Virtual and Augmented Reality

     In 2021, there are so many different and new up-and-coming technologies. One of the newer technologies that is becoming more widespread and more used is the use of Virtual Reality or VR. There’s also a separate, but similar part to VR called Augmented Reality, or AR. Virtual Reality is an environment of different scenes artificially created by a computer to immerse the participant using a visual headset and headphones. These use your sight and sound senses to create a false sense of reality when wearing the gear. Augmented reality is a simulation of objects in the real world with the same equipment. For example, for VR, you’re wholly immersed in a different reality or environment. However, with AR, you are able to see what is around you in real time, but virtual objects that aren’t there appear, such as the game Pokémon Go.

            How does Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality work? Software and hardware are combined to create the virtual world. The software created the scene that you are viewing, while the hardware is what you use to view the scene. It also uses many components such as head/position tracking, sound effects, and a high frame rate. With all of these components combined, you have your own virtual world you can explore and feel like you are there in real time.

Virtual reality is mainly used today for gaming, which you probably have seen some gamers on YouTube or Twitch use it. While it’s mainly used for this, they have now started integrating it into training for the military, such as the Navy or Coast Guard. They have started to integrate VR into these areas because it allows for a safe, yet immersive way to run different tests and trials. It also allows for the development of products that are larger in scale, such as an aircraft. It is also used for high pressure situation training, such as tactical training or combat training. This training can not only save their own life before they are put in those situations, but save others around them during those situations.

Virtual Reality is truly a remarkable piece of technology. With the ever growing components of it, there’s no way of knowing how much it will grow or how much more we will use it in the future. I read an article where they are trying to implement the use of VR into some therapies to help with some people social anxiety by immersing them in situations where they have to interact with the “people” around them. While we don’t know exactly where VR will advance us into the future, it’s exciting to see what it’s being used for now.

 

Bailenson, J. (2018). Experience on demand: What virtual reality is, how it works, and what it can do. WW Norton & Company.                                                                

Liu, X., Zhang, J., Hou, G., & Wang, Z. (2018, July). Virtual reality and its application in military. In IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (Vol. 170, No. 3, p. 032155). IOP Publishing.

Lele, A. (2013). Virtual reality and its military utility. Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Humanized Computing, 4(1), 17-26.