Virtual Reality: What it is for? How does it work? Everything you need to know is here: Now as we all are living so busy life in this busy world, there are many things that are practically not possible to be done & have fun of those little things. So, the technology that is totally made for us to live a life, whatever way we like & for how long we want it to be, is possible in the Virtual world through VR Technology.
Virtual Reality: What it is for? How does it work? Everything you need to know is here:
Virtual Reality is an artificial technology that can be explained via different sets of words, so let me take you through the different definitions of the same for better understanding:
Virtual Reality as the name itself includes virtual & reality that means an artificial environment that has been created with the help of any software & shown up to the audience in a manner that the audience suspends belief & accepts it as a real environment.
VR – Virtual Reality or virtual realities is sometimes also called as immersive multimedia or computer-simulated reality. This technology replicates an environment, real or imagined & simulates a user’s physical presence into that environment in a way that allows the user to interact with it & feel it.
Virtual Reality is the term used to describe a 3-dimensional, computer generated environment which can be explored & interacted with, by a person. That person becomes part of this virtual world or is immersed within this environment & at the same time, is able to manipulate objects or perform a series of actions.
Virtual Reality typically refers to the computer technologies that use software to generate realistic images, sounds & other sensations that replicate a real environment & simulates a user’s physical presence in the environment, by enabling the user to interact with this space & any objects depicted therein using specialized display screens or projectors & other devices.
As stated & mentioned in the above definitions I am sure you all must have understood one or the other sets of wordings in order to understand the Virtual Reality in a best & easiest possible way. So that was the simple introduction to the World of Virtual Reality, now lets move a bit deeper & understand the technology behind that realistic virtuality.
The Technology behind:
Virtual Reality actually brings the user into the digital world by cutting off outside stimuli & in this way the person is more focused onto the digital content now. Most of the latest virtual realities are displayed either on a computer display, a projector or the most latest virtual reality headset i.e. Most commonly called as Head mounted display (HMD).
The VR headsets or so called HMDs are goaled primarily for to create whatever appears onto your mobile phone display into a life size, 3D virtual environment. The VR headsets use either two input/feeds sent to one display or two LCD displays one for each eye. The lenses are placed between the eyes & the pixels so as to create a goggles like thing that can be adjusted according to the persons need. The lenses focus & reshape the picture according to the need of the eye separately & creates an stereotypic 3D image by properly angling both the 2D images to mimic how each of the two eyes views the world. If you want to see differences try to close your one eye & you can feel the idea behind the whole thing.
Now a days there are different technologies & sensible VR headsets are available & being developed which are like:
Head Tracking:
It means the VR that you are wearing will move the picture or video always in front of you no matter where you position or look up to either the side ways, up or down. A system called 6DoF that technically means six degrees of freedom plots the head in terms of our x,y & z axis in order to measure the heads movement forward & backwards, sideways & shoulder to shoulder. Few components that are useful & being used are a gyroscope, accelerometer & a magnetometer. An external camera for monitoring those signals can also be used like sony is using so as to provide a 360 degrees of head tracking.
Motion Tracking:
The big VR players are still working out motion tracking although head tracking being a good advantage for premium headsets. It is used like when you want to see your hands in a virtual space. An infrared sensor is used to track hand movements that are strapped to the front of the kit. The motion tracking VR is based so as to use your own hands in VR. Just have to grab each controller & use buttons, thumb sticks & triggers during VR games. For instance if you have to shoot a gun just squeeze on the hand trigger & see yourself triggering in a virtual reality world. Likeiwise the gesture controller is also being developed with a matrix of sensors & it would sense waiving & pointing like gestures.
Eye Tracking:
The final piece of a VR puzzle is the eye tracker, which works on an infrared sensor. That sensor monitors our eyes inside the headset so the headset knows where the eyes are looking in virtual reality. Another advantage or you can say the main use of this eye tracking can be done, allowing in-game characters to more precisely react to where you are looking & hence make the field feel more realistic.
Some of the HMD developing companies, technologies along with the devices are listed below for your information & references:
Serial No. |
Company |
VR Devices |
---|---|---|
1. | Carl Zeiss | Carl Zeiss Cinemizer |
2. | Oculus Rift | |
3. | Google Cardboard | |
4. | HTC | HTC Vive |
5. | Microsoft | Microsoft HoloLens |
6. | Razer | OSVR Hacker Dev Kit |
7. | Samsung | Samsung Gear VR |
8. | Sony Computer Entertainment | PS VR |
9. | Starbreeze | Star VR |
The Future of Virtual Reality:
Brighter future of Virtual Reality can be seen & judged very clearly with the current scenario popularity. The biggest companies are involved & indulged in a huge competition in making & promoting there virtual world reality device. While keeping all these things in mind the progress can’t be left alone to the VR developers alone. Now as people are too much involved with the VR world they will further want to explore & enjoy their favorite films & games with their smart devices. So it is needed to establish itself as a truly mainstream device, which didn’t happened in the current year.
Many other limitations are still there between the users & the VR devices like the cost of device & price required to provide a high end streaming device. And as Nvidia also predicted last December that in 2016 only 13 million pCs will be powerful enough to run VR that means less than 1% of the total 1.43 billion PCs will be covered, which seems to be a very slow start.
Although potential has always been there the main cause behind every prediction. So the potential that companies & developers are putting into the technology seems to be very soon bringing up with the all set future with the VRs.