Image Source: VRandFun
There are many things that can be learned through virtual reality and it has many very strong use cases.
Applications in VR are enabling new possibilities for mind expanding experiences and contain a lot of entertainment value.
As a technology writer it is my job to explore areas which are sometimes strange and unfamiliar to me. To be completely honest I don't have a lot of experience in working with or writing about VR but I thought I'd take a shot at explaining VR in this article and talk about some of the cool applications that are currently being developed in order to leverage its potential and bring about a new age of entertainment and education.
According to a subject matter expert on the topic at hand, Virtual Reality can be described as:
The use of computer technology to create a simulated environment. Unlike traditional user interfaces, VR places the user inside an experience. Instead of viewing a screen in front of them, users are immersed and able to interact with 3D worlds. By simulating as many senses as possible, such as vision, hearing, touch, even smell, the computer is transformed into a gatekeeper to this artificial world. The only limits to near-real VR experiences are the availability of content and cheap computing power.
Essentially it is the application of computer technology to alter the state of reality for the user. To take them somewhere different and stimulate their senses in an effort to make the experience as real as possible while remaining stationary or possibly moving in a facility containing the equipment necessary to do so.
Still unclear... This guy is in a room somewhere donning a VR headset but through its use, he has been transported to a scenic mountain viewpoint:
So now that we understand what VR is or at least have begun to understand what it is. The more important question at hand is, why would someone want to experience a virtual reality? What purpose could it possibly serve that reality could not?
I was surprised to learn how VR is being put to use in terms of medical applications. In an article published by Forbes entitled 'Virtual Reality: The Alternative To Marijuana And Opioids For Pain Management' I learned that it can be a surprisingly good alternative to the use of pain medication.
According to the article there are many applications for its use in modern hospitals including surgery, rehabilitative medicine, psychiatry, and psychology.
One of the most common references of VR applications is its use as a “pain-killer”, and is even more relevant today with the ongoing opioid crisis in the United States which has resulted in almost 100 people dying every day due to opioid drug overdoses. In the U.S. alone, 116 million adults struggle with chronic pain at a cost of $635 billion in lost productivity and treatment. In 2012, healthcare providers wrote 259 million prescriptions for painkillers, which is enough for every American adult to have a bottle of pills.
This was the part that really got me interested. Are our minds so powerful that simply being distracted or visually experiencing something pleasant could do wonders to reduce pain? According to modern science yes they are and with VR applied in the right way, it can.
VR has already proved successful in addressing any pain associated with acute procedures, working by distracting the patients. But chronic pain usage is also coming up, and can significantly improve the lives of those living with chronic pain! AppliedVR has eight distraction applications, including games like ‘Feeding Frenzy’ as well as immersive experiences such as ‘Farm Sanctuary’.
So not only can VR reduce acute pain but it has also proven useful in addressing chronic pain. I don't know about you but this makes me extremely excited and I may even use it as an excuse if I decide to bring home a brand new VR unit and boot it up when my girlfriend asks me why I'm wasting money I'll tell her modern science says it can help my dodgy back and give me relief...
The simple fact that VR is being put to use and actually has shown lots of promising results in medicine makes me take a more favorable stance towards this newly emerging technology and also peaks my interest in wanting to try it out for myself!
Moving on from the awesome medical applications VR presents to helping people live healthier and happier lives, one has to ask what other applications it has for people that just want to have a good time. And where would I even go about getting a VR headset? I want to play, who do I have to pay?
Haha... Ok well, lets take a quick look at some of the players in this newly emerging industry of fantasy experience providers.
According to a research report published by Marxant Labs, it seems the main companies with their finger on the pulse of this industry with VR products for sale include: Oculus Rift, Oculus VR and Facebook.
After Facebook bought Oculus in 2014, social experiences via VR became an additional priority for the company. With their more recent acquisition of Surreal Vision, a 3D scene reconstruction research group from England, Oculus is poised to bring telepresence to the VR headset. While two versions of Oculus headsets have already been released to developers, with a third on the way, the customer version is set to be released in early 2016.
So let me get this straight, Oculus did such a great job in producing and marketing their VR product that the big whale Facebook decided to swallow them whole? Yep, that's about right. But even more interesting is how they are directing their new acquisition towards the specialty niche of social experiences with VR. This means that we may all be meeting for high tea on Facebook's platform via our Facebook VR headsets. Stay tuned for that exciting development...
But getting a bit more serious, have a look at how cool Oculus VR actually is by taking a quick look at this short video below:
Ok, so if that didn't get you excited about VR, it might just not be your cup of tea to begin with!
Don't despair if you aren't a Facebook fan either because there are a lot of other players in the game that would love to take your money in exchange for a cool VR rig!
There are options like the Microsoft HoloLens, Sony’s Project Morpheus and the Vive by Valve. All of these systems show a lot of potential and will keep a competitive industry even more competitive.
So now we've established the purpose of VR, some of its medical applications and the major players currently developing and selling systems. So what about the cool side of VR? What kind of fun is there to be had with current systems?
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Image Source: The Verge
Apparently there is a company called 'The Void' looking to expand to new markets. The company has developed a few amazing and elaborate virtual reality productions based on Ghostbusters and Star Wars. The Utah-based company recently announced that it’s opening “experience centers” in Atlanta, Georgia; Austin, Texas; Dallas, Texas; Hollywood, California; Minneapolis, Minnesota; New York City; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Santa Monica, California; and Washington, DC.
So not only is VR in people's homes but is steadily becoming an arcade phenomenon replacing traditional arcade games with new more exciting virtual experiences to be had. Alternately another company is battling it out with The Void.
Dave & Buster’s plans on installing more than 500 HTC Vive VR headsets in its arcades across the US and Canada this month in a subtle acknowledgment that maybe arcades have nothing better to offer than a VR experience in 2018.
The headsets will show up on June 14th and will be paired with a “participant motion platform,” which means players will be thrust around. Because this headset inclusion is the result of a partnership between Dave & Buster’s and HTC, the arcade company says it plans to announce exclusive content, although it hasn’t provided any specifics.
This sounds amazingly shocking to me. Based on my understanding of the announcement above not only will people be able to enter new virtual worlds via Dave & Buster's arcade venues but they will also get the most cutting edge experience as their bodies are moved around as their other senses engage them in a fictional landscape while at the same time encountering obstacles of a game like environment. One word explains this... Cool!
Now there are a lot of very entertaining VR games on the market as I write this. So many in fact that it would be pointless to name them all off but perhaps in future articles I can get my hands dirty and look into a few titles from a technological perspective.
Take a look at this video below for a look at what's available at the moment in terms of VR entertainment:
If you have seen a new movie just to hit the silver screens called 'Ready Player 1' a really cool technology is shown off that is almost ready in real life. The omnidirectional treadmill. With this device you will be able to run jump and do all sorts of things that require movement while creating a deeper sensation of actually being in virtual reality rather than a vague illusion that the mind has trouble believing.
The Strider VR has an omnidirectional treadmill design, that uses a rotatable ball array positioned above a traditional linear treadmill. By adding the combination of with a Microsoft Kinect 2 sensor the system is actually able to provide a sort of 'Ready Player 1' experience.
The Strider VR concept is an interesting one, as it combines full-body tracking and unrestricted walking using a fairly simple mechanical solution, but the execution appears to have some drawbacks. One of the main challenges of this type of hardware is the interpretation of virtual movement. The system has to provide responsive virtual movement (based on what your legs are doing) while not misinterpreting the corrective ‘recentering’ motions as inputs, which could be particularly difficult in this case as it relies heavily on Kinect’s motion tracking.
Basically what this is saying is that Strider VR is very cool but still has a lot of bugs to be worked out. In addition software needs to be improved to match movement seemlessly. So don't get too excited yet, there is still a lot more work that needs to be done to make this thing perfect!
Based on all the research I've presented above, there is a lot to learn about VR systems currently on the market and those currently being developed.
The applications are all over the place and VR could be an important tool to help people fix psychological problems, alleviate pain and basically just blow off steam!
VR in its current form is getting pretty cool in regard to the game titles available and the current headset technology needed to access these games.
I see a lot of potential in this growing industry and I need to get over to one of these arcades as soon as possible and try some of these titles out for myself!
Now I want to know what my fellow @ADSactly society members think about all this cool VR tech! Have you tried some of these VR titles? Do you know anyone that has received medical treatment through the use of VR? What do you expect future VR systems to allow us to explore?
Here's a chance for the @ADSactly community to leave their thoughts and opinions on this topic!
Thanks for reading.
Authored by: @techblogger
In-text citations sources:
"Cloning horror: Human clone fears as Euro scientists CREATE LIFE from ‘nothing’" - Express
"These puppies might be Maryland's first cloned dogs" - Baltimore Sun
"What is Virtual Reality? [Definition and Examples]" - Marxent
"Virtual Reality: The Alternative To Marijuana And Opioids For Pain Management" - Forbes
"The Void is opening nine new VR centers in Austin, Philadelphia, and other US cities" - The Verge
"Dave & Buster’s is building HTC Vive-equipped VR arcades" - The Verge
Image Sources:
Express
Baltimore Sun
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The future of VR will lead to the following things:
More people finding it more acceptable to pay $8.99 MORE often for apps
Online interaction on a higher level for work conferences and online hangouts (doing a webinar In a virtual conference room and seeing your bosses avatar or face even nodding) -omg Social on samsung vr is AMAZING and reminds me of an AOL chat room
Office spaces reduced to shared work spaces or even employees working from home more often. Your cube is in the cloud in virtual reality
More interest in games from non-gamers
Ironically, more interaction between friends and family thanks to games like Keeping Talking and Nobody Dies, then one household only needs one headset
I can't remember what movie it was but it was back in the nineties and it was about some dude who was investigating videos from someone's memories using a virtual reality headset of some sort. Imagine being able to relive a moment with a friend or special someone who no longer is there and being able to experience it again as if you were there. Having the ability to record it
It exists already but it'll probably be more prevalent: virtual porn in POV
Taking online classes virtually as if you were in a classroom taking long distance education to a higher plane, hopefully it means more Open University. Stanford in India? Sure why not
Even better work life balance because you can work from home thanks to vr.
Great contributions. Let me dig into these predictions a bit here!
In terms of entertainment value you are probably right. I can see social applications that continue to be fun outliving and gaining higher valuations than traditional games!
This has me very excited to try this social VR Samsung system! Anything like an AOL chat room experience in VR sounds extremely fun.
Creepy but I agree. Big brother will be watching you but you can stay in your underwear and just wear a VR suit!
In my opinion VR will never replace real reality. Whether you use VR as a medicine student on operating table or as a bank robber, you won’t be afraid of any non real consequences. Your mistakes won’t harm anyone. Even if you visit places you always dreamed to visit, it won’t be the same. However, VR can be an amazing tool in real estate, medicine, training, gaming..., you name it. It will always be just a tool. Very exciting tool! lol
I believe that completely. Psychology is one of the most important aspects in our life’s. If your mind gets stressed, your whole body gets eventually stressed out as well. If you are depressed, your physical body starts shutting off as well... With that said, I do believe in what you wrote here about VR reducing acute pain as well as at some point chronic pain. I do believe in medicine “VR” helps people instead of using drugs, which in many cases leads to overdose. I personally don’t use any drugs, I take on average Tylenol twice a year if I get a headache. And I’m very happy about that. I’m my case I think it’s awareness of what these drugs can do to you. When it comes to VR, it can have a negative impact as well. People can get addicted. At the end we have to make a decision what is better choice. I have to admit, it’s really tempting this whole VR experience.
As you mentioned “Cool!”. And exciting!
We should get ready, because technology shown in “Ready Player 1” is coming our way. It’s just a matter of when.
From the You Tube video top 10 selection I found Form, Resident Evil 7 and Dirt rally very interesting. Dirt rally combined with participant motion platform would be really, really cool for anyone. Of course this would change the whole VR experience completely.
Great article @techblogger and @adsactly!
This is an example of outstanding interaction and engagement! I hope other readers will see your comment and understand how it provides value and also opens the possibility for true interaction.
Thanks for addressing my questions. I agree with your thoughts about VR remaining a tool and not a way of life but a dystopian future where that was not the case does frighten me. Mind over matter, it makes sense. These ready player 1 systems are being developed. Many prototypes already exist, they are just trying to perfect the mechanisms and increase the feedback speed of the systems so the experience feels unstaggered. It won't take long! Thanks again for your contribution @milano1113!
VR is great but I think the future lies in Augmented Reality (AR)
The big issue with VR is that it cuts the User from the real world instead of integrating it. It is hard to physically move in one world while mentally being in another one.
AR fix that and that's why it will be more successful.
Good points here. AR will be incredibly successful without a doubt!
Since we are talking about Virtual Reality, I think that this and the Augmented Reality are great contributions to the current way of innovating, although it is true that each one has its applications. Do not ignore the fact that there are sectors working on how to implement this technology to better reach your audience, be it video games, health, engineering, live events, video entertainment, military and education. I loved the post!
This may be true. I believe both have their place in the future. I like your ideas about not leaving the real world behind for a completely artificial one. I can see lots of real world use cases for AR especially in medicine and labor applications.
VR on Facebook? Bleagh! Why waste such a fantastic technology on that * censored *! What we need is VR in Steemit! Imagine using the technology on SteemMonster and SteemPunk... Now that's what I called awesome! So when are we getting our own VR technology?
Also VR technology is so useful for doing sport or training
Absolutely. This is a major application for VR and AR. Sports training and any technical trade has a lot to benefit from this emerging technology!
There are many things that can be learned through virtual reality and it has many
I'm learning things simply learning about VR. Certainly inside of it more opportunities would be presented as well! Thanks for dropping by!
Wow... Thats a massive set of information about V.R. even if the V.R inventor wouldn't know much about the V.R.
Very powerful article regarding to V.R
Any technology that help people in physical activity is great in my view rather than the old version sitting and using mind i.e. no physical exercise.
AR and VR may have great applications to increase physical mobility. Imagine if you could walk somewhere you actually wanted to walk! Imagine instead of stairs you were climbing mountains! All these possibilities exist.
I am a lazy duck who is also a little fitness freak, that is why I was more into interesting ways of doing exercises. But I got your point and now acknowledge that this is also good for inspiration and exploration. Thanks Buddy
V. R is a resounding means in technology and with an exposure to assisting physical involvement......
No doubts, this article is absolutely interesting and educating.
The VR technology is great. To a very large extents, it tell us so much about the human mind and how power it is.
I have heard many success stories of VR use in psychology and I doff my hat for such tremendious achievements. The theory and it's application is wow.
Science have times without number proven to be very helpful in medicine and sometimes I wonder how crude medicine would have been without science.
However, when we relate the VR technology to pain in medicine, I still have a few reservations especially when it comes to the treatment of pain*.
Thanks for your feedback @nicewoody69. I also am cautious about us not getting too overboard with all this talk of VR. I believe in regard to your question one may only find temporary ease of pain as the mind is distracted from it with another more stimulating variable.
VR has grat adaoption in simulation games - especially in racing games, like Assetto Corsa, iRacing, Project Cars 2. People say, that you feel like you're in the car :) plus the depth perception helps a lot in being fast. Tipuvote!
That sounds awesome! Can't wait to try those racing titles in VR. Thanks for the comment @cardboard!
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VR technology delivers a more intuitive look, and I find it quite good for new experiences
Really very good information. Nowadays there are alot of aplications for this tecnology. Great post
I think that VR does have a lot of good applications, but for the most part I don't feel it is being used to it's full potential. There are some instances where doctors have been able to get views of organs that they normally wouldn't . This has led to less invasive techniques to remove tumors etc. I am glad that the 3D fad has died and we are seeing more of a move towards VR though. The 3D TV's seemed like such a waste of technology to me. I felt that our research would be much better placed towards holograms or now VR. My vision of the future is holodecks like on Star Trek where you get a combination of the two!
Having read the article, I find that the current capabilities of VR have positive and negative sides. I think that this will have a great development in the future and a significant increase in opportunities. Simply put, this is a promising direction. Especially in various branches of human activity.
First of all, its application will expand your gaming capabilities. You will get the opportunity to become a part of the game, immerse yourself in the game and get maximum impressions. But at the same time, there is a possibility that people will become more dependent on this. Especially it's to touch those who used to spend time at the computer. Many people prefer to live in a virtual world than in the real world.
I see that there are great prospects in development and a wide scope of application of VR. Thank you!
VR still feels like a technology that is always going to be "big in the future". And then one day we'll wake up plugged into the Matrix and it'll be game over.
I'm requesting you to please remove the downvote :)
Thank you :)@o1o1o1o hey bro how are you? Can i know the reason why you have downvoted the comment of @raonabeel, He is my friend and introduce to steemit by me, he is a newbie, and as a newbie if he has done any mistake, You can talk to him, teach him that hey bro, this is not the way to work or you are doing spamming etc, but downvote can never be a good option. We should support newbies :)
Your friend may have said VR too many times. Comments take a bit of work and I recognize it may be difficult for some if English isn't their native language. I would say it is a good testing ground to get better at English however. Perhaps your friend needed to read the article more closely and just examine a few sentences to see if he could create true, meaningful opinions based on them. Comments are usually better if they are very specific and provide clear understanding and clarity of thought. Best of luck.
Thank you for your suggestion :) That's what the problem is, English is not our native language, I don't know he has read the article or not, but my point is, If we found someone doing silly mistakes like this, we should teach him that it is not the way to work here. Flagging right away will down his moral and maybe he left the platform?
will it be good? Our vision of making Steemit the biggest social media will Continue like this?
Techblogger basically nailed it. Looking at the comment and the others by that account it wasn't at all clear that was a real person. Lots and lots of one or two sentence comments not really saying much, very seldom upvoted, and no original posts from that account. It wouldn't really have mattered if it was perfect English to me, I would still have downvoted.
Since you have taken the time to vouch for your friend and asked nicely I have removed my downvote. My advice to your friend is don't feel the need to post so many comments like that - a simple upvote is sufficient. If you have something that ads to the conversation - asks new questions or brings new information that is the time to post. Don't worry about the language - if necessary write in your own and post a link to Google translate, it is actually very good for most languages these days. Or post a translated version and then your native original. I do know how frustrating it is when you are a minnow and facing an exponential battle to increase your reputation. Just keep at it - post your own original content, add comments that add to the conversation, write about what you know about and follow others similarly interested and you'll be soon growing in reputation and influence. Good luck!