Virtual Reality

Virtual reality is, plainly speaking, seeing an imaginary world, rather than the real one. Seeing, hearing, smelling, testing, feeling. The imaginary world is a simulation running in a computer. The sense data is fed by some system to our brain. A medium composed of interactive computer simulations giving users the feeling of being present in the simulations..

Need

Operations in dangerous environments. There are still many examples of people working in dangerous or hardship environments that could benefit from the use of VR-mediated teleportation. Workers in radioactive, space, or toxic environments could be relocated to the safety of a VR environment where they could 'handle' any hazardous materials without any real danger using tele-operation or tele-presence.

Scientific Visualization. Scientific Visualization provides the researcher with immediate graphical feedback during the course of the computations and gives him/her the ability to 'steer' the solution process. Application at NASA Ames Research Center is the Virtual Planetary Exploration. It helps planetary geologists to remotely analyze the surface of a planet. They use VR techniques to roam planetary terrains.

Medicine. Until now experimental research and education in medicine was mainly based on dissection and study of plastic models. Computerized 3D human models provide a new approach to research and education in medicine. Experimenting medical research with virtual patients will be a reality. We will be able to create not only realistic looking virtual patients, but also histo-logical and bone structures. With the simulation of the entire physiology of the human body.

Education and training. The most common example is the flight simulator. This type of simulator has shown the benefits of simulation environments for training. They have lower operating costs and are safer to use than real aircraft. They also allow the simulation of dangerous scenarios not allowable with real aircraft.

Virtual Reality Systems

VR Systems can be divided into three groups

Non-immersive systems (like workstations):

See information about the real world, presented via computer - location based services, GIS.