Research Paper about 21st century VR technology.

Thirteen-year-old Jimmy is learning a power that his parents could have only dreamed of during their school days. Fifteen-year-old Sally is being helped by the same technology that’s helping schools, businesspeople, designers, and nature lovers all over the world. Seventeen-year-old Jesse is learning a science that brings his senses, experience, and knowledge higher than any generation before. These children are learning Virtual Reality (VR). Some people feel that VR is only Science fiction, and they will never see it, but these kids already have. VR is not just a part of the future. Powerful applications are here today.

I knew of only a few current VR applications before I researched for this paper, although they've always intrigued me. I’ve seen 3D TV shows, played a 3D game with 3D glasses before, and been able to master 3D pictures or "Magic Eye" stereograms, but I’ve never been fully immersed in VR. Ever since I could imagine games such as Mario Brothers played in a virtual world, however, the experience has been a dream for me .

Like those video games, I also predicted marvelous VR entertainment before my research. I imagined holodecks or rooms that can be programmed to hold whatever people’s hearts desire. In holodecks, I day-dreamed people would constantly create kingdoms to rule, have water gun fights in the White House, and even be presidents in worlds without negative consequences. However, I never knew how close my dream was to reality until recently, when I looked.

To conduct this research, I used today’s most fascinating work of technology, a computer. Inside was wealth of encyclopedias, magazines, newspapers, websites, and even the opportunity for direct communication with a VR instructor and technician. Talking to these people and reading these articles provided surprising and fascinating information, but nothing shocked me more than seeing entertainment mentioned the least.

The first thing I discovered was VR’s definition. Encyclopedia Britannica Online defines it as 3D computer programming software that can be interacted with using "sensory" equipment (Par. 1). The view is three-dimensional and realistic. This is achieved by letting each eye see at a slightly different angle with stereoscopic headsets as each ear hears a slightly different sound in stereo. Control is usually done, using body suits or just gloves, with arms, hands, and legs as though they were really moving virtual objects. The goal is that people feel like they are really inside.

Although I already knew how VR worked when I started, I didn’t know the history behind it. According to Encyclopedia Britannia Online, VR was first used as early as the 1960s to train pilots (Par. 2). That was 20 years before I was born! A VR program called "Simnet" was then developed in 1989 by the US Department of Defense to train soldiers. This was the same training received by veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Fortunately, VR is also used on less violent terms in other places.

I found in an article entitled "Animal Lover’s Zoo" that Zoo Atlanta in Georgia allows visitors using a headset to tour an exhibit as a young gorilla (Wilson and Coledan, Par. 2). This means visitors can interact with other gorillas inside, rather than just watch. Virtual adults inside also react based on users’ behavior. This is an important project for Zoo Atlanta since 700 hours were spent on the work alone, perfecting realistic virtual animals. In the future, this application is expected to reach far beyond gorillas. Extinct animals may be recreated this way.

Looking at virtual monkeys through an exhibit at a zoo can be very entertaining, but to use VR, people don’t always want to go there. ELSA Incorporated, therefore, sells 3D headsets for Direct 3D computer games, called 3D Revelators. This way, raw 3D action is pumped into the homes of game lovers. Players can even virtually match against each other for what ELSA’s "3D Revelator Product Site" calls "a mind-melding experience." I was impressed by the low price of $99 for a wireless infrared version or only $69 for a wired one.

To use VR, people don’t always have to wear a bulky headset. Hence, one company developed VR theaters called "VisionDomes" that seat fifteen people at once (Woodall 618). Inside, prototype cars are driven before they’re built, houses are toured before the foundation is laid, engines are examined close up while they’re virtually running, and even microscopic molecules are enlarged and studied. Design is the most anticipated application of VisionDome since it offers a more realistic way to make things like buildings, cars, and rockets than traditional computer aided drafting. Also, cinema theaters, amusement parks, and even people’s homes are foreshadowed to include VisionDome for spectacular entertainment. As the technology advances, it’s even expected to become available on desktops. However, the 1997 price of half a million dollars or more for a unit limits those who can afford it.

People with psychological disorders, on the other hand, may not find cost an object. I found that VR, in fact, is used to heal minds in "Virtual Healing" by Christina Le Beau (33). For example, those who are anorexic look through goggles and pick out the way they see themselves and how they want to look among virtual bodies. Thus, their distortions from reality can be identified and treated. Treated also are phobias such as the fear of heights, airplanes, and elevators reports Martijn Schuemie, a VR Ph. D. student, in his article, "Virtual Reality and Phobias" (Par. 4). The work he studies is called Virtual Reality Exposure (VRE) which combines VR with traditional Gradual Exposure Therapy (GET) (Par. 5). VRE works by allowing patients to slowly acquaint themselves with their fears in a safe, confidential virtual environment (Par. 4). What makes VRE special is it’s lower cost than GET. I contacted Schuemie myself to find, most importantly, that VRE is just as effective. In fact, he told me VRE is so powerful that most of his patients report a sense of "presence" or the feeling of being there. Because of all these benefits, home VRE units are expected to become available in a few years (Le Beau 33).

Another medical application of VR is distraction for patients of doctors and dentists (Le Beau 33). As I read the article, I could imagine how much less painful VR would make a cavity drilling or skin stitching, for example. In other words, VR makes otherwise unpleasant operations well anticipated recreations!

Since VR is this powerful, effective doctors as well as other professionals in the not-so-far future are likely to need VR training (Goll 427). To meet this need, East Avenue Middle School (EAMS) In Livermore, California started using a VR program called VRQuest in 1998. Although EAMS was the first public school to implement such technology, they are not the only school participating. My communication with Terri Nighswonger, the technology instructor at EAMS, revealed that students combine art and mathematics using VRQuest. This way, structures are designed, historical settings are toured, and Science is explored. The possibilities are endless.

VR is no longer only a dream. It can be seen today by to those who look hard enough, and by tomorrow it may be unavoidable. Hence, If my prediction is right, students of VR now are truly riding the wave of the future.

MLA Works Cited

ELSA 3D Revelator Product Site. 17 November 2000. ELSA Incorporated. 17 November 2000 .

Goll, David. "Middle School Uses VR Software to Teach Future Technology." Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service 27 April 1998: 427+. General Reference Center Gold. Infotrac. 17 November 2000 .

Le Beau, Christina. "Virtual Healing." FamilyPC 7.4 April 2000: 33. General Reference Center Gold. Infotrac. 17 November 2000 .

Nighswonger, Terri. "VR" E-mail to author. 7 November 2000.

---. E-mail to author. 27 November 2000.

Schuemie, Martijn. E-mail to author. 27 November 2000.

---. VR and Phobias. 16 November 2000 .

"VR." Encyclopedia Britannica Online. 1999-2000. 17 November 2000 .

Wilson, Jim, and Stefano Coledan. "Animal Lovers’ Zoo." Popular Mechanics January 1998. Britannica.com. 17 November 2000 .

Woodall, Martha. "Company Expands Virtual-Reality Helmet into Dome for 15." Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service 18 June 1997: 618+. General Reference Center Gold. Infotrac. 17 November 2000 .

Version 10
Brandon Layne 2000

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