Wass

Taylor Wass
Professor Elizabeth Caruso
Undergrad Writing 1103
September 28th 2015

Inquiry Essay
How will Virtual Reality impact the world over the next 10-15 years? When I hear this question
I think mainly of how it will impact the gaming community. There is so much more that Virtual Reality
impacts than just the community of gaming. Virtual Reality affects how normal people will interact
with others, or how students can be educated. Virtual Reality has a bigger impact in the world than a
single person could imagine. There are multiple projects going on right now by different companies to
produce their own Virtual Reality headset.
First we have to ask ourselves what Virtual Reality is. Short for Virtual Reality, VR is a
computer-generated artificial environment that allows a user to view, explore, and manipulate the
environment and a term popularized by Jaron Lanier. (VR, par 1, VR,
http://www.computerhope.com/jargon/v/vr.htm, n.d.) This computer-generated environment has many
applications in which it can be used. As stated above this could affect how the media is broadcast or
how people that live thousands of miles away can talk and interact with each other like they are in the
same room. In a story from NPR one of the journalist did a test on a group of couples. In the virtual
world a situation would happen and the responses were written down. In one trial the woman felt like
she was being assaulted in the virtual world when another person was resting their head on her shoulder

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in the virtual world. Her partner felt threatened even though there was no physical contact in the real
world and wanted to protect her. The people that have interacted with Virtual Reality are learning that
peoples brains will interpret these events as if they are happening in the real world. That the brain
cannot tell that what is happening in the virtual world is fictional and is not actually happening. With
Virtual Reality being talked about more in the media and being used more. More and more people are
learning what it is like to interact with others in the online world.
When the term Virtual Reality is brought up in a conversation I think about the Oculus rift. The
reason why is because the Oculus was the first VR headset in the rebirth of Virtual Reality. It has had
the most expansion of viability in the consumer market. In its Kickstarter it raised over 2.4 million
dollars, when the developers asked for $250k. Almost 10 times the development team asked for. With
that money it has made leaps and bounds in the name of Virtual Reality. There have been 2
DK's( Development kits) the DK 1 which was the first prototype of the Oculus Rift. This was given to
people that backed $300+ to the kickstarter. The DK 2 was the second prototype that was released in
mid 2014. Even though the Oculus Rift is a big name in the VR community there are still competitors
that are putting out some great content.
The Microsoft HoloLens is one of those competitors. The HoloLens is mostly known in the
gaming world or anyone who watched E3 this year, when they showed one of the Developers of the
HoloLens playing Minecraft with the HoloLens. While the playing Minecraft with the HoloLens on
however you play from a 3rd person point of view instead of the normal first person. Hololens also
features an array of sensors so it can work out where you are, how you are moving, and whats
happening in the environment around you. It has a basic understanding of the objects in your field of

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view, too, so it recognises doors, windows, chairs, tables elements it can use when overlaying visuals.
Plus, theres a mini-computer or holographic processing unit - built in, so you dont have to plug it
into a computer or games console. (Minecraft on HoloLens, par 4, www.theguardian.com/technology,
n.d.) It is great that the HoloLens allows for the user to play the games and also be able to see his/her
surroundings.
As stated before Virtual Reality is not just limited to gaming or social events or the media.
There can be wonderful applications that will help improve the level of education that kids receive in
school or even out of school. With Virtual reality there are boundless possibilities that it can be used for
in schools. There has already been an experiment in Czech Republic. A school brought in multiple
Virtual Reality headsets for teens to study biology. The Leap Motion controller, a device which
captures infrared light, picks up the movement of your hand and interprets gestures as commands
within the application. For example, clenching your fist allows you to pull the world around you (or
perhaps your position in the virtual world) (This is the biginning of VR education, par 5,
www.roadtovr.com, oct 28, 2014). Virtual Reality can do major things in the world of education. It can
make group projects more interactive and teachers can have classes around the world while not ever
leaving the class room. How ever there are some kinks that need to be worked out before the headsets
can be effectively used in classes. Such as the Leap motion tacking glitching or commands not being
registered. However this is all common in new technology and the bugs have to be fixed. Hopefully we
do not over look education as a viable resource in exploring Virtual Reality.

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Work citing

"This Is the Beginning of VR Education, and It Will Only Get Better - Road to VR." Road to VR. N.p., 28
Oct. 2014. Web. 05 Oct. 2015.
"This Company Created the First Social Platform for Virtual Reality."Fortune This Company Created the
First Social Platform for Virtual Reality Comments. N.p., 20 May 2015. Web. 05 Oct. 2015.
"Getting 'Physical' And Emotional In Virtual Reality." NPR. NPR, n.d. Web. 05 Oct. 2015.