In today's times, Virtual Reality has been making a lot of noise in the tech industry. Devices such as the Oculus Rift, Razer's OSVR, Sony's upcoming Morpheus, and the likes are paving the way for the future of Virtual Reality. Although most VR devices are made for games, I believe VR can be applied to other industries as well.
But before we go in-depth about VR, let's first find out the difference of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality.
According to "Augmented Reality vs. Virtual Reality: What are the differences and similarities?" by Vamien McKalin of Tech Times,"Virtual reality is all about the creation of a virtual world that users can interact with. This virtual world should be designed in such a way that users would find it difficult to tell the difference from what is real and what is not. Furthermore, VR is usually achieved by the wearing of a VR helmet or goggles similar to the Oculus Rift."
While they defined Augmented Reality as "Augmented reality is the blending of virtual reality and real life, as developers can create images within applications that blend in with contents in the real world. With AR, users are able to interact with virtual contents in the real world, and are able to distinguish between the two."
The similarities of both technologies are quite distinct despite how many people confuse the two. The distinct difference is that Virtual Reality brings the user in to the virtual world (via VR goggles/helmets), while Augmented Reality brings the virtual world in to the real world (possibly through projectors with motion sensors). Augmented Reality is also less restrictive when it comes to user movement. While Virtual Reality, as stated by McKalin, requires a VR goggles or helmet which can restrict user movement if it's not wireless.
Microsoft's IllumiRoom is the next best thting
to Augmented Reality
to Augmented Reality
With that established, let's now see how Virtual Reality works.
Jonathan Strickland, an author of the article "How Virtual Reality Works" in HowStuffWorks.com, enumerated what exactly constitutes a true VR experience. They are as follows:
- Three-dimensional images that appear to be life-sized from the perspective of the user.
- The ability to track a user's motions, particularly his head and eye movements, and correspondingly adjust the images on the user's display to reflect the change in perspective.
Basically what it does is, VR devices tricks your brain (through your eyes) in to making you believe that what you see in the virtual world is real. Scaling virtual objects to how you normally perceive them is one of the tricks. But what makes it amazing and more believable is the head movement tracker. Traditionally, people have always used the mouse to control the camera inside a virtual world. We all know how limiting that is and it feels unnatural. But put on a VR googles like the Oculus Rift and everything changes.
All in all the VR headsets are a game changer in today's technology. Fortunately, several companies have seen this and are now developing their own VR headsets.
So there you have it. In the age of 4K resolutions standard on monitors and very powerful graphics cards that enthusiast gamers usually prefer, Virtual Reality is slowly making it's way in to the market. With constant development and interest, I don't see it dying like it did in the 90's.
On my future blog posts, I will discuss about the immediate future and also possible future of VR.
References:
Augmented Reality vs. Virtual Reality: What Are The Differences And Similarities? - Tech Times
http://www.techtimes.com/articles/5078/20140406/augmented-reality-vs-virtual-reality-what-are-the-differences-and-similarities.htm
How Virtual Reality Works
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/other-gadgets/virtual-reality.htm
