Virtual Reality Applications, Today and Tomorrow
Virtual reality may be one the most important technologies in our future reaching many fields. While most people now focus on VR's use in entertainment areas, its real impact will be in the arts, business, communication, design, education, engineering, medicine, and many other fields. More and more objects exist first in computer graphics and later in real form. Computer graphics is a way of seeing and creating the world. We are just beginning to see the potential of virtual reality. I would like to suggest some important applications it will have in future. Architecture and Construction. Virtual reality is already showing its potential in the architecture and construction industry. A building can be created as electronic prototype while still being designed, so that both architect and client can experience the structure, modify it and costly changes during or after construction are avoided. In the future clients will not only be able to see the structure, but hear sounds from within it and feel its texture. Home builder are particularly excited about the potential of virtual reality to sell their designs. Why build expensive model homes when prospective buyers can see the range of options electronically? City planners will use virtual reality to redesign streets without leaving the room.
The Arts. At present you can see "virtually" a number of actual art galleries and museums via the Internet. Some museums conduct special exhibits of virtual reality art works. Virtual reality will change our conception of what constitutes art. A work of art may become a physically interactive experience. You may travel into a virtual painting, which will actually be a mini-world for you to explore. You may interact with its elements, perhaps even change them. You may enter a sculpture gallery and interact with the art pieces. You will actually become part of the art as you interact with it. Virtual techniques are used in film making to generate the very realistic characters and scenery in feature films.
Medicine. Virtual reality is just beginning to be used in medicine and medical research. The University of North Carolina uses it in biochemical engineering. They test the docking of molecules using visual displays and a force-feedback device. Several companies in Maryland and Connecticut are creating virtual bodies, a kind of "body electronic" to enhance medical training. In the future medical students will study anatomy by virtual dissecting which is cost effective and efficient way of studying the human body. Medical students and surgeons will practice virtually. They may even practice an operation for a specific patient, whose unique body characteristics have been scanned into the computer. Different diseases can also be simulated to test a medical student's or doctor's knowledge regarding treatment. Likewise virtual reality could help improve relaxation techniques, providing a pleasant world in which to relax.
Education and Training. Virtual reality is just beginning to be applied in education and training. Students can study anatomy or explore our galaxy. Some training applications relate to health and safety. They allow trainees to walk through a virtual factory and learn more about hazards than reading a manual or attending a lecture. In the future students will be able to learn through studying in virtual worlds. Chemistry students will be able to conduct experiments without risking an accidental explosion in the lab. Astronomy students will be able to visit a range of virtual galaxies to study their properties. History students will be able to visit different historical events and perhaps even participate in the action with historical figures. English students could be on stage at the Globe Theater as it was when Shakespeare's plays were first presented. They will also able to enter into a book and interact with its characters.
Virtual reality will also be used in teaching adults. Trainees in a wide variety of environments will be able to safely try out new techniques. They will be able to learn by doing tasks virtually before applying them in the real world. They will use these practice tasks in hazardous environs and also practice dealing with emergencies on the job. However, much remains to be done to bring virtual reality fully into the classroom.
Engineering. Engineers of all descriptions are already using virtual reality simulations to create and test prototypes. Each of the Big Three automakers is using some form of virtual reality to test new models. In the aerospace industry, the new Boeing 777 was the first aircraft to be designed and tested using virtual-reality technology.
Physical prototypes take a great deal of time to produce and are very costly. Changes to electronic or simulated prototypes can be done rapidly and inexpensively, shortening development time. Hoping to save money in prototyping and avoid cost overruns, the U.S. military has even coined the phrase, "Sum it before you build it!" In the future, nearly every engineering project will use virtual-reality prototypes. Even the manufacturing process and expected repairs will be simulated, saving money. Given advances in electronic networks, virtual work benches will be created with engineers in distant locations around the globe working in teams to design products.
Entertainment. Virtual reality is already being applied in entertainment. Entertainment centers are cropping up in major cities around the globe and travelling virtual-reality entertainment shows are on the ground. Soon, nearly ail video arcades will be VR centers; all games will be 3-D, interactive, and immersive. While the number of such entertainment centers will increase in the future, home based virtual reality will also grow dramatically. Current system are primitive, due to lack of computing power and the high cost of most virtual-reality equipment, but advanced virtual reality it set to invade the home entertainment scene in the years ahead. While stand-alone entertainment systems will be offered, perhaps the most important form of home VR will come over wide distances.
Imagine an adventure game in which you are immersed in a three-dimensional world, interacting with other participants. It can become a real, role-playing event. Imagine a movie in which you are a participant interacting with the plot and other characters. While these kinds of entertainment have been seen as separating participants in the past, in the future they may be seen as a new kind of socializing, one which may lead to richer relationship in the "real" world.
Marketing. Virtual reality is just beginning to be used by companies who want customers to experience their products and to understand them better. They" с found that a new technology, such as virtual reality, draws people to their exhibits and involves them with a product much more than standard displays. Cabletron, a cable network company in Rochester.
Business. Already, several companies have created three-dimensional visualization of the stock market. This arrangement shows the rise and fall of stock prices and a stock broker can quickly see the activity of stocks. A click can bring information t the screen and given the broker an opportunity to rapidly buy or sell a stock. The use of virtual reality in stock market trading will greatly increase in the future. The companies will apply virtual reality to identify trends on stock markets and make trades more rapidly. They will, in fact, be interacting with the stock markets in real time. Their work will be much like playing a large and complex video game. Some virtual reality software developers have been working on a product called Data Spaces, a step beyond the data base. Data Spaces represents information so as object that differ in size, colour, shape and spatial relationships. You will surf through information in a world of three-dimensional objects, selecting the information you need by clicking on the appropriate one. In the next few years you will be a' e to conduct this kind of search on the Internet using a recently accepted standard called Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML).
The Promise of Virtual Reality. These are just some present and tutu e applications of virtual reality. As you can see, there are many potential applications for virtual reality. Perhaps, in the future, we will only be limited by our imagination: regarding the uses of virtual reality. Virtual reality is neither good nor bad. It is a new tool that will have important implications in our future.
In working in the field of virtual reality, I have found a very important aspect of it that is often overlooked. In order to create virtual worlds, one must have an in-depth understanding of how our everyday world works. Perhaps one of virtual reality's greatest gifts will be helping us to understand better our own reality.
John C. Briggs