What is virtual reality (VR)?
(Lint from a pocket) – The latest buzzword in the great world of technology is virtual reality or VR. Don’t be deceived into believing it’s a brand-new technology; it isn’t, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth getting excited about.
You’ve come to the correct spot if you’re wondering what virtual reality is and why you should be getting your knickers or pants twisted about it.
We’re about to explain what virtual reality is, how it works, and which gadgets are now available that use this amazing technology that you should learn about.
What is virtual reality (VR), and how does it work?
First and foremost, you must understand what virtual reality is. The name gives it away: it’s the sensation of being in a world that doesn’t exist. We’re not talking about becoming lost in a book or fantasizing about a photograph or painting, though these are also technically virtual reality experiences.
Virtual reality is a computer-generated environment that allows you to interact with a 3D world that isn’t real by wearing a head-mounted display and using some input tracking. The show will usually split your eyes, providing a stereoscopic 3D effect with stereo sound. When combined with the technology and input tracking, it will offer an immersive, convincing experience, allowing you to explore the computer’s virtual environment.
Virtual reality will make you feel as though you are physically and psychologically present. When you turn your head, the world around you turns with you; thus, the illusion generated by whatever world you’re in never fades.
When you’re watching a movie in the theatre, the split-second terror you might experience when a deadly earthquake occurs on-screen will vanish as soon as you turn your head to see the person next to you eating popcorn. Films and novels transport you to many fictitious worlds, but they are not places in which your choices have an impact.
Virtual reality comes in various forms, ranging from highly immersive to non-immersive to collaborative and web-based. The immersive VR that everyone is talking about is the explorable and interactive 3D computer-created environment that can take you somewhere that reality can’t, such as walking on Mars or driving around the Alps in a fast vehicle.
What is the origin of virtual reality?
As we know it now, virtual reality has been around for decades. To give you an idea, the original head-mounted display wasn’t an Oculus Rift, even though it is often regarded as the gadget that sparked the VR revolution. Instead, it was a Headlight device, which was developed in the 1960s. However, non-digital forerunners, all the way back to 360-degree paintings, shared the same goal: to transport your experience to a new location. Virtual reality is the wise man of technology, not simply because it is ancient.
Over the past 200 years, the technology has been utilized for everything from research and medicine to pilot training and helping architects display their latest skyscraper, allowing viewers to walk through it before a single brick has been put.
Yes, the current focus is primarily on gaming, but VR is useful for more than that. Virtual reality offers a wide range of uses, which will only grow as technology advances.