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Virtual reality ('''VR''') is a technology which allows a user to interact with a Computer-simulated environment, be it a real or imagined one. 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. Users can interact with a virtual environment 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 Boom Arm , and Omnidirectional Treadmill . The simulated environment can be similar to the real world, for example, simulations for pilot or combat training, or it can differ 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. personnel using a VR parachute trainer]] BACKGROUND Terminology The origin of the term virtual reality is uncertain. The Oxford English Dictionary cites a 1987 Whole Earth Review as the first example of the term 'virtual realities.' Packer and Jordan, in "Multimedia: from Wagner to Virtual Reality," explore the term and its history from an avant-garde perspective. '', " Artificial Reality ", has been in use since the 1970s . The concept of virtual reality was popularized in mass media by movies such as '' Brainstorm '' and '' The Lawnmower Man '' (and others mentioned below), and the VR research boom of the 1990s was motivated in part by the non-fiction book ''Virtual Reality'' by Howard Rheingold . The book served to demystify the subject, making it more accessible to less technical researchers and enthusiasts, with an impact similar to what his book '' The Virtual Community '' had on Virtual Community research lines closely related to VR. VR timeline the term "virtual reality" was popularized by Jaron Lanier , one of the modern pioneers of the field. Lanier had founded the company VPL Research (from "Virtual Programming Languages") in 1985 , which developed and built some of the seminal "goggles n' gloves" systems of that decade. FUTURE It is unclear exactly where the future of virtual reality is heading. In the short run, the graphics displayed in the HMD will soon reach a point of near realism. The audio capabilities will move into a new realm of three dimensional sound. This refers to the addition of sound channels both above and below the individual. The virtual reality application of this future technology will most likely be in the form of over ear headphones. 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. 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. Something complex such as a food product or specific flower would be prohibitively expensive (see the perfume industry as an example). 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 "head-plugs" 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. Times Online There has been research to show that this is possible. Sony has not conducted any tests as of yet and says that it is still only an idea. It has long been feared that Virtual Reality will be the last invention of man, as once simulations become cheaper and more widespread, no one will ever want to leave their "perfect" fantasies. Satirists, however, have nodded towards humans' aversion to catheters and starvation. IMPACT 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'', argues that virtual reality will lead to a number of important changes in human life and activity. He argues that:
Heritage and Archaeology The use of VR in Heritage and Archaeology has enormous 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 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. 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 comprised of a computer controlled laserdisc based system designed by British based engineer Colin Johnson. It is a little known fact that one of the first users of Virtual Reality was Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, when she officially opened the visitor centre in June 1994. Details of the original project can be viewed here.. Virtual Tours of Dudley Castle archive The system 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 - ISBN 0861591143. 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 in early 1960 a short story "dziwne skrzynie profesora Corcorana" in which he presented a scientist, who devised a completely artificial virtual reality. Amongst 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 paralysed 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. 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. 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. Television Perhaps the earliest example of virtual reality on television is a ''''. They featured the Holodeck , a virtual reality facility on starships, that enabled its users to recreate and experience anything they wanted. One difference from current virtual reality technology, however, was that Replicators , Force Field s, Hologram s, and Transporters were used to actually recreate and place objects in the holodeck, rather than relying solely on the illusion of physical objects, as is done today. In Japan and Hong Kong , the first Anime series to use the idea of virtual reality was '' Video Warrior Laserion '' (1984). An anime series known as ''Lain:Serial Experiments'' included a virtual reality world known as "The Wired" that eventually co-existed with the real world. Channel 4's '' Gamesmaster '' (1992 – 1998) also used a VR headset in its "tips and cheats" segment. 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 2005, Brazilian's Globo TV features a show where VR helmets are used by the attending audience in a space simulation called '' Conquista De Titã '', broadcasted for more than 20 million viewers weekly. In the anime Yugioh there's a virtual reality world created by the main characters rival Seto Kaiba consisting on playing the game of duel monsters in a virtual reality world where if you lose all your life points you become deleted. The Popular .hack multimedia franchise is based on a virtual reality MMORPG ironically dubbed " The World " Motion pictures Steven Lisberger's film ''''. 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 . There is also a film from 1995 called " Virtuosity " with Denzel Washington and Russel 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. 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 Computer s (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 In 1991, the company (originally W Industries, later renamed) Virtuality licenced the Amiga 3000 for use in their VR machines and released a VR gaming system called the 1000CS. This was a stand-up immersive HMD platform with a tracked 3D joystick. The system featured several VR games including ''Dactyl Nightmare'' (shoot-em-up), ''Legend Quest'' (adventure and fantasy), ''Hero'' (VR puzzle), ''Grid Busters'' (shoot-em-up). ''Virtual Reality I Glasses Personal Display System'' is a visor and headphones headset that is compatible with any video input including 3D broadcasting, and usable with most game systems ( Nintendo , PlayStation , etc.). ''Virtual Reality World 3D Color Ninja'' game comes with headset visor and ankle and wrist straps that sense the player's punches and kicks. ''Virtual Reality Wireless TV Tennis Game'' comes with a toy tennis racket that senses the player's swing, while ''Wireless TV Virtual Reality Boxing'' includes boxing gloves that the player wears and jabs with. Nintendo's Virtual Boy was sold for only one year, 1995. Bob Ladrach brought Virtual Knight into the major theme park arcades in 1994. Aura Interactor Virtual Reality Game Wear is a chest and back harness through which the player can feel punches, explosions, kicks, uppercuts, slam-dunks, crashes, and bodyblows. It works with Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo . In the '''' 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, or simply to guide the players through training sessions. In '' Kingdom Hearts II '', the character Roxas lives in a virtual Twilight Town until he merges with Sora . 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. Due to the increasing popularity of massively multiplayer games and Simulated Reality fiction, some members of the MMOG community have jokingly compared real life to MMORPG mechanics. {Link without Title} In 2006 a German company {Link without Title} released VR 3D Dragonflight. 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 Cal Tech . 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 included Rita Addison , Rebecca Allen , Perry Hoberman , Jacki Morie , and Brenda Laurel . Live installations and shows One of the best interesting installations of "live" virtual reality is the Very Nervous System by David Rokeby . In this virtual reality installation the video cameras, image processors, computers, synthesizers and a sound system to create a space in which the movements of one's body create sound and/or music. The Very Nervous System was realized in 1986 using Macintosh computers. | ||
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