An Introduction to Virtual Reality

As VR technology is becoming more accessible, research has started to explain the impact that it can have on our personal as well as professional lives. It can enhance learning and make it more engaging and economical in the long run. Being a popular topic of discussion in the tech industry on social media platforms and forums, the internet is filled with new and exciting content around AR & VR technologies. Anyone with the slightest of interest in gadgets and technology has surely heard about it at some point. But what is the technology and how did it come to where it is today? This article provides a short overview of the origins of VR and some of its applications, what determines its efficacy and how it can prove to be beneficial.

What is Virtual Reality and why does it get so many of us excited?

Before we answer these questions, let me ask you to imagine this scenario: You had a busy day at work, having back to back meetings and writing lots of emails.. You’re finally done for the day and feel like sitting outdoors by the river that runs just behind your house, but you can’t because it’s been snowing all day and the winter cold has made it difficult to step outside. You think of watching a movie or sitcom but it feels like too big a commitment for your tired mind. Instead it jogs your memory back to that trip last summer when you went hiking with your friends.. It makes you miss the outdoors even more.

 

Suddenly you remember that you have a VR headset. You quickly finish your snacks, get comfortable on the couch and put on your VR gear. The moment you press the switch-on button, voila! You find yourself sitting on a bench overlooking a mesmerizing view: a coast where you can hear the distant chirping of sea-gulls, the therapeutic sounds of the sea. Upon shifting your gaze towards the horizon, you see a brilliantly red and tranquil sun ready to sink and bid goodbye. You feel at one with nature – a feeling difficult to express in words but one that is felt rarely in our busy lives. Aren’t there some days when we feel an urge to revisit these places, especially the ones which give us such bliss? Just to relive them once again, to detach from our fast paced lives for a moment and rejuvenate our minds…

 

Let us explore further how VR has evolved over the years and if it really can transport us to another world mentally regardless of our physical existence.

A Brief History of Virtual Reality

VR has come a long way and has matured significantly over the past few decades. The art of creating illusions is one that isn’t unfamiliar to mankind and has been around since the time of the cavemen. Throughout various ancient civilizations, magicians and those claiming to have supernatural powers have effectively taken advantage of human sensory perception and managed to successfully deceive naïve audiences into believing what is visible.

 

Although the tools and methods of implementation have significantly advanced and reached a high level of sophistication, the underlying principles of creating illusions remain the same i.e. making us see things that aren’t actually there whilst heightening our imagination.

Sir Charles Wheatstone using the early Stereoscope
Figure 1: Sir Charles Wheatstone using the early Stereoscope

The inspiration for VR began as early as the 1800s when a device was invented by Sir Charles Wheatstone (Figure 1), which today is widely known as the stereoscope. Surely many of us have had one as a Camera Toy (Figure 2: View Master) during our childhood and were fascinated by the device, curious about its functionality. The modern VR tech is also based on the same concept, wherein two very similar images with subtle differences for each eye when viewed together create a sense of perceived depth of space for the viewer, giving the planar image a third dimension. This promising innovation excited many and led to a new race for perfecting the technology. The industry gained traction and public enthusiasm in the early 90s and was expected to boom towards the end of the decade. Being way ahead of its time and constrained due to technological limitations the industry peaked till 1996, subsequently followed by a contraction which led to many VR companies going out of business.

Figure 2: View Master 3D Stereoscopic Toy
Figure 3: Google Cardboard

Today VR equipment has become highly advanced, incorporating visual, sensory, haptic and olfactory feedback to make experiences more immersive for the users. The advancement in technology has made it readily accessible, such that one can easily purchase a “Google Cardboard” to turn their smartphone into a VR headset. And if you’re willing to spend a little, there are lots of interesting devices such as the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Playstation VR – to name a few which allow you to have the best experience. There are a few exciting programs such as Tilt Brush, which is a mixed reality game/ program allowing users to paint visuals in three dimensions. And if you happen to be a tech junkie and/ or a gamer with no financial constraints, then Virtuix Omni VR is your go to device. I would recommend checking out their YouTube channel for lots of interesting videos about how they’ve transformed existing games into amazing virtual experiences.

Tilt Brush by Google

A Player using the Virtuix Omni VR Standalone System (Source: Adi Robertson for The Verge)

Virtual Reality Explained

It is by definition a simulated environment which is computer generated and experienced through sensory stimuli, such that one’s actions partially determine what happens in the environment. It is a form of communication between humans and technology, involving direct and indirect communication, the concepts which will be described in detail in the subsequent articles. It is about psychologically being in a place other than where we are physically located such that the environment could be a replica of the real world or an imaginary world that doesn’t exist and/or couldn’t exist, the possibilities are endless!

 

Recent years have sparked a surge in media coverage about VR and has made the public quite excited about it’s prospects. I have come across many UX Designers new to the field like I am, who feel really excited about VR and are enticed by the idea of getting a chance to design experiences, interactions and interfaces for virtual reality. The reasons for the excitement are justified because it will undoubtedly revolutionize many industries and being a part of it would be electrifying. Even though the video game and immersive film industries are the ones in the limelight at present, its benefits go way beyond entertainment and can be applied to a range of verticals. Some of its successful applications include architectural and scientific visualizations, flight simulation, military and medical training, therapy, theme park entertainment and engineering analysis to name a few. One of the major reasons for the successful applications are that simulations result in safer training/ testing conditions which can help reduce risks while the simulated training helps avoid costly mistakes. The VR market is expected to boom in the entertainment industry with its gradual expansion into other domains.

But how far has VR come for creating seemingly natural immersive experiences?

To answer this question, we must first understand what immersion is. It can be defined as the state of deep mental involvement into something. In terms of VR, it refers to the objective degree to which the hardware and software simultaneously project stimuli onto the sensory receptors of users in a way that is extensive enough to keep them involved, matching real world physics and surroundings, vivid enough to keep users interested, interactive enough to keep them involved and an interesting story to keep them engaged with the experience as long as they are there. One might think that in theory, all of these things can be easily done to keep the users immersed, but that’s the tricky part: Immersion is a significant aspect of VR which is quite complex, determining the success or failure of the experience. Since it is the humans who perceive and interpret the stimuli that are presented to them, immersion can “lead the mind” but cannot control it. In short, the degree to which the users experience immersion will determine their mental presence. In order to ensure a strong presence, it is crucial for the environment to be perceived seamlessly. Let us briefly cover the components of perception to understand how it helps us to design with efficiency.

Perception

It can be defined as the ability to feel the environment through sensory awareness, such as seeing or hearing. It is a crucial aspect of VR tech and includes sub components which will be discussed in greater detail in subsequent blog posts, however, the following provides a high level overview of the same:

  • Objective and Subjective Reality
    Reality can be subjective for everyone, such that we create our own realities based on our thought processes and mental models. Subjective reality can be defined as how an individual perceives the experiences and physical environment around them. Objective reality can be defined as the existence of something free of subjective biases. A simple example would be that subjective reality may lead us to experience optical illusions differently in a graphic whereas objective reality enables us to identify it as it exists naturally, i.e. a cluster of coloured pixels forming the image.
  • Perceptual Models
    The human brain is a very complex organ and has varying conceptual models and processes responsible for perception. There are various factors governing perception such as proximity to objects, sensations, mental processing, awareness, iterative thinking, the conscious and subconscious, visceral, behavioural, reflective and emotional processes which are responsible for shaping our perception of the real world.
  • Perceptual Modalities
    Perceptual modality can be explained as the means through which our senses obtain information from our immediate environment or the learning setting. Our brains must process the information obtained from our senses in order to perceive reality. The role of perceptual modalities is pivotal to the perfection of VR tech. The cues for visual, auditory, touch, haptic and olfactory feedback can likely be perfected in the near future with some challenges such as predictive eye tracking, rapid generation of the physical environment and proprioception to name a few. Proprioception simply explained is the sensation that one subconsciously feels in their bones and muscles when interacting with the environment. For instance, we subconsciously know how to pick up brittle objects without crushing them.
  • Perception of Space and Time
    It allows us to perceive the layouts, motion of objects, calculate and react precisely according to the need. Latency plays a vital role in shaping our perception of space and time and will be discussed in later posts
  • Perceptual Stability, Attention and Action
    Our immediate physical environment is stable and consistently stays the same, a similar consistency is required in virtual environments to ensure that the experience feels natural. In order to create engaging and immersive experiences, the virtual environment needs to capture our attention, which will in turn inspire us to take action thereby turning a passive experience into an active one.

Why I wrote this article

I am not a subject matter expert and this article does not provide academic advice. It has been written purely from my perspective and is meant to provide a high level overview of the origins of virtual reality along with a short introduction to some concepts. The brief description of immersion, perception and its subcomponents were meant to give readers a sense of the complexity involved in creating VR experiences, having their understanding will help us to design experiences effectively. Although VR has improved significantly over time and has become readily accessible for everyone to have the basic experience, it still has a long way to go as there are quite a few hurdles that need to be crossed through technological innovation. It will take at least a few more years if not decades for it to mature to a stage where it blurs the lines between reality and imagination.

 

Perhaps that time isn’t far when someday we experience a sudden nostalgia, there will be a way to relive those memories, to rejoice all that we have experienced and all that we have felt, even if it is for a brief moment.

 

As stated earlier in the article, I will be covering various technical concepts in my subsequent posts, such as latency, VR sickness etc. Through these pieces I wish to provide useful and interesting information for readers. Share your thoughts about how you think VR can change our daily lives in the near future! Feel free to comment below or share the article.

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