Virtual Reality
Virtual Reality
INTRODUCTION:
What is virtual reality?
Virtual reality (VR) is a technology which allows a user to interact with a computer-simulated environment, whether that environment is a simulation of the real world or an imaginary world. It is an artificial environment that is created with software and presented to the user in such a way that the user suspends belief and accepts it as a real environment. On a computer, virtual reality is primarily experienced through two of the five senses: sight and sound
Most current virtual reality environments are primarily visual experiences, displayed either on a computer screen or stereoscopic displays, but some simulations include additional sensory information, such as sound through speakers or headphones.
Virtual reality can be divided into:
The simulation of a real environment for training and education. The development of an imagined environment for a game or interactive story.
HISTORY:
The concept of virtual reality has been around for decades, even though the public really only became aware of it in the early 1990s.
Mid of 1950: Cinematographer Named Morton Heilig & Device: Sensorama
Envisioned a theatre experience that would stimulate all his audiences’ senses, drawing them in to the stories more effectively. He build a console in 1960 called the Sensorama that included a stereoscopic display, fans, odor emitters, stereo speakers and a moving chair. He also invented a head mounted television display designed to let a user watch television in 3-D. Users were passive audiences for the films, but many of Heilig’s concepts would find their way into the VR field.
In 1961: Philco Corporation engineers & Device: Headsight
Developed the first HMD in 1961, called the Headsight. The helmet included a video screen and tracking system, which the engineers linked to a closed circuit camera system. They designed the HMD for use in dangerous situations — a user could observe a real environment remotely, adjusting the camera angle by turning his head.
Bell Laboratories used a similar HMD for helicopter pilots. They linked HMDs to infrared cameras attached to the bottom of helicopters, which allowed pilots to have a clear field of view while flying in the dark.
In 1965: A Computer Scientist Named Ivan Sutherland
Envisioned what he called the “Ultimate Display.” Using this display, a person could look into a virtual world that would appear as real as the physical world the user lived in. This vision guided almost all the developments within the field of virtual reality. Sutherland’s concept included:
A virtual world that appears real to any observer, seen through an HMD. A computer that maintains the world model in real time. The ability for users to manipulate virtual objects in a realistic, intuitive way.
For years, VR technology remained out of the public eye. Almost all development focused on vehicle simulations until the 1980s.
In 1984: Michael McGreevy & Device: Human-Computer Interface (Hci)
Began to experiment with VR technology as a way to advance human-computer interface (HCI) designs. HCI still plays a big role in VR research, and moreover it lead to the media picking up on the idea of VR a few years later.
In 1987: Jaron Lanier coined the term Virtual Reality in 1987.
VIRTUAL REALITY ENVIRONMENT:
Other sensory output from the VE system
Incoming search terms:
Read MoreVirtual Reality in Medicine – many evolving uses and advantages
Virtual Reality in Medicine – many evolving uses and advantages
Virtual reality techniques, involving three-dimensional imaging and surround sound, are increasingly being used in diagnosis, treatment, and medical education. Initial applications of virtual reality in medicine involved visualization of the complex data sets generated by computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans. A recent application of these techniques for diagnostic purposes has been the “virtual colonoscopy,” in which data from a contrast-enhanced abdominal CT scan is used to make a “fly-through” of the colon. Radiologists then use this fly-through for colon cancer screening. Recent improvements in methodology have brought the sensitivity and specificity of this technique closer to the levels of optical colonoscopy, and patients prefer the technique to the traditional method.
Virtual reality has also been used extensively to treat phobias (such as a fear of heights, flying and spiders) and post-traumatic stress disorder. This type of therapy has been shown to be effective in the academic setting, and several commercial entities now offer it to patients. In one of my projects using the multi-user virtual reality environment offered by Second Life, one of several easily available online virtual reality environments, we have used a virtual psychosis environment to teach medical students about the auditory and visual hallucinations suffered by patients with schizophrenia.
Virtual reality has been used to provide medical education about healthcare responses to emergencies such as earthquakes, plane crashes and fires. While the primary advantage in phobia treatment is a “safe environment” which patients can explore, the primary advantage in emergency preparedness is simulation of events that are either too rare or too dangerous for effective real-world training. The immersive nature of the virtual reality experience helps to recreate the sense of urgency or panic associated with these events.
Virtual reality programs have also been used for a variety of medical emergency, mass casualty, and disaster response training sessions for medical and public health professionals. One study developed a protocol for training physicians to treat victims of chemical-origin mass casualties as well as victims of biological agents using simulated patients. Although it was found that using standardized patients for such training was more realistic, the computer-based simulations afforded a number of advantages over the live training. These included increased cost effectiveness, the opportunity to conduct the same training sessions over and over to improve skills, and the ability to use “just-in-time” learning techniques and experience the training session at any time and location, while adjusting the type and level of expertise required to use the training for various emergency response professionals. Others have explored the potential for training emergency responders for major health emergencies using virtual reality. Their objective was to increase exposure to life-like emergency situations to improve decision-making and performance and reduce psychological distress in a real health emergency.
Experience with recent natural disasters and terrorist acts has shown that good communication and coordination between responders is vital to an effective response. In my work using Second Life to develop a virtual mass disaster emergency clinic to hand out antibiotics to the population following a massive anthrax bioterrorism attack, we have found a number of important advantages of the virtual world, over the real world, for training first responders.
Responders to such events come from many different organizations, including fire, police, military, and hospital personnel. There are three major difficulties in training and evaluating these first responders in the real world:
1. They have little or no chance to train together before the event occurs and hence lack teamwork