Virtual Reality - what it is?

The dictionary definition of VR reads, "a realistic and immersive simulation of a three-dimensional environment, created using interactive software and hardware, and experienced or controlled by movement of the body". However, we will say that there is one and only one primary purpose of the VR, that is, to make you believe that you are somewhere else, for example, in a gaming environment, a war zone, or touring some city.

Virtual Reality illustration

Realizing Virtual Reality

A person wearing a VR device/headset will be able to view the virtual environment, move around wearing it, and interact with items within that virtual environment. Most Virtual Realities are created using a head-mounted helmet or a set of goggles, which are given the generic name: head-mounted display (HMD). HMD is usually connected to a computer or a smartphone, which does all the 3D rendering work, and HMD is just used to display that rendered 3D content. HMD completely covers user's view, by covering both eyes. As a result, the user is completely cut off from the outside world and completely focused on the virtual or digital world.

HMDs basically consists of stereoscopic displays and motion tracking hardware. The way HMDs implement stereoscopic displays is by generating different image for each eye, which results in generating the illusion of depth. Within HMDs, motion tracking hardware mostly consists of a gyroscope and accelerometer to measure motion/position changes. This helps in simulating real-world experiences.

Virtual Reality in the field

There are various implementations of VR in diverse fields currently, and numerous new ones are coming up every day. It will be a very interesting domain for the next few years, where we will globally see lots of new fields picking up VR and merging it with other upcoming technologies. One such technology, which we can think of, is Artificial Intelligence (AI); Are we talking about the movie "Matrix" here?

While it's too early to predict possibilities in the future, let's explore some of the current fields where VR is being implemented. They are as follows:

• Gaming: Gaming was one of the first fields to pick up, start using, and commercialize VR. Apart from single-user VR games, multi-user online VR games are also available today. With the availability of low-cost devices, such as Google VR and smartphones, VR games/applications are within the reach of everyone.
• Tourism: Tourism is another field that has picked up VR. VR is used for generating stereoscopic 360-degree panoramic views, where the user interact with the virtual place and explores it. So, no more traveling or air-travel; just wear your VR device and explore new places every day.
• Education: Distant learning, visualization, and interactive teaching a few global examples of VR implementations within the education field. Earlier, teachers used to describe the scene and students used to imagine the possibilities. Now, they just visualize new possibilities and interact with them, and spend more time in thinking what's next.
• Architecture: Architecture is a field where VR has made life easier for the architects by making it easy to create prototypes. Now, they do not have to create cardboard prototypes or sketches to convey their thoughts and ideas. VR has made it possible for them to share ideas early in the cycle of development and receive early feedback. This saves lot of time in rework.
• Enterprise productivity: Especially, for enterprise training scenarios, VR is used very frequently. Scenarios in consideration can be simulating war situations for the armed forces, flight simulation for pilots, medical diagnostics simulations for doctors, and many others.
• Web content: With the support of WebGL technology by most of the latest browsers available in the market, rendering Virtual 3D content has become very easy. A lot of commercial websites for automobile companies, for example, have started publishing their automobile features in the form of 3D content, which has made it very interactive for end users to visualize the content.