Virtual+Reality

Description | | Purpose | | Features | Strengths | Weaknesses | Leading Tools | Open Source Options | Resources

Virtual reality (VR) is a powerful technique that uses computer representations to transform people's sense of presence, so that they feel themselves to be in a virtual environment rather their current one.This presence-transforming function enables people's environments to be precisely manipulated in a way that is not possible in the psychological laboratory or the everyday world. Virtual reality (VR) refers to computer-simulated environments that look, feel, sound and sometimes even smell like the real thing. As technology advances, virtual life becomes increasingly more lifelike and is applied across a broader range of fields from entertainment to medical therapeutics.The graphical, three-dimensional technology of Virtual World create a new stage of collaboration, communication with an even higher level of interaction and complexity. A persistent online environment that allows users to interact with one another and an artificial world through an agent in that world. The online part allows user with Internet access to log on to the Virtual World from any location. The persistent part means the world continues to exist as a single instance whether a specific individual is logged on to the system. This means that while you are logged out of a virtual world, no one will see you but activity will go on around you and you will be in the same place you were when you log back on. There are basically two types of Virtual Worlds. They are as follows: __ Role playing worlds __ __ Social worlds __
 * Introduction **
 * Entertainment or gaming is probably the most well-known type of Virtual World
 * The largest and most well-known is the World of Warcraft.
 * Social Worlds or communities exist more for meeting and sharing information, and to experience things and places.
 * Examples of social worlds are Active Worlds, Second Life and Small worlds.

__ **Health Care** __ Healthcare agencies offer information on a variety of illnesses, conditions and addictions in the Virtual World of Second Life.  The disabled can experience freedom by temporarily leaving their disabilities and doing things, through their avatars, like walking, fishing, exploring and other physical activities.  provides support, information and activities for people of all disabilities. __ **Commercial** __ Companies and organizations have established commercial worlds as a new form of advertising Virtual Worlds allow companies the opportunity to learn customer reaction to new products __ **Education** __ Educational opportunities are thriving in Virtual World. Universities have established locations in Virtual Worlds – either entire campuses or simple classrooms. More classes are conducted in Virtual World environment. __ **Engineering** __ The advantages of virtual reality extend to the realms of design and architecture. Computer-aided design allows architects to build and envision a structure to eliminate any potential problems before money is spent actualizing the design. Fashion designers can put together fantastic creations and see how they move and look before mass-manufacturing their collection. Those who design safety features such as emergency exits or rescue equipment can see their designs in play without having to manufacture a prototype and conduct costly testing __ **Second Life** __ Second Life is probably the most well known and largest social Virtual World today. It was created by Linden Labs and open to the public in 2003 (Frank 2008, 1). It had an early reputation as being mainly a place to play. Collaborative work, information sharing, and learning activities have become more popular and taken over as the major activities in Second Life. There are many arguments as to the number of people who have avatars in Second Life, but at any time there are between 35-50,000 avatars online. (Frank 2008, 2)
 * Areas of Application **

Virtual Reality is imaginably more personal than electronic mail or instant messaging, or even a letter or a telephone call Virtual Reality is a great social leveler, it may find a common ground across differences in age, culture, and linguistic orientation (Boca and Levy 1995) people will be drawn together by similar interests instead of purely by geographic location (Boca and Levy 1995) communication will be both challenging and rewarding, more effective and productive, and thus more enjoyable (Boca and Levy 1995) a tremendous opportunity for every 'connected' person to find his or her field and/or discipline (Boca and Levy 1995) after using a medium that provides total freedom of expression face-to-face communication may be found to be too confining (Cartwright 1994)
 * Need & Objective **

When applied to therapeutics, augmented reality can allow people with disabilities to experience places and tasks that are otherwise unavailable to them. A person in a wheelchair can play a basketball game with the aid of virtual reality games. A person undergoing psychotherapy to confront a past event can do so safely in a virtual reality world without the fear of physical harm. Learning how to react to any given situation, especially a life-or-death situation, is one of the prime advantages of virtual reality. Military exercises performed in a virtual reality environment save lives. Exercises designed to train military personnel allow service members to experience a high-pressure situation without the threat of danger or death. These exercises can be performed over and over again until the person feels comfortable and confident in that situation, a scenario that is improbable and not feasible when engaging in real-life training exercises. Productivity also benefits from virtual reality. “Telepresence” refers to a type of technology that allows a person to feel as if he or she were present in another location. Used in the business world as a form of telecommunications, telepresence allows a person to conduct intimate business transactions in all corners of the world without ever leaving his place of residence. It is great social way, users may find a common interests across the world Communication and learning will be more effective, productive, and more enjoyable. It enables users to interface with each other using a three dimensional environment through sight, sound, and touch. It will improve some users’ skills without causing any mistakes in real world. It helps patients recover from strokes, phobias and other illnesses.
 * Advantages **

an inescapable aspect of social life is the formation and maintenance of interpersonal relationships (Boca and Levy 1995) interaction ought not be substituted for community (Mayer 1999) VR will provide a communication environment in which the dangers of deception and the benefits of creativity are amplified beyond the levels that humans currently experience in their interpersonal interactions. (Boca and Levy 1995) Could lead to low self-esteem, feelings of worthlessness and insignificance, even self-destructive acts. One of the largest disadvantages of virtual reality is that the technology required for an immersive or natural experience has remained elusive. Even the most basic virtual reality hardware and software highlights another of the disadvantages of virtual reality, namely the cost. Any system that attempts to provide an immersive experience requires some type of display that will try to fool the human senses. These systems are very costly and can be problematic to use, largely because so few people have the technical knowledge to repair or maintain them. Additionally, most virtual reality systems are not readily interchangeable with different hardware, increasing the cost and reducing the long-term value of an initial investment in such a system. Socially, some of the disadvantages of virtual reality as entertainment have already started to surface, even without an experience that fully removes a person from his or her surrounding stimuli. One issue is social isolation, in which the user of virtual reality relies more on interactions that take place in a virtual world than on experiences in the real world. This lack of true, physical interaction has the potential to create incorrect associations that are not part of real social settings. The isolation could eventually cause depression, disassociation and other conditions, if it is severe enough. Another of the possible psychological and social disadvantages of virtual reality is desensitization. If some users were to use virtual reality for entertainment extensively, then they could run the risk of failing to recognize the true consequences for actions in which they are taking part or are viewing. When translated to the real world, in an extreme case, this could cause a lack of understanding of the effects of some actions when performed outside the virtual environment. It will decrease human interaction in the real world. The cost of creating a virtual reality system is too high. Training with a VR environment does not have the same results as training in the real world. Programmers are still grappling with how to interact with virtual environment If the virtual environment became much higher quality, they will become attractive to those wishing to escape real life.
 * Disadvantage **

Virtual worlds may lead to a "mobility" of labor that may impact national and organizational competitiveness in a manner similar to the changes seen with the mobility of goods and then the mobility of labor.[43] Virtual worlds may increasingly function as centers of commerce, trade, and business.[63] With the increased growth of virtual asset trade being seen: In Second Life, revenue has reached approximately 7 million US Dollars per month.[64] Real world brands such as Coca-Cola have used virtual worlds to advertise their brand.
 * Future of virtual world **

__ Multiverse platform: __ Designed for the creation of online 3D worlds Certainly anticipates a future in which developers demand the tools necessary to build niche virtual communities due to communities going mainstream. __ Club Penguin: __ Cater to children and pre-teenagers with simple user interfaces, basic games, and cartoon graphics. __ Second Life: __ For a broader audience by providing more advanced chat capabilities, more realistic simulations of reality, and tools to design objects and surroundings. __ Gaia __ Use sprites (two-dimensional pre-rendered figures) to provide a bird’s-eye view of characters moving around in largely static settings. __ World and Neopost: __ Produced simply using HTML images and Flash animations. __ Red Light Center (NSFW): __ Embrace the more voluptuous side of human behavior, Encourage users to participate in explicit behavior. Targets mature adults to give them an altogether more explicit breed of entertainment
 * Some famous Virtual World **


 * Resources: **

https://simstreetjournal.wordpress.com/june/in-world-to-out-finding-purpose-in-the-virtual-world/ http://www.worldviz.com/products/vizard http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.25.8123&rep=rep1&type=pdf http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_world