Assessing Virtual Reality Today

Way back in 1965, Gordon Moore proposed what we now refer to as the Moore’s Law. According to it, computer power doubles itself every 2 years. In other words, a computer system that would have cost you Rs. 50000/- a couple of years ago, would now cost you only Rs. 25000/-.

So why am I telling you this? Virtual Reality is not a very popular technology today, due to the high costs, sophisticated equipment etc. But on applying Moore’s Law we can predict that it soon will be immensely popular. Ken Pimelat in the book Virtual Marketing predicted:

“Within one hundred years virtual reality could become a semi invisible service in society, like telephones, light switches, books, and television – a tool for communication, work, and pleasure that we use without thinking about it.”

Multimedia expert Ramesh Jain wrote:

“You might experience your friend's wedding in India, seeing what is happening, feeling the warm, humid air of the wedding hall, listening to conversations and the wedding music, and enjoying the taste and aroma of the food being served. You might experience all that and more while sitting at home in Montana on a frigid January morning.”

This makes us discuss whether the not-so-far popularity of VR will become a boon or a bane?

Personally, I feel that future VR and computer technology could positively change the world and bring it closer together.

VR-enhanced communications will allow those with restricted mobility, confined to their homes, to interact more fully and humanly with the outside world. Because they will use avatars and augmented and assistive technologies on the Internet, they need not reveal to anyone that they have a disability. People with learning disabilities will be able to share their experiences, feelings, and knowledge using communications assistance and augmentation.

Companies making virtual games are already in stiff competition. Introduction of VR in gaming will completely alter the way we look at entertainment. Computer entertainment will not only mean gaming, but putting yourself in a completely new place. You can go to a place to relax, to party, to ski or to tan, right from your home!

Critics still have a habit of exaggerating the addiction and mental problems related to computer games. Robert Coffey puts it really beautifully:

“It's oddly reassuring to be able to point at something you don't understand and blame it for something else you don't understand. Or don't want to devote a whole lot of thought to. It's a lot easier to hold Doom [a violent computer game] responsible for some horror than to figure out the role parenting, society, and good old-fashioned unexplainable craziness played.”

VR will also revolutionize a student’s mindset about education. Any normal child will tend to go into slumber while mugging form history textbooks or reading fat Shakespearean plays. Now imagine the impact VR will have when the child can actually be with Moses composing the twin tablets or be able to live the life of Mark Antony Julius Caesar!

VR will also be a boon to medical sciences. A VR project has already been set up and functioning in this field. It is called CAVE, short for Cave Automatic Virtual Environment. It is basically a cubical room, with all the walls having 3D LCD displays. These make a virtual image of the cells of the patient. The doctor can stand inside the virtually projected image of the cells and diagnose the disease. This has enabled doctors to understand and cure diseases much more efficiently than before.

I would like to conclude with these words:

“Interactive multimedia is experiential and sensory, you don't simply observe the object, you are the object. You enter into and become part of the landscape, not just a detached observer. The medium functions as an extension of the self, a reconfiguration of identity, dreams, and memories—blurring the boundaries between self and exterior. . . . The revolutionary nature of multimedia . . . lies in its potential to transform the human spirit.”