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Virtual reality (VR), the use of computer modeling and simulation that enables a person to interact with an artificial three-dimensional (3-D) visual or other sensory environment. VR applications immerse the user in a computer-generated environment that simulates reality through the use of interactive devices, which send and receive information and are worn as goggles, headsets, gloves, or body suits. In a typical VR format, a user wearing a helmet with a stereoscopic screen views animated images of a simulated environment. The illusion of being there (telepresence) is effected by motion sensors that pick up the users movements and adjust the view on the screen accordingly, usually in real time (the instant the users movement takes place). Thus, a user can tour a simulated suite of rooms, experiencing changing viewpoints and perspectives that are convincingly related to his own head turnings and steps. Wearing data gloves equipped with force-feedback devices that provide the sensation of touch, the user can even pick up and manipulate objects that he sees in the virtual environment.

Screen from World of Warcraft, a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG).

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Is virtual reality only used in toys? Have robots ever been used in battle? From computer keyboards to flash memory, learn about gadgets and technology in this quiz.

The term virtual reality was coined in 1987 by Jaron Lanier, whose research and engineering contributed a number of products to the nascent VR industry. A common thread linking early VR research and technology development in the United States was the role of the federal government, particularly the Department of Defense, the National Science Foundation, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Projects funded by these agencies and pursued at university-based research laboratories yielded an extensive pool of talented personnel in fields such as computer graphics, simulation, and networked environments and established links between academic, military, and commercial work. The history of this technological development, and the social context in which it took place, is the subject of this article.

Artists, performers, and entertainers have always been interested in techniques for creating imaginative worlds, setting narratives in fictional spaces, and deceiving the senses. Numerous precedents for the suspension of disbelief in an artificial world in artistic and entertainment media preceded virtual reality. Illusionary spaces created by paintings or views have been constructed for residences and public spaces since antiquity, culminating in the monumental panoramas of the 18th and 19th centuries. Panoramas blurred the visual boundaries between the two-dimensional images displaying the main scenes and the three-dimensional spaces from which these were viewed, creating an illusion of immersion in the events depicted. This image tradition stimulated the creation of a series of mediafrom futuristic theatre designs, stereopticons, and 3-D movies to IMAX movie theatresover the course of the 20th century to achieve similar effects. For example, the Cinerama widescreen film format, originally called Vitarama when invented for the 1939 New York Worlds Fair by Fred Waller and Ralph Walker, originated in Wallers studies of vision and depth perception. Wallers work led him to focus on the importance of peripheral vision for immersion in an artificial environment, and his goal was to devise a projection technology that could duplicate the entire human field of vision. The Vitarama process used multiple cameras and projectors and an arc-shaped screen to create the illusion of immersion in the space perceived by a viewer. Though Vitarama was not a commercial hit until the mid-1950s (as Cinerama), the Army Air Corps successfully used the system during World War II for anti-aircraft training under the name Waller Flexible Gunnery Traineran example of the link between entertainment technology and military simulation that would later advance the development of virtual reality.

Panorama of the Battle of Gettysburg, painting by Paul Philippoteaux, 1883; at Gettysburg National Military Park, Pennsylvania

Sensory stimulation was a promising method for creating virtual environments before the use of computers. After the release of a promotional film called This Is Cinerama (1952), the cinematographer Morton Heilig became fascinated with Cinerama and 3-D movies. Like Waller, he studied human sensory signals and illusions, hoping to realize a cinema of the future. By late 1960, Heilig had built an individual console with a variety of inputsstereoscopic images, motion chair, audio, temperature changes, odours, and blown airthat he patented in 1962 as the Sensorama Simulator, designed to stimulate the senses of an individual to simulate an actual experience realistically. During the work on Sensorama, he also designed the Telesphere Mask, a head-mounted stereoscopic 3-D TV display that he patented in 1960. Although Heilig was unsuccessful in his efforts to market Sensorama, in the mid-1960s he extended the idea to a multiviewer theatre concept patented as the Experience Theater and a similar system called Thrillerama for the Walt Disney Company.

The seeds for virtual reality were planted in several computing fields during the 1950s and 60s, especially in 3-D interactive computer graphics and vehicle/flight simulation. Beginning in the late 1940s, Project Whirlwind, funded by the U.S. Navy, and its successor project, the SAGE (Semi-Automated Ground Environment) early-warning radar system, funded by the U.S. Air Force, first utilized cathode-ray tube (CRT) displays and input devices such as light pens (originally called light guns). By the time the SAGE system became operational in 1957, air force operators were routinely using these devices to display aircraft positions and manipulate related data.

During the 1950s, the popular cultural image of the computer was that of a calculating machine, an automated electronic brain capable of manipulating data at previously unimaginable speeds. The advent of more affordable second-generation (transistor) and third-generation (integrated circuit) computers emancipated the machines from this narrow view, and in doing so it shifted attention to ways in which computing could augment human potential rather than simply substituting for it in specialized domains conducive to number crunching. In 1960 Joseph Licklider, a professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) specializing in psychoacoustics, posited a man-computer symbiosis and applied psychological principles to human-computer interactions and interfaces. He argued that a partnership between computers and the human brain would surpass the capabilities of either alone. As founding director of the new Information Processing Techniques Office (IPTO) of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Licklider was able to fund and encourage projects that aligned with his vision of human-computer interaction while also serving priorities for military systems, such as data visualization and command-and-control systems.

Another pioneer was electrical engineer and computer scientist Ivan Sutherland, who began his work in computer graphics at MITs Lincoln Laboratory (where Whirlwind and SAGE had been developed). In 1963 Sutherland completed Sketchpad, a system for drawing interactively on a CRT display with a light pen and control board. Sutherland paid careful attention to the structure of data representation, which made his system useful for the interactive manipulation of images. In 1964 he was put in charge of IPTO, and from 1968 to 1976 he led the computer graphics program at the University of Utah, one of DARPAs premier research centres. In 1965 Sutherland outlined the characteristics of what he called the ultimate display and speculated on how computer imagery could construct plausible and richly articulated virtual worlds. His notion of such a world began with visual representation and sensory input, but it did not end there; he also called for multiple modes of sensory input. DARPA sponsored work during the 1960s on output and input devices aligned with this vision, such as the Sketchpad III system by Timothy Johnson, which presented 3-D views of objects; Larry Robertss Lincoln Wand, a system for drawing in three dimensions; and Douglas Engelbarts invention of a new input device, the computer mouse.

Within a few years, Sutherland contributed the technological artifact most often identified with virtual reality, the head-mounted 3-D computer display. In 1967 Bell Helicopter (now part of Textron Inc.) carried out tests in which a helicopter pilot wore a head-mounted display (HMD) that showed video from a servo-controlled infrared camera mounted beneath the helicopter. The camera moved with the pilots head, both augmenting his night vision and providing a level of immersion sufficient for the pilot to equate his field of vision with the images from the camera. This kind of system would later be called augmented reality because it enhanced a human capacity (vision) in the real world. When Sutherland left DARPA for Harvard University in 1966, he began work on a tethered display for computer images (see photograph). This was an apparatus shaped to fit over the head, with goggles that displayed computer-generated graphical output. Because the display was too heavy to be borne comfortably, it was held in place by a suspension system. Two small CRT displays were mounted in the device, near the wearers ears, and mirrors reflected the images to his eyes, creating a stereo 3-D visual environment that could be viewed comfortably at a short distance. The HMD also tracked where the wearer was looking so that correct images would be generated for his field of vision. The viewers immersion in the displayed virtual space was intensified by the visual isolation of the HMD, yet other senses were not isolated to the same degree and the wearer could continue to walk around.

Early head-mounted display device developed by Ivan Sutherland at Harvard University, c. 1967.

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Virtual reality | computer science | Britannica

If you could spend the day in somebody elses shoes, your perspective of that person would likely change. Its not so easy to do in real life, but in virtual reality (VR), you can make anything happen.

Dr. Quentin Tyler is the Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Michigan State University. He came up with the idea of a virtual reality app that can help people develop empathy.

This app is a way to meet people where theyre at, Dr. Quentin Tyler said. Its an app that will attract folks from a variety of backgrounds. Folks who are interested in virtual reality as well as folks who are interested in improving their diversity, equity and inclusion journey.

The app is called A Mile in My Shoes.

A Mile in My Shoes is a unique experience, Dr. Tyler said. Its a creative immersion experience that allows individuals to see the world through the lens of identified individuals.

Assistant Professor of Interior Design Dr. Linda Nubani helped him create it. She specializes in architecture and virtual reality. She says VR is a very impactful tool since it can model complex scenarios.

When it first launched, I believe it was very commonly used in military applications, flight simulations, and medical operations and now its been commercially available, so a lot of researchers are interested in exploring the potentials of using virtual reality in other applications, Dr. Nubani said.

So why not use VR to help somebody understand and care for a person who is completely different from them? Dr. Nubani says they were very intentional while building the app.

Research showed that if you go for a third person and youre constantly seeing your avatar, youre going to develop a sense of ownership for that avatar, Dr. Nubani said.

If you develop a sense of ownership for your avatar, she says it will be easier to uncover your unconscious biases.

Unconscious bias to me is those small things, Dr. Tyler said. Its those pattern behaviors that we have that are positive or negative that influence our perceptions, beliefs, and thoughts about individuals or groups.

We use the word unconscious, because most of the time, people arent aware theyre being biased simply because we dont know what its like to be in that persons shoes. The avatars in the app include an LGBTQ+ student, a student in a wheelchair, and a student wearing a hijab.

An additional avatar is an African American male that may experience microaggressions upon entering the facility, Dr. Tyler said. You know asking that individual, 'do they belong here,' or even just looking at the pictures on the wall that dont represent who that individual maybe.

Dr. Tyler and Dr. Nubani have created surveys to help measure changes in empathy as people go through the app. The goal isnt just to become aware of your own biases, but to learn how to behave when you witness uncomfortable situations caused by somebody else.

How do you be an advocate, or an agent of change or speak up for that individual, Dr. Tyler said.

Both say they hope to expand the app even more, adding additional avatars and expanding their reach beyond universities.

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Virtual reality app created to help uncover unconscious bias - The Denver Channel

Graphs and reports about climate change can be hard to relate to, but a stroll in the woods is not.

So to help people connect with how forests may change as the climate warms, researchers at Penn State are experimenting with virtual reality.

To ground a conversation, and then potential decision-making, in something thats graspable, thats visceral, Alex Klippel says.

Klippel and his team developed a prototype of a VR forest, modeled after a forest in northern Wisconsin.

Wearing a VR headset, users can explore the woods. They can look up at the sky, down at the sun-dappled ground, and even hear birds chirping.

We can create a visceral, embodied experience, Klippel says.

The technology incorporates detailed data about the tree and plant species in the forest, and projections of how warmer, drier conditions could affect them. For example, some species such as balsam fir and white ash may decrease in number or become stunted.

Users can zoom in to learn about each species. And they can toggle between how the forest looks today, and how it may look decades in the future.

Immersive experiences can convey something more tangible than data alone. So Klippel hopes they can get people thinking about the effects of climate change in a whole new way.

Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy/ChavoBart Digital Media

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A virtual reality forest takes users for a walk in the woods of the future - Yale Climate Connections

V.R. is not going to be the solution, said Jonathan Rogers, a researcher at University College London who has studied rates of anxiety disorders during the pandemic. It may be part of the solution, but its not going to make medications and formal therapies obsolete.

Virtual reality treatments arent necessarily more effective than traditional prolonged exposure therapy, said Dr. Sherrill. But for some patients, V.R. offers convenience and can immerse a patient in scenes that would be hard to replicate in real life. For some people, the treatment can mimic video game systems theyre already familiar with. Theres also a dual awareness in patients who use virtual reality the images on the screen are almost lifelike, but the headset itself functions as proof that theyre not real.

Months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, Dr. Difede and Dr. Hunter Hoffman, who is the director of the Virtual Reality Research Center at the University of Washington, tested virtual reality treatments in one survivor with acute PTSD, one of the first reported applications of the therapy. Dr. Difede said that the first time the patient put on the headset, she started crying. I never thought Id see the World Trade Center again, she told Dr. Difede. After six hourlong sessions, the patient experienced a 90 percent decrease in PTSD symptoms. Dr. Difede later tested V.R. exposure therapy in Iraq War veterans; 16 out of the first 20 patients no longer met the diagnostic criteria for PTSD after completing treatment.

At the University of Central Florida, a team called U.C.F. Restores has been building trauma therapies using V.R. that allows clinicians to control the level of detail in a simulation, down to the color of a bedspread or a TV that can be clicked on or off, in order to more easily trigger traumatic memories. The program offers free trauma therapy, often using V.R., to Florida residents and focuses on treating PTSD.

Dr. Deborah Beidel, a professor of psychology and executive director of U.C.F. Restores, has broadened the treatments beyond visuals, customizing sounds and even smells to create an augmented reality for patients.

Jonathan Tissue, 35, a former Marine, sought treatment at U.C.F. Restores in early 2020 after talk therapy and medication failed to alleviate his PTSD symptoms, which included flashbacks, anxiety and mood swings. In the end, it was the smells pumped into the room while he described his military service to a clinician that helped unlock his memories. There was the stench of burning tires, diesel fumes, the smell of decaying bodies. He heard the sounds of munitions firing. His chair rumbled, thanks to the centers simulated vibrations.

It unlocked certain doors that I could start speaking about, he said. He talked through his newly uncovered memories with a therapist and a support group, processing the terror that had built in his body for years.

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Virtual Reality Therapy Plunges Patients Back Into Trauma. Here Is Why Some Swear by It. - The New York Times

With the extended reality (XR) revolution already underway, its easy to envision a future in which the lines between the real world and the virtual world become even more blurred than they are today. In this article, I look at the technological advances coming our way in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) and what these might mean for everyday life in the future.

Future Predictions Of How Virtual Reality And Augmented Reality Will Reshape Our Lives

Rapid XR advances are on the horizon

In the future, its likely well experience XR in ways we cant yet imagine. But, for now, there are plenty of imminent tech advances to look forward to. Well have faster, lighter, more affordable VR technology. And advances in smartphone technology (such as better cameras and processors) will mean we can enjoy slicker AR and VR experiences on our phones. And with 5G wireless networks, we'll be able to enjoy them wherever we are in the world.

Here are some of the key advances in XR tech that are just around the corner:

LiDAR will bring more realistic AR creations to our phones. The iPhone 12 and iPad Pro are now equipped with LiDAR technology, and its reasonable to expect other devices will follow suit in due course. LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is essentially used to create a 3D map of surroundings, which can seriously boost a devices AR capabilities. It can provide a sense of depth to AR creations instead of them looking like a flat graphic. It also allows for occlusion, which is where any real physical object located in front of the AR object should, obviously, block the view of it for example, people's legs blocking out a Pokmon GO character on the street. This is vital for making AR creations appear more rooted in the real world and avoiding clunky AR experiences.

VR headsets will get smaller, lighter, and incorporate more features. Hand detection and eye tracking are two prominent examples of the built-in technology that will increasingly be incorporated into VR headsets. Because hand detection allows VR users to control movements without clunky controllers, users can be more expressive in VR and connect with their game or VR experience on a deeper level. And the inclusion of eye-tracking technology allows the system to focus the best resolution and image quality only on the parts of the image that the user is looking at (exactly how the human eye does). This taxes the system less, reduces lag and reduces the risk of nausea.

Well have new XR accessories to deepen the experience further. One of my favorites examples is robotic boots. Startup Ekto VR has created wearable robotic boots that provide the sensation of walking, to match your movement in the headset, even though youre actually standing still. The Ekto One robotic boots look a bit like futuristic roller skates except, instead of wheels, they have rotating discs on the bottom, which move to match the direction of the wearers movements. In future, accessories like this may be considered a normal part of the VR experience.

We'll even have full-body haptic suits. We already have things like haptic gloves, which simulate the feeling of touch through vibrations. But what about full body suits? In fact, full-body suits are already available the TESLASUIT being one example but they aren't exactly affordable for everyday VR users. They will probably become more affordable, mainstream, and effective in time, providing yet another leap forward for VR.

Merging the human body with XR technologies?

Looking beyond these external accessories and devices, we may see XR technologies begin to integrate more seamlessly with the human body. One way is through AR contact lenses. While it's true that AR glasses will get better, cheaper, and more comfortable, in the future they may also become obsolete as AR lenses take over. Such lenses are already in development; in 2020, California-based startup Mojo Vision revealed it was developing AR contact lenses with micro-LED displays that place information inside the wearers eyes.

Imagine the uses for such AR lenses. For now, Mojo says that its first priority is to help people struggling with poor vision (by providing better contrast or the ability to zoom in on objects). But the intention is the lenses will eventually be made available for everyday consumers, and could be used to project things like health tracking stats and other useful data. Indeed, when demonstrating the prototype to journalists, the lenses displayed pre-loaded information like text messages and the weather report, indicating that AR lenses could help us consume content in new ways. It could also help us enhance our sight in low light conditions (even if our vision is otherwise trouble-free), or even serve as a teleprompter for speaking events.

Eventually, AR lenses could potentially be used to augment the world around us, so we could see whatever we wanted. Lets say you hate the garish paint job your neighbors have done on the exterior of their home. In the future, your lenses could change it for you, and youll see whatever color house you choose. Or lets say you see an impressive building and want to know who designed it and when it was built. Your lenses could overlay the information directly in front of your eyes. All of which would further blur the boundaries between the real world and the virtual one.

Keeping the benefits of XR in mind

It would be easy to paint all this with a dystopian flair a slippery slope that starts with playing Pokmon GO and ends up with humans permanently wired up to a virtual world. But I feel hugely positive about the future of XR. At the end of the day, XR is about turning information into experiences, and this can make so many aspects of our lives richer and more fulfilling.

Yes, there are pitfalls to overcome (individual privacy, ethics, and so on). Yet, the potential benefits of XR far outweigh the challenges. Certainly for businesses, XR offers huge scope to drive business success, whether that means engaging more deeply with customers, creating immersive training solutions, streamlining business processes such as manufacturing and maintenance, or generally offering customers innovative solutions to their problems.

Read more about extended reality technologies in my new book, Extended Reality in Practice: 100+ Amazing Ways Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality Are Changing Business and Society. Its packed with real-world examples from sectors such as retail, manufacturing, education, travel and hospitality, law enforcement, and more.

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Future Predictions Of How Virtual Reality And Augmented Reality Will Reshape Our Lives - Forbes

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When immersed in an exciting video game, enthusiastic gamers may easily lose track of time. As virtual reality gameswhere players are transported through their headsets into new computerized worldsrise in popularity, this may be especially true. Now, researchers at UCSC have found that virtual reality indeed warps users perception of time, and that they are more likely to underestimate the amount of time spent playing a game than those in front of a 2-D screen.

Virtual reality is a blossoming technology with a wide range of applications. Recently, Good Times covered how researchers are using virtual reality technology to communicate the dangers of sea level rise to Santa Cruz residents. Virtual reality games can also be used for physical therapy or education on social and political issues. And local virtual reality companies like Impact Creative are helping major companies like Google, as well as nonprofits such as Rising International, provide immersive, engaging content.

By making users feel as if they are in a different environment than they actually are, virtual reality can be a mind-boggling experience. However, the psychological consequences of entering this new space are not well researched yet.

This is the first time that theres been experimental evidence that virtual reality manipulates time perception, says Grayson Mullen, an undergraduate at UCSC at the time of the research and lead author of the study.

Mullen came up with the idea while playing a virtual reality game himself and realizing he didnt know how much time had passed. Wanting to investigate this experience scientifically, he designed and coded a game that could be played by participants both in virtual reality and on a conventional monitor. For the experiment, he recruited 41 UCSC students to play the game in both formats and asked them to stop when they believed five minutes had passed.

The study found that participants who played the virtual reality version of the game first played for significantly more time than those who started in front of a regular computer screen. On average, they played for 72.6 seconds longer, or 28.5% more time. Mullen published his results in Timing & Time Perception on May 3.

VR is introducing this new thing called presence, or the feeling that youre in a different environment than you actually are, and this was never really possible before, says Nicolas Davidenko, associate professor of psychology at UCSC and senior author of the study. Compression of time perception is just one of many facets of what could happen.

Research shows that gaming addiction in general can have serious consequences, such as negatively impacting mood or sleep schedules. Mullens study shows that virtual reality game developers may need to be extra careful and include ways to remind gamers about how much time is passing.

However, the compression of time perception also has positive implications. Virtual reality can be used as a distraction during medical treatments like chemotherapy, for example, to make the duration feel shorter.

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UCSC study reveals that virtual reality can alter time perception - Good Times Weekly