Virtual reality

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

Virtual Reality (VR) is an environment that is simulated by a computer. A three-dimensional

artificial environment which can be created using computer hardware and software and

presented to the user in such a way that it appears and feels like a real environment is called

as Virtual Reality. A person who uses such an environment can enter into the computer

generated virtual environment with the help of special gloves, goggles, ear phones etc… All

these special devices make use of sensors which help in detection of the required signals.

Virtual reality can be text-based or graphical based representation.

Virtual reality appears to offer educational potentials in the following areas:

(1) Data gathering and visualization,

(2) Project planning and design,

(3) The design of interactive training systems,

(4) Virtual field trips, and

(5) The design of experiential learning environments.

Virtual reality also offers many possibilities as a tool for non-traditional learners, including

the physically disabled and those undergoing rehabilitation who must learn (or relearn)

communication and psychomotor skills. Virtual reality offers professional applications in

many disciplines --- robotics, medicine, scientific visualization, aviation, business,

architectural and interior design, city planning, product design, law enforcement,

entertainment, the visual arts, music, and dance and concomitantly, virtual reality offers

potentials as a training tool linked to these professional applications. For example, just as

virtual reality is used as a tool by surgeons, it can be used by medical students training to

become surgeons.

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Fig 1.1:- Virtual Reality

Originally designed as a visualization tool to help scientists, virtual reality has been taken up

by artists as well. VR offers great potential as a creative tool and a medium of expression in

the arts. Creative virtual reality applications have been developed for the audio and visual

arts. An exhibit of virtual reality art was held at the Soho Guggenheim Museum in 1993 and

artistic applications of VR are regularly shown at the Banff Center for the Arts in Canada.

This trend is expanding Virtual reality has been applied to the theater, including a venerable

puppet theater in France. And virtual reality has a role to play in filmmaking, including

project planning and special effects. This has important implications for education, as

demonstrated by Bricken and Byrne's (1993) research (described later in this chapter) as well

as other projects.

1.1 VIRTUAL REALITY

Simply put, VR is a computerized simulation of natural or imaginary reality. Often the user

of VR is fully or partially immersed in the environment. Full immersion refers to someone

using a machine to shield herself from the real world. Partial immersion happens when a

person can manipulate a VR environment but isn't tucked or locked away in a machine.

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However, virtual reality doesn't necessarily have to be "full immersion" to be considered a

true VR simulation. Games like Second Life on the PC and control devices like the Nintendo

Wii remote are VR-based products. These items let users interact with a VR environment that

is a computer simulation. These VR environments can be anything from a typical game, such

as Super Mario Brothers, to a fully detailed city reconstitution or a fictional fantasy land. The

only limit to a VR environment is the imagination and the resources that the creator has

available.

1.2 VIRTUAL REALITY HISTORY

The concept of virtual reality has been around for decades, even though the public really only

became aware of it in the early 1990s. In the mid 1950s, a cinematographer named Morton

Heilig envisioned a theatre experience that would stimulate all his audiences’ senses, drawing

them in to the stories more effectively. He built a single user console in 1960 called the

Sensorama that included a stereoscopic display, fans, odor emitters, stereo speakers and a

moving chair. He also invented a head mounted television display designed to let a user

watch television in 3-D. Users were passive audiences for the films, but many of Heilig’s

concepts would find their way into the VR field.

Philco Corporation engineers developed the first HMD in 1961, called the Head sight. The

helmet included a video screen and tracking system, which the engineers linked to a closed

circuit camera system. They intended the HMD for use in dangerous situations -- a user could

observe a real environment remotely, adjusting the camera angle by turning his head. Bell

Laboratories used a similar HMD for helicopter pilots. They linked HMDs to infrared

cameras attached to the bottom of helicopters, which allowed pilots to have a clear field of

view while flying in the dark

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CHAPTER 2

VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT

The origin of the term "virtual reality" is uncertain though it has been credited to The

Judas Mandala, a 1982 novel by Damien Broderick where the context of use is somewhat

different from that defined above. A related term coined by Myron Krueger, "artificial

reality", has been in use since the 1970s. "Cyberspace" dates to the 1982 short story "Burning

Chrome" and 1984 novel Neuromancer by the cyberpunk author William Gibson. The

concept of virtual reality was popularized in mass media by movies as The Lawnmower Man

(and others mentioned below), and the VR research boom of the 1990s was motivated in part

by the non-fiction book Virtual Reality by Howard Rheingold. The book served to demystify

the heretofore niche area, making it more accessible to less technical researchers and

enthusiasts, with an impact similar to what his book The Virtual Community had on virtual

community research lines closely related to VR.

2.1 FOUNDATION OF VIRTUAL REALITY

Virtual Reality (VR) refers to a technology which is capable of shifting a subject into a

different environment without physically moving him/her. To this end the inputs into the

subject's sensory organs are manipulated in such a way, that the perceived environment is

associated with the desired Virtual Environment (VE) and not with the physical one. The

manipulation process is controlled by a computer model that is based on the physical

description of the VE. Consequently, the technology is able to create almost arbitrarily

perceived environments.

Immersion is a key issue in VR systems as it is central to the paradigm where the user

becomes part of the simulated world, rather than the simulated world being a feature of the

user's own world.

The first “immersive VR systems” have been the flight simulators where the immersion is

achieved by a subtle mixture of real hardware and virtual imagery. The term "immersion" is a

description of a technology, which can be achieved to varying degrees. A necessary condition

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is Ellis' notion of a VE, maintained in at least one sensory modality (typically the visual). For

example, a head-mounted display with wide field of view, and at least head tracking would

be essential. The degree of immersion is increased by adding additional and consistent

modalities, greater degree of body tracking, richer body representations, decreased lag

between body movements and resulting changes in sensory data, and so on. Astheimer

defines immersion as the feeling of a VR user, that his VE is real. Analogously to Turing's

definition of artificial intelligence: if the user cannot tell, which reality is "real", and which

one is "virtual", then the computer generated one is immersive.

2.2 VIRTUAL REALITY TIMELINE

Morton Heilig wrote in the 1950s of an "Experience Theater" that could encompass all the

senses in an effective manner, thus drawing the viewer into the onscreen activity. He built a

prototype of his vision dubbed the Sensorama in 1962, along with five short films to be

displayed in it while engaging multiple senses (sight, sound, smell, and touch). Predating

digital computing, the Sensorama was a mechanical device, which reportedly still functions

today. In 1968, Ivan Sutherland, with the help of his student Bob Sproull, created what is

widely considered to be the first Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality (AR) Head Mounted

Display (HMD) system. It was primitive both in terms of user interface and realism, and the

HMD to be worn by the user was so heavy it had to be suspended from the ceiling, and the

graphics comprising the virtual environment were simple wireframe rooms. The formidable

appearance of the device inspired its name, The Sword of Damocles. Also notable among the

earlier hypermedia and virtual reality systems was the Aspen Movie Map, which was created

at MIT in 1977. The program was a crude virtual simulation of Aspen, Colorado in which

users could wander the streets in one of three modes: summer, winter, and polygons. The first

two were based on photographs – the researchers actually photographed every possible

movement through the city's street grid in both seasons – and the third was a basic 3-D model

of the city. In the late 1980s the term "virtual reality" was popularized by Jaron Lanier, one

of the modern pioneers of the field. Lanier had founded the company VPL Research in 1985,

which developed and built some of the seminal "goggles n' gloves" systems of that decade.

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CHAPTER 3

Virtual Reality Technology

3.1 Head-Mounted Display

The head-mounted display (HMD) was the first device providing its wearer with an

immersive experience. Evans and Sutherland demonstrated a head-mounted stereo display

already in 1965. It took more then 20 years before VPL Research introduced a commercially

available HMD, the famous "Eye Phone" system (1989).

They are designed to take advantage of human binocular vision capabilities and present the

general following characteristics:

Headgear with two small LCD color screens, each optical channeled to one eye, for

binocular vision.

special optics in front of the screens, for wide field of view

a tracking system for precise location of user head

Fig 3.1:- A head-mounted display (HMD)

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A typical HMD houses two miniature display screens and an optical system that channels the

images from the screens to the eyes, thereby, presenting a stereo view of a virtual world. A

motion tracker continuously measures the position and orientation of the user's head and

allows the image generating computer to adjust the scene representation to the current view.

As a result, the viewer can look around and walk through the surrounding virtual

environment.

To overcome the often uncomfortable intrusiveness of a head-mounted display, alternative

concepts (e.g., BOOM and CAVE) for immersive viewing of virtual environments were

developed.

3.2 BOOM

The BOOM (Binocular Omni-Orientation Monitor) from Fakes pace is a head-coupled

stereoscopic display device. Screens and optical system are housed in a box that is attached

to a multi-link arm. The user looks into the box through two holes, sees the virtual world, and

can guide the box to any position within the operational volume of the device. Head tracking

is accomplished via sensors in the links of the arm that holds the box.

Fig 3.2:- The BOOM, a head-coupled display device

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3.3 CAVEThe CAVE(TM) is a multi-person, room-sized, high-resolution, 3D video and audio

environment. It was developed at University of Illinois and is available commercially

through Pyramid Systems Inc.

Currently, four projectors are used to throw full-color, computer generated images onto three

walls and the floor (the software could support a 6 wall CAVE.) CAVE software

synchronizes all the devices and calculates the correct perspective for each wall. In the

current configuration, one Rack Onyx with 2 Infinite Reality Engine Pipes is used to create

imagery for the four walls. In the CAVE all perspectives are calculated from the point of

view of the user. Ahead tracker provides information about the user's position. Offset images

are calculated for each eye.

Fig 3.3:- CAVE system (schematic principle)

3.4 Data Gloves

Hand measurement devices must sense both the flexing angles of the fingers and the position

and orientation of the wrist in real-time. The first commercial hand measurement device was

the Data Glove from VPL Research. The Data Glove (Figure 3.4) consists of a lightweight

nylon glove with optical sensors mounted along the fingers.

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Fig 3.4:- Data Gloves

In its basic configuration, the sensors measure the bending angles of the joints of the thumb

and the lower and middle knuckles of others fingers, and the Data Glove can be extended to

measure abduction angles between the fingers. Each sensor is a short length of fiber optic

cable, with a light-emitting diode (LED) at one end and a phototransistor at the other end.

When the cable is flexed, some of the LED's light is lost, so less light is received by the

phototransistor. Attached to the back is a Polhemus sensor to measure orientation and

position of the gloved hand. This information, along with the ten flex angles for the knuckles

is transmitted through a serial communication line to the host computer.

3.5 3D mouse and Space BallThe Logitech 3D mouse is based on a ultrasonic position reference array, which is a tripod

consisting of three ultrasonic speakers set in a triangular position, emits ultrasonic sound

signals from each of the three transmitters. These are used to track the receiver position,

orientation and movement. It provides proportional output in all 6 degrees of freedom: X, Y,

Z, Pitch, Yaw, and Roll.

Spatial Systems designed a 6 DOF interactive input device called the SpaceBall. This is

essentially a “force” sensitive device that relates the forces and torques applied to the ball

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mounted on top of the device. These force and torque vectors are sent to the computer in real

time where they are interpreted and may be composited into homogeneous transformation

matrices that can be applied to objects.

Fig 3.4 3D mouse Ball

3.6 Midi keyboards

MIDI keyboards have been first designed for music input, but it provides a more general way

of entering multi-dimensional data at the same time. In particular, it is a very good tool for

controlling a large number of DOFs in a real-time animation system. A MIDI keyboard

controller has 88 keys, any of which can be struck within a fraction of second. Each key

transmits velocity of keystroke as well as pressure after the key is pressed.

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CHAPTER 4

IMMERSIVE AND NON IMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGY

4.1 Characteristics of Immersive VRThe unique characteristics of immersive virtual reality can be summarized as follows:

Head-referenced viewing provides a natural interface for the navigation in three-

dimensional space and allows for look-around, walk-around, and fly-through

capabilities in virtual environments.

Stereoscopic viewing enhances the perception of depth and the sense of space.

The virtual world is presented in full scale and relates properly to the human size.

Realistic interactions with virtual objects via data glove and similar devices allow

for manipulation, operation, and control of virtual worlds.

The convincing illusion of being fully immersed in an artificial world can be

enhanced by auditory, haptic, and other non-visual technologies.

Networked applications allow for shared virtual environments (see below).

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Fig 4.1:- Types of virtual Reality

4.2 Shared Virtual Environments

In the example illustrated below, three networked users at different locations (anywhere in

the world) meet in the same virtual world by using a BOOM device, a CAVE system, and a

Head-Mounted Display, respectively. All users see the same virtual environment from their

respective points of view. Each user is presented as a virtual human (avatar) to the other

participants. The users can see each other, communicated with each other, and interact with

the virtual world as a team.

Fig 4.2:- Shared Virtual Environment

4.3 Non-immersive VR

Today, the term 'Virtual Reality' is also being used for applications that are not fully

immersive. The boundaries are becoming blurred, but all variations of VR will be important

in the future. This includes mouse-controlled navigation through a three-dimensional

environment on a graphics monitor, stereo viewing from the monitor via stereo glasses,

stereo projection systems, and others. Apple's QuickTime VR, for example, uses photographs

for the modeling of three-dimensional worlds and provides pseudo look-around and walk-

through capabilities on a graphics monitor.

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4.4 Virtual Reality Modeling Language

Most exciting is the ongoing development of VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language)

on the World Wide Web. In addition to HTML (HyperText Markup Language), that has

become a standard authoring tool for the creation of home pages, VRML provides three-

dimensional worlds with integrated hyperlinks on the Web. Home pages become home

spaces. The viewing of VRML models via a VRML plug-in for Web browsers is usually

done on a graphics monitor under mouse-control and, therefore, not fully immersive.

However, the syntax and data structure of VRML provide an excellent tool for the modeling

of three-dimensional worlds that are functional and interactive and that can, ultimately, be

transferred into fully immersive viewing systems. The current version VRML 2.0 has

become an international ISO/IEC standard under the name VRML97.

4.5 Virtual related technology

Other VR-related technologies combine virtual and real environments. Motion trackers are

employed to monitor the movements of dancers or athletes for subsequent studies in

immersive VR. The technologies of 'Augmented Reality' allow for the viewing of real

environments with superimposed virtual objects. Telepresence systems (e.g., telemedicine,

telerobotics) immerse a viewer in a real world that is captured by video cameras at a distant

location and allow for the remote manipulation of real objects via robot arms and

manipulators.

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CHAPTER 5

APPLICATION

There has been increasing interest in the potential social impact of new technologies, such as

virtual reality (as may be seen in utopian literature, within the social sciences, and in popular

culture). Perhaps most notably, Mychilo Stephenson Cline, in his book, Power, Madness, and

Immortality: The Future of Virtual Reality, argues that virtual reality will lead to a number of

important changes in human life and activity. He argues that:

Virtual reality will be integrated into daily life and activity and will be used in very

human ways.

Techniques will be developed to influence human behavior, interpersonal

communication, and cognition (i.e., virtual genetics).

As we spend more and more time in virtual space, there will be an gradual “migration

to virtual space,” resulting in important changes in economics, worldview, and

culture.

The design of virtual environments may be used to extend basic human rights into

virtual space, to promote human freedom and well-being, and to promote social

stablity as we move from one stage in socio-political development to the next.

5.1 Television

The first major television series to showcase virtual reality was Star Trek: The Next

Generation. They featured the holodeck, a virtual reality facility, generally on star ships and

star bases, that enabled its users to recreate and experience anything they wanted. One

difference from current virtual reality technology, however, was that replicators and

transporters were used to actually create and place objects in the holodeck, rather than relying

solely on the illusion of physical objects, as is done today.

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5.2 Motion Pictures

Steven Lisberger's film TRON was the first mainstream Hollywood picture to explore the

idea, which was popularized more recently by the Wachowski brothers in 1999's The Matrix.

The Matrix was significant in that it presented virtual reality and reality as often overlapping,

and sometimes indistinguishable. Cyberspace became something that most movies

completely misunderstood, as seen in The Lawnmower Man and Hackers (film). Also, the

British comedy Red Dwarf utilized in several episodes the idea that life (or at least the life

seen on the show) is a virtual reality game. This idea was also used in Spy Kids 3-D: Game

Over.

The popular classic of The Matrix is about the world of the future, where most of the human

species is kept docile by a race of sentient machines (which humankind created) in a "Virtual

Reality" computer program called The Matrix. The machines use their human population as

energy generators feeding off them as their brains act out their lives completely oblivious of

the real world while inside the Matrix.

5.3 Games

In the Mage: The Ascension role-playing game, the mage tradition of the Virtual Adepts is

presented as the real creators of VR. The Adepts' ultimate objective is to move into virtual

reality, scrapping their physical bodies in favour of improved virtual ones. Also, the .hack

series centers around a virtual reality video game.

5.4 Education and training systems Education and training is one of the most promising application areas for virtual reality

technologies. Computerized three dimensional atlases presenting different aspects of the

anatomy, physiology, and pathology as a unified teaching atlas are about to revolutionize the

teaching of anatomy to medical students and the general public.

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5.5 Medical applications

In the past decade medical applications of virtual reality technology have been rapidly

developing, and the technology has changed from a research curiosity to a commercially and

clinically important area of medical informatics technology. Research and development

activity is well summarized by the yearly "Medicine Meets Virtual Reality" meetings, and the

commercialization of the technology is already at an advanced stage.

5.6 Diagnostics Initially, algorithms for graphical rendering of anatomy have been used to provide support for

three dimensional organ reconstructions from radiological cross sections. For the clinician

this method of visualizations provided a more natural view of a patient's anatomy without

losing the see through capability of the radiologist.

Virtual endoscopy techniques (such as virtual colonoscopy or bronchoscopy) based on the

virtual reconstruction and visualizations of individual patient anatomy are rapidly developing.

Owing to the potential benefits of patient comfort and cost effectiveness virtual endoscopic

procedures could replace real endoscopic investigations in the foreseeable future in some

areas of diagnosis. The most impressive development has been demonstrated in virtual

colonoscopy as a screening tool for colon polyps and cancer and which is currently in the

clinical validation phase.

5.7 Doctors getting trained in Virtual Hospital Education and training is one of the most promising application areas for virtual reality

technologies. Medical students will be able to learn real world practical problem in VR

world. For example Medical students can operate a patient who will be dying due to a certain

disease in a VR world and even medical students can get knowledge about emergencies an

accident.

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CHAPTER 6

FUTURE SCOPE6.1 Google Cardboard Google Cardboard is a virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) platform developed

by Google for use with a head mount for a mobile phone. Named for its fold-out cardboard

viewer, the platform is intended as a low-cost system to encourage interest and development

in VR and AR applications. Users can either build their own viewer from simple, low-cost

components using specifications published by Google, or purchase one manufactured by a

third-party. The platform was created by David Coz and Damien Henry, Google engineers at

the Google Cultural Institute in Paris, in their 20% "Innovation Time Off". It was introduced

at the Google I/O 2014 developers conference for Android devices, with a release to iOS at

the following year's event. Through January 2016, over 5 million Cardboard viewers had

shipped and over 1,000 compatible applications had been published

Google provides two software development kits for developing Cardboard applications, both

using OpenGL: one for Android using Java, and one for the game

engine Unity using C#. After initially supporting only Android, Google announced iOS

support for the Unity plugin in May 2015 at the Google I/O 2015 conference. Third-party

apps with Cardboard support are available on the Google Play store and App Store for iOS.

In addition to native Cardboard apps, there are Google Chrome VR Experiments

implemented using WebGL; phones, including Apple's, that support WebGL can run

Google's web experiments. In January 2016, Google announced that the software

development kits would support spacial audio, a virtual reality effect intended to simulate

the Doppler effect.

Fig 6.1:- Google Cardboard

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6.2 Oculus RiftThe Rift is a virtual reality headset developed by Oculus VR. It was initially proposed in

a Kick starter campaign, during which Oculus VR (at the time an independent company)

raised US$2.5 million for the development of the product.

The Rift is scheduled for release on March 28, 2016, making it one of the first consumer-

targeted virtual reality headsets. It has a resolution of 1080×1200 per eye, a 90 Hz refresh

rate, and a wide field of view. It has integrated headphones which provide a 3D audio effect.

The Rift has rotational and positional tracking. The positional tracking is performed by a

USB stationary IR sensor, which normally sits on the user's desk, allowing for using the Rift

while sitting, standing, or walking around the same room.

The Rift has gone through various prototype versions in the years since the Kickstarter

campaign, around 5 of which were demonstrated to the public. Two of these prototypes were

made available for purchase as 'development kits', DK1 in late 2012 and DK2 in mid 2014, to

give developers a chance to develop content in time for the Rift's release. However, both

were also purchased by a large number of enthusiasts who wished to get an early preview of

the technology

Fig 6.2:- Oculus Rift

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CHAPTER 7CONCLUSION

A virtual environment can represent any three-dimensional world that is either real or

abstract. This includes real systems like buildings, landscapes, underwater shipwrecks,

spacecrafts, archaeological excavation sites, human anatomy, sculptures, crime scene

reconstructions, solar systems, and so on. Of special interest is the visual and sensual

representation of abstract systems like magnetic fields, turbulent flow structures, molecular

models, mathematical systems, auditorium acoustics, stock market behavior, population

densities, information flows, and any other conceivable system including artistic and creative

work of abstract nature. These virtual worlds can be animated, interactive, shared, and can

expose behavior and functionality.

In order to keep pace with real-time interaction, virtual reality technology must be supported

by high performance computers, the associated software and high bandwidth network

capabilities. Virtual reality also requires the development of new technologies such as

displays that update in real-time with head motion; advances in sensory feedback such as

force, touch, texture, temperature, and smell; and intelligent models of environments.

As the technologies of virtual reality evolve, the applications

of VR become literally unlimited. It is assumed that VR will reshape the interface between

people and information technology by offering new ways for the communication of

information, the visualization of processes, and the creative expression of ideas.

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REFERENCE

1) Beier Peter,Virtual Reality:A short introduction,http://www-vrl.umich.edu

2) John Vince,Virtual Reality Systems,Addison-Wesley.

3) Rory Stuart,The Design Of Virtual Envoirnment,Barricade Books.

4) John Vince,Essential Virtual Reality Fast :How to understand the techniques and potential

of Virtual Reality,Springer Verlag.

5) Jed Hartman,Josie Wernecke,Rick Carey,The VRML 2.0 Handbook – Building Moving

World on the Web,Addison-Wesley.

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