Virtual Reality

1996

Virtual Reality (VR) can be characterized as an application which "transports" users into a computer created, virtual environment which they can browse around in, move through, and react to. Virtual Reality is a reality that exists alongside the "real" reality—terms that have lost much of their significance in the light of increasingly "real" simulations, animations, and graphics.

Those who immerse themselves in Virtual Reality enter a world that was created in a computer, although this is a reality in which the visitor can not only look around and move about, but can also carry out actions and initiate processes.


Tools of Reality

In order to be able to perceive this world which "actually" does not exist and which science fiction author William Gibson prophetically dubbed "cyberspace," certain tools are necessary. For the programmer, these include a very fast, high-performance processor as well as a high-grade software package. Experiments aimed at developing virtual reality technology go back to the 1960s when Ivan Sutherland designed the first prototypes of the data helmet at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Boston, while Raymond Goertz was working on similar projects at the Argonne National Laboratory. The VR user can select from among different outfits: the data helmet along with data glasses or a data glove. The data glasses grant the powers of perception access to the designed reality generated by computer. The definitive characteristic of virtual reality is the three-dimensionality of the simulations, which differ from those which run on monitor screens in that they impart to the user the feeling of "actually" moving within a three-dimensional space.

The Pursuit of the Eye

The higher the processor's performance, the more realistic the simulation. A camera mounted in the environment's wall photographs the users eyes. These images are evaluated by an eye tracker, and the results are fed to the processor as picture coordinates. The computer continuously recomputes the graphic display so that the virtual world constantly conforms to the user's point of view. The virtual environment reacts within a fraction of a second to the actions and the perspective of the user. Data glasses and data glove make possible this encounter with computer-generated environments in a way that would be impossible with mouse and keyboard alone.

Simulation in Reality

What seems at first glance to be an ingenious toy has long since proved to be an indispensable tool in testing and training processes in a wide variety of applications far beyond the entertainment industry.

Doctor Data

In the medical field, virtual reality technologies are being employed particularly as educational tools in order to make the complex processes in the biomechanical system of the human body comprehensible by means of visualization, and to minimize the risk of error on the part of a surgeon during a complicated procedure by allowing for practice under true-to-life conditions of virtual reality. During a "real" operation, simulation techniques come into play—above all in the field of endoscopy. Successful work is already being carried out on more involved modes of implementation such as teleoperations (see the installation "Virtual Touch").

Building Bit by Bit

Despite its high cost, virtual reality technology can often deliver tremendous cost savings by helping to eliminate product design errors in the planning or development phase and thus to avoid expensive flops. Architecture, construction engineering, city planning and product design are outstanding examples of areas in which virtual reality is being applied. This technology makes it possible to stroll through a planned building even before construction has begun, and to get an impression of whether the new structure fits into its architectural environment or not. In the field of product development, virtual reality has been implemented above all in testing procedures which make it much cheaper and more convenient to test the aerodynamics of an airplane, the sailing characteristics of a ship or the crash behavior of an automobile.

Space Travel Without Leaving the Ground

Airplane pilots and astronauts train and practice in simulated environments. Particularly in the field of space travel, in which the costs of manned flights are incredibly high, virtual reality technologies provide tremendous savings. By means of virtual reality, planets can be explored from earth on the basis of available data. VR is also being deployed by the military to conduct virtual maneuvers.