VR technology
Virtual reality (VR) is a relatively new technology that enables you to immerse yourself in an unlimited number of different visual settings from the comfort of your home. By wearing a headset with motion-tracking capabilities, you can enter any number of virtual spaces. Whether it be a museum in Rome or a driver’s education class, you can experience the sensation of actually being in the space since the screen is directly in front of your eyes rather than a few feet away. VR headsets have many uses in the professional world, but they are particularly popular with gamers. One downside is that VR technology evolves rapidly, which means expensive purchases can quickly become outdated.
Virtual reality vs. augmented reality
Virtual reality and augmented reality (AR) are two different hardware and software applications. Augmented reality applies graphics to real-world photos or videos. Virtual reality tricks your brain into believing you are in an illusory environment by immersing your senses with artificial information. This is called telepresence.
To enhance telepresence, VR headset motion sensors will read your movements and adjust the view on the screen in real-time. This enables you to experience flying an airplane or walking a virtual house tour as if you were actually doing it. Wearing data-feedback gloves allows you to touch and manipulate items you see, such as swinging a virtual golf club or fighting villains in a game.
The history of VR technology
Jaron Lanier invented virtual reality in 1987 when he was intimately involved in many early VR products. The U.S. government, particularly the Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation and NASA, encouraged research and development of virtual reality. The combined effort between the government, the military, academia and technical experts lead us to where we are today.
Lanier encouraged projects that aligned with his vision of human-computer interaction. He also served priorities for military systems, such as data visualization and command-and-control systems, per Encyclopedia Britannica. These projects created platforms for creative work, research spaces, training environments and social spaces. Academic institutes furthered these technological advances through the 1990s with a focus on military and medical needs.
Meanwhile, Ivan Sutherland of Harvard University was working on a tethered display for computer images. Since the 1990s, he had been developing a cap-shaped device with goggles that displayed computer-generated graphics. He suspended the headgear to alleviate the weight, and Sutherland found the visual isolation intensified the immersive experience. Technology continued to improve and VR packages now all include 3-D display and audio, a head tracker, speech recognition, computer-generated imagery and a data glove.
VR in real-life applications
Military training
From the beginning, an important area of application for VR headsets is simulating real-life situations. VR simulations allow lifelike training exercises without the physical dangers of the real situation, and can be done anywhere. This is especially useful in military applications. Flight simulation, for example, has trained pilots since World War II. Technology has changed exponentially since those first models and simulators now include eye trackers, hyper-sensitive joysticks and multiple sensors.
Medicine
VR headsets are used in many medical applications. In research labs, scientists create computer-generated models of molecular structures and then walk around inside the structures and manipulate them. This allows them to determine what drug treatment might help address a certain disease or disorder. During the 1990s, radiology also utilized this kind of technology.
VR also helps in remote surgical consultations and surgeries. Doctors use a remote-controlled robotic arm to perform their tasks. This technology has since taken off, especially with the development of microsurgery and micro-cameras.
Entertainment
Initially, VR headsets were a big success in commercial entertainment settings such as arcades, movie theatres and theme parks. However, they didn’t gain ground in at-home settings. Further technological advances in VR and computer processing have recently allowed for VR headsets to become a popular home device. Today’s headsets use realistic graphics and respond in real-time, making the experience fully immersive. Serious gamers love the experience in first-person action games since you can experience the adventure in all its intensity.
Tethered vs. standalone headsets
There are two types of VR headsets available to consumers. You can use tethered or standalone, and your budget will likely be the determining factor between these two options.
Tethered headsets
Tethered headsets like the HTC Vive Cosmos, PlayStation VR and Valve Index connect to your computer or game console via cable. Tethered headsets are the more expensive option and require a powerful computer or a dedicated game console. And although the cable can be cumbersome at times, the external motion-tracking and image processing of tethered headsets significantly enhance your VR experience.
Standalone headsets
Wireless headsets are cheaper, less constricting and don’t require an expensive external processing device. In essence, they are high-tech goggles that use your smartphone screen as a lens. They offer less processing power than tethered headsets, and some models only work with specific smartphones. But their dedicated games and apps still create impressive graphics. The Oculus Quest 2 uses similar outward-facing cameras as the Oculus Rift S, which provides superior motion tracking.
The future of VR headsets
While many people own gaming consoles, VR headsets are less common in a typical family household. But this may change since the gaming industry as a whole experienced a boom over the last year. VR games like Star Wars: Squadrons, Superhot VR and Creed: Rise to Glory only fueled their popularity. In addition, VR hardware improvements and more affordable pricing made the technology much more appealing and accessible. Other exciting developments such as Ampere video cards (graphics processing units) and CREAL’s nascent light-field display technology continue to make VR technology attractive to both consumers and developers.
Bryony Gilbey is a writer for BestReviews. BestReviews is a product review company with a singular mission: to help simplify your purchasing decisions and save you time and money.
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