Friday, 14 February, 2020 UTC
Summary
Virtual Reality is something we’ve all heard of at least by name, which makes sense; It is one of the fastest growing emerging tech industries after only some things like IoT and especially Artificial Intelligence. And this is rightfully so.
VR may have the potential to change everything we do, and maybe the entire world itself.
What is VR?
VR is a computer generated environment which creates the sensation of the user being in that environment, rather than the environment they are really in.
We usually accomplish this by wearing a VR headset with a screen built in. In VR, you have two virtual cameras representing your eyes which are offset in position so that you create a perception of depth.
Our eyes see two different images which are overlaid to create our sense of depth (close one of your eyes, then the other to see this in effect!) By offsetting the cameras, we simulate the offset of the human eyes, offering depth, which couldn’t be captured on a regular computer screen.
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VR headsets can also track head rotation, allowing you to look around in any direction you want, by rotating your virtual eyes. Most middle-end to higher-end VR headsets can also track your position, allowing you to walk in your virtual space, and also come with controllers which can also track their position and rotation, allowing you to interact with the virtual world.
This is a new VR headset, called the Oculus Quest, with a headset and controllersHow can we track a VR headset?
Tracking the rotation of a VR headset is easy, as you can use a gyroscope. A gyroscope sensor can track orientation and angular velocity, which is all that is necessary for tracking the rotation of your headset. But positional tracking is a bit harder than that.
Pretty much all VR headsets use accelerometers to track position. But accelerometers can’t track position directly, or even velocity directly. Accelerometers can only measure acceleration. However, if you have done calculus, you probably know that taking the integral of acceleration over time gives you velocity, and taking the integral of velocity gives you position (or at least displacement from the original position)
But this method is imperfect, and it requires extra tracking systems to help balance the errors. There are many different tracking systems that can do this:
Light Based Tracking Systems
These tracking systems use lights on the headset and controllers, as well as cameras, to correct any errors. The cameras use the image data and track the lights and help correct any drifting that may occur without any tracking systems.
The PlayStation VR headset uses a camera as well as lights on the headset and controller to help track your bodyInside-Out Tracking Systems
These are much more complicated than light based tracking systems, as instead of using lights and cameras, there are onboard cameras on the headset which can track static features around the room, and by observing how those features move, can help stabilize any errors. The controllers have lights however, so the headset cameras can distinguish the controllers from the background.
The Samsung Odyssey headset is one of many VR systems that use inside-out tracking systemsLighthouse Tracking Systems
Only used by Valve (One of the biggest companies in the VR space), the lighthouse tracking system uses two lighthouses at opposite corners of a room. They actually don’t communicate with the computer and they aren’t sensors. They emit two dimensional IR laser beams, on each axis respectively and before emitting the lasers they emit a powerful flash of IR light. The headset can measure the time between the flash and the laser and ascertain its position in the room.
These are the Valve basestations, used for the Valve Index VR system, which I will talk more about laterIsn’t wearing a huge headset non-immersive?
While this is sort of true, your brain is still tricked into believing it is in a virtual environment, and during the course of your experience, you probably won’t consciously think about the headset at all unless you wanted to.
Plus, new innovations are developed all the time that allow further immersion into the virtual world! Let’s take a look at some of them.
Valve Index
The Valve Index is one of the most advanced consumer VR setups today, and it is because the headset has a very high quality screen, and the controllers have a unique clever design that allows for the full use of the hand.
The controller retains the standard buttons and trigger, but has a strap that goes around your hand, which allows you to let go of the controller without dropping it. It can track how far your fingers are as well as your grip strength and allows for a full range of hand motion tracked perfectly into VR.
This is the Valve Index. Looking closely, you can see the straps that hold the controller to your hand.Virtuix Omni
Apart from the awesome name, the Virtuix Omni allows for full locomotion in VR. What I mean is that when you step into the Omni and strap in, you can walk around in the virtual world like you do in real life, walking on your feet. It is sort of like a treadmill that moves with your walking and can roll in any direction. You can walk around in virtual reality already, but without a VR treadmill, you are limited to the space of your room.
It allows a lot of immersion as you have the same sensation of walking in the virtual world as our physical world. Plus, you can still jump, crouch, and run around perfectly fine without hurting yourself!
The Virtuix Omni is quite small for a VR treadmill, and has impressive tracking and accuracy.HaptX Gloves
HaptX is a company that is developing a force-feedback, haptic-feedback glove. They are complicated terms but they are what make this glove so amazing. Sort of like the Index controllers, it tracks your finger position, but instead of a controller, you use a glove, which may bring somewhat better immersion than a controller.
As for the force-feedback and haptic-feedback, the force-feedback is a little plastic tape that pulls on the back of your finger, so if you grabbed an object, it would pull back on your finger with an appropriate force, which makes our brain feel like it grabbed something. A rock would be hard to squeeze, while a ball would be soft.
The haptic feedback uses bladders to create the sensation of touch, so a rough object in VR would feel rough, and a smooth one feeling smooth.
Although the glove is a little bulky, it allows full immersion and makes you feel like you are really interacting with the virtual world.How can VR help us?
In my opinion, VR can change everything around us (pun intended), and can change the way we do things like play games, watch movies, even up to things like selling or casing houses. Here are some cool uses for VR!
Teaching professionals new skills
Although it is unlikely you will tune into your software companies training session in VR, it is likely that specialized workers like pilots or surgeons could greatly benefit from VR. VR offers an immersive world with endless possibilities limited only by programming skills and computer hardware, so it makes sense to train pilots and surgeons using VR software which emulates situations they will find themselves in.
If you have heard of the game Surgeon Simulator, which is a tongue-in-cheek surgery game, you may know there is a VR supported version, which although still ridiculous, shows the potential for VR being used to train highly specialized professionals. In fact, the US military incorporates VR into soldier training!
Using VR, soldiers can be put in scenarios they would deal with in real life, allowing them to make better decisions in the heat of battle.VR for education
VR has a huge potential in education, as you can do more things in virtual reality than in real life. You can visualize certain lessons, explore the galaxy, go back in time to different eras and ages, and interact with the lesson in a fun and inviting way.
It is also useful to special needs children, as we can create safe environments for them to practice social skills like pointing, eye contact, sharing, and other things special needs children have problems with, and is also useful to kids with mental issues like PTSD, depression, and other conditions.
VR could be used in many ways to educate children, like visualizing molecules, 3d graphing, chemistry, and so much more!Virtual shops and services
VR will be extremely useful in shops, services, and products. In VR you could perhaps test a product before you buy it, visit a virtual shop where you can interact with the shop and order stuff through the shop! Or, you could case a new prospective house in a far away place to see if it’s any good, without having to drive there and back!
It also opens the door to full-on virtual services. Going back to the other uses, you could have a subscription for a VR meditation class, or a VR movie services, or just a plain old VR game. It will create a new market and can disrupt and improve other markets as well!
A mockup of what VR shops might look like!Key Takeaways
- VR is a computer generated environment creating the sensation that the user is in a different environment than the one they are actually in.
- It uses a headset with a screen inside and sometimes comes with virtual controllers to allow interaction with the virtual environment
- There are three major types of tracking, light based tracking, inside out tracking, and lighthouse tracking
- New innovations in VR include the Valve Index, Virtuix Omni, and the HaptX glove.
- VR can change everything around us, from teaching specialized workers new skills, to education, to a new virtual shops and services market, and even disrupt other markets altogether!
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https://medium.com/media/1e1f2ee7654748bb938735cbca6f0fd3/hrefVirtual Reality: A World Apart was originally published in AR/VR Journey: Augmented & Virtual Reality Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.