can interact with others and create objects as part of that interaction.
In the medium of VR, the term “immersion” refers to both physical and mental sensation of being in an environment. In discussions of most media, “being immersed” generally refers to an emotional or mental state — a feeling of being involved in the experience. In the medium of VR, however, physical immersion is also the property of a VR system because participants physically interact with the virtual environment.
Physical immersion is a defining characteristic of virtual reality.
In VR, participants are provided with direct sensory feedbacks based on their physical positions and activities in the virtual world. A virtual display, for example, responds to a participant moving his or her head by updating the displayed image accordingly.
The difference between VR and other media is that in VR, we experience first-hand an imagined reality with many of our physical senses. These sensory feedbacks give participants the ability to observe the results of their activities in the medium. In other media such as movies, novels, radio, we experience perceived reality second-hand through imagining ourselves within the world presented through the medium.
In other words, VR is a medium that allows us to have a simulated experience of the physical reality. Because of this, VR allows us to purposefully reduce the danger of physical reality and to more safely create scenarios that are not possible in the real world.
For VR to seem authentic, it should be interactive in responding to users’ action in the virtual world. If the virtual environment responds to a user’s action in a natural manner, the sense of immersion will remain. If the virtual environment cannot respond quickly enough, the human brain will rapidly notice and the sense of immersion will diminish.
Source: Oculus“What you see in painting is a window into someone’s artistic interpretation of the world. In VR, you don’t see that person’s point of view through a window. You’re inside of it.” — Saschka Unseld, Director — Dear Angelica, Creative Director — Oculus Story Studio
Other key concepts
Telepresence is an application that uses VR technology to virtually place the user somewhere else in space. The user is able to see and hear with the aid of remote sensing devices in a remote location from the first person point of view. They are able to interact and affect the remote environment by their actions.
Example:
In partnership with Jaunt, a cinematic VR content company, Paul McCartney released a 360-degree concert recording through a virtual reality app, which provides a VR experience where users felt like they were on stage with the rock star.
- Collaborative environment
A collaborative VR environment refers to multiple users interacting within the same virtual space or simulation. Users can perceive and interact with one another within the simulation. The users’ representation is referred to as their avatar. The simulated world runs on several computers that are connected over network. This allows users from different locations to participate in the same VR experience together.
Example:
Bigscreen is a social virtual desktop app that allows users to use their computer in VR. Users can work, play, hang out, and collaborate in virtual environments.
In general, VR is an especially suitable medium for problems that require manipulation of objects in a three-dimensional environment. Besides, one also can fully take advantages of its telepresence and virtual collaboration features to create more benefits for the application, if applicable.
The following list is not meant to be exhaustive of the types of problem that VR can solve.
1. Immersive 3D presentation
VR is suitable in scenarios in which an immersive 3D presentation or a 3D visualization of an object is more persuasive than a one- or two-dimensional format, such as in the cases of architectural walkthroughs, design spaces, virtual prototyping, scientific visualization, teaching and learning a subject in 3D.
Example:
InsiteVR allows architects to transform designs from major modeling software into three-dimensional VR environments, which they can then view in a life-like 3D image using certain VR headsets. This gives the architects a chance to “walk through” a design, as it were, and see how it would look when completed, so they can make changes. InsiteVR also allows multiple VR users from remote locations to explore content together and collaborate virtually.
2. Exploration
VR is a suitable delivery mechanism if the goal is to explore or familiarize oneself with a specific environment (either real or fictitious). Image any art student in Vietnam (my home country), or anywhere in the world, can have the opportunity to visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, or the Louvre Museum in Paris, by just putting a VR headset on. How fascinating is that!
On the commercial side, VR can be an effective marketing and sales tool for the hospitality, tourism and real estate industries. A VR presentation or experience can provide customers a personalized and detailed tour of the resort, hotel, or an individual suite, which adds to the sense of customers being there and can have positive impacts on sales conversion.
Example:
Source: MatterportThrough a collaboration with VR firm Matterport, the New York Times now offers virtual reality tours of some of its luxury real estate listings.
3. Simulation
Types of problems that can benefit from simulations in VR:
- Problems that cannot be tackled in the physical world (e.g., witnessing the formation of the Earth)
- Problems that cannot be studied safely (e.g., witnessing an earthquake)
- Problems that require extensive practice to avoid costly mistakes in real life (e.g., football training, surgical practice)
- Problems that cannot be deployed due to cost constraints (e.g., car dealership showroom)
- Problems in “What if?” studies (where virtual exploration could lead to better understanding)
Examples:
Startup Psious uses VR for exposure therapy to overcome phobias. The VR platform provides mental health professionals with animated and live environments for exposure therapy while maintaining a safe and secure office environment. The therapists are able to get a real-time look at what their patient is seeing and adjust the experience as needed even during a session to ensure optimized results that meet the needs of each individual patient.
Another example is STRIVR, which was born out of Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab. STRIVR is a pioneer in VR training and has been used by many professional and college football teams to train athletes through VR experiences. An evaluation study of the effectiveness of VR training shows that STRIVR training led to 30% point increase in recall of topics, from 70% to 100%.
4. Live & Real-life events
With its telepresence property, VR can be utilized for streaming of live events (e.g., fashion shows, music concerts, sport events, industry conferences, and world affairs). Watching an event in VR makes a user feel like they’re physically attending the event with the best seat in the house. This helps solve the problem of limited seating at events and makes events essentially available to anyone and anywhere.
Example:
CNN partnered with NextVR, the leader in broadcasting live sports events and concerts in VR, to stream the first 2016 US Democratic presidential debate in VR which was watched across 121 countries. NextVR also has partnered with leaders in sports and entertainment, including the NBA, FOX Sports, Live Nation, International Champions Cup, to deliver live events in VR to fans globally.
5. Social platforms & Virtual collaboration
In VR, people come together in a shared virtual environment and have natural conversations much as they would face-to-face. They are also able to interact in real-time with 3D items besides 2D objects such as PDF, PowerPoint documents. This allows remote individuals and groups to communicate ideas with each other more effectively and have more personal touch than traditional methods such as video conference, phone call, and traditional social media.
On the consumer application side, besides Bigscreen — mentioned earlier in this post — examples of other social platforms for shared user experiences in VR include Against Gravity’s Rec Room, AltspaceVR, and Facebook Spaces.
Source: LiveLikeLiveLike, an on-demand sports VR media content platform, now allows you to watch sports with your Facebook friends in VR with customizable avatars and spatialized audio.
On the professional application side, WorldViz’s Skofield, currently in Beta, provides corporations with an immersive communication method in VR that allows effective collaboration between remote individuals and groups.
6. Empathy
VR affect people on an emotional level much more than any other media. Because of its immersive properties, VR can give them not just a better sense of the places but also more empathy and a deeper emotional connection to the people that were actually there. It is a powerful tool for visual storytelling and simulation experiences to connect human beings to other human beings and to spread awareness and inspire action on pressing social issues, such as in the journalism, nonprofit and environmental industries.
For example, in order to raise awareness of Syrian refugees’ struggles, United Nation partnered with VR firm Within (formerly VRSE) to produce Clouds Over Sidra. It is a VR film that features a twelve year old in the Za’atari camp in Jordan, home to 130,000 Syrians fleeing violence and war, and children make up half the camp’s population. Viewers are taken closer to the situation than a standard screen could ever convey, joining refugee children in their activities at school and families throughout the day.
Results: A 2015 fundraising conference where Clouds Over Sidra was shown ended up raising $3.8 billion, over 70 percent more than projected. A UNICEF study shows that one in six people made donations after watching the video, which is twice the normal rate of giving.
Another example is the homeless project at Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab. To cultivate empathy, a VR experiment was designed to have participants simulate being homeless and riding a bus.
In fact, it was the Empathy element that first drove me to learn more about the potentials of VR.
I hope you enjoyed this post and gained a basic understanding of what VR is and its benefits. I welcome any feedbacks or comments, and look forward to connecting with people who share my passion for VR/AR.
My another simple hope is that after reading this post, some of you who have never put on a VR headset will at least google “where to try VR headsets.” If you are in the New York area, you can try Samsung Gear VR for free at Samsung 837. You also can pay a fee to try different VR headsets and VR experiences at Jump Into the Light and VR World. Or check out Ghostbusters at Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum for a hyper immersive VR experience.
In the meantime, stay tuned for my next post about Augmented Reality!