When I think of virtual reality, I picture the future. Virtual reality was a big craze in the 90's but I have not heard much of it in the past decade. I always thought by 2010 virtual reality would be mainstream. Since this is not the case, I decided to do so some research as to what virtual reality is up to.
Virtual reality (VR) is a computer-simulated environment in which a user can interact with. When many people think of VR they think of the Head Mounted Displays (HMD) and Data Suits. These are the two most popular ways to interact with VR. In recent development, the graphic displays in HMDs are reaching a point of near visual realism and audio will reach a point of three dimensional sound. This will add the sound channels above and below a user. Also, there have been many attempts to simulate smell. Many researchers have worked hard to try and create a way to simulate the sense of smell. They have found that it is a very realistic possibility but it will be very costly in research and development to create each odor. In Japan, there is a company called NTT Communications, they have finished testing an Internet-connected odor-delivery system to be used by retailers and restaurants to attract customers.
What about the sense of taste? There has actually been research to simulate the sense of taste. In order for this to occur, the brain has to be completely manipulated. Sony is the first company to take this research a step further. In 2005, Sony received a patent for the idea of the non-invasive beaming of different frequencies and patterns of ultrasonic waves directly into the brain to recreate all five senses. Soon the movie, The Matrix, will not be as sci-fi as we all thought.
The idea of "virtual reality" is one that interests many people including me. To be able to use a technology like this would make any gamers dreams come true. It would be a world where the normal rules and limitations of life would not apply. The Matrix is always cited as an example of a virtual reality system, and I envision something like that one day being created.(Without the machine domination hopefully.)
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting that as sci-fi movies age, they become more and more like reality. The ideas that seems so strange and futuristic to people who created sci-fi in the 60s seem commonplace to us now. Taking this into consideration, what will our world be like 40 years from now? It's interesting to pick out the intricacies of The Matrix and see how far off we really are right now.
ReplyDeleteVirtual reality is something that I have been interested in for a long time. Many scifi books and movies have dealt with the idea (often in the negative sense of people becoming too dependent on the technology at the expense of reality). However, I think that there are many positive applications for this sort of technology, and can't wait to see how it will develop within my lifetime.
ReplyDeleteI heard that sony was doing something with virtual reality games. Which I think would be a big step in video games. Since it is new technology would it be extremely expensive to be able to afford a system like that for the consumer.
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