Ever wondered what is Virtual Reality for? Then Look at the Three Main Areas of Its Application

in #technology8 years ago (edited)

In a previous article I told you about pros and cons of the VR and its different aspects. Now I would like to talk about industries that were totally changed and upgraded because of this technology.


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To begin with, I want to say that I follow the development of virtual reality since it has appeared as a modern technology in 2013 and it has really changed since then. All started with a Google Cardboard VR Toolkit glasses and then the development of field became as quick as possible and now we have a lot of companies that try to invest as much money as they can in the development of VR ( more than 200 million $ were spent on this in the period of 4 years).

2016 is already called the year of virtual reality. And though it exists for more than twenty years it has received a huge boost in development only in this decade, and in this year a huge growth of this technology is predicted. The whole world is interested in developing of VR and corporations such as Samsung, Google and Sony try to do their best to make this technology perfect, creating such devices as the Gear VR, Google Cardboard, and PlayStation VR. Even Facebook releases its Rift this year.

But this is just the tip of the iceberg. In fact, VR technology is used in such industries as medicine, the army, and building. These are the three main fields, which may be cardinally changed because of the use of VR in the near future.

Army

In the US and throughout Europe the army is the main sponsor of researchers in the field of virtual reality. VR is used to train soldiers, but also it can be used for the purpose of propaganda. Since 2012, British scientists from different universities received dozens of orders for different researchers in the field of VR.

For 4 years specifically for the British Army Birmingham University alone developed 42 simulators, which is a record for this scientific institute.
Virtual reality has allowed officers to learn the basics of operational management -if it is necessary to manage several separate compounds in the air or on the ground, the soldier should enter a virtual operational staff and manage his soldiers through this technology.

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BAE Systems made a sensational statement that in the next 20 years it will be possible to create a virtual reality display, which will be placed in a contact lens! Just imagine this!

Building

The idea of the development of this industry with the help of VR consists of the fact that customers will be able to get a better view of the house, using glasses or any other VR technologies.

Now, computer experts from building companies use VR for two things: to walk with their customers through the house and, of course, for making construction and design work in virtual reality.

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In the near future, it is planned to create a VR for independent and comfortable co-working of all professionals of the building sector who are artists, engineers, architects, and designers, as well as to perform comprehensive inspections of buildings.

Medicine

Medicine has also had a lot of changes with the advent of VR technology. It mainly applies to psychotherapy and rehabilitation medicine, which requires total immersion of specialist into the patient's thoughts, feelings, and sensations.

The majority of these patients are veterans of various wars, whose psychological traumas do not allow them to live a normal life, so they need the mandatory assistance of a qualified specialist. But without the proper technology it is impossible, so started being used in the medical field.

In the US, 14 different virtual worlds in which patients are immersed, experiencing events that have developed their post-traumatic syndrome have been created. Experts can fully control the virtual reality data, change the time of day, types of explosions and other factors in order to achieve a quick recovery of the patient.

Virtual reality, of course, has other medical applications - for example, the treatment of various phobias, phantom limb syndrome, agoraphobia, acrophobia, ornithophobia, claustrophobia and others.

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Summing up, I want to say that we are really lucky – we see the rise of a new era – era of virtual reality. Is it good or bad? Well, who knows, the time will give the answer. But personally I think VR will completely change our life in a good way and as you see even now it has done so many perfect things that I can only say – well done!

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Other applications include Telepresence (why settle for dealing with the high housing cost of living near work? Live in a cheaper location and just teleport into a robotic body through VR whenever you need to work!) and video games. (Hello, Star Citizen!)

Next step is VR floor-swimming lessons :)
how get swim and get stayed dry :)

haha. I like this concept :)
I remember from my childhood, when swimming trainer made us swim on the floor and showed different exercises

I actually worked on a virtual reality application for exposure therapy (similar to what you mentioned in the medicine section) and although the sequences were basic they worked extremely well at helping people with phobias to decrease their reactions to said phobia. It was great to see VR applied in a way that helped people instead of just playing Call Of Duty in VR.

I read about really good VR simulators that help to get over Aviophobia and Acrophobia. After passing these simulators that people could fly without fear

Surgeries are a definite possibility for this technology.

This technology is also good to train surgeons. Before they operate real person they train for years on virtual simulators

VR is a brave new world. We have only scratched the surface. In reality, we "don't know, what we don't know". Some exciting times and innovation are ahead!

Sure. I think it's a matter of few years. Have you ever tried Oculus Rift?

No. I do have the Samsung Gear VR. It is a start until the high quality ones are available with the 3d controllers.

Virtual Reality is the next reality imo. It will allow consciousness to realize that it can only be what it believes it is. It will allow consciousness to realize that it is actually connected to everything else.