Assignment E-skills: Collaboration Task 1

Members: Vandermeersch Gilles, Minne Lowie

Document after online meeting including:
"Create one document about this this technical innovation useful for enterprises. In
the document you have to describe:

What your subject is about

What is about
Why it is useful
Who can benefit from it
Where/how does if fit in a modern company
What are the advantages
What are the disadvantages
Who already uses it
History

E-skills Collaboration task 1

1. What is it about?
Virtual Reality:
The term Virtual reality has been around since 1939 in its most simple form, a ViewMaster, a stereoscopic visual simulator. And has transformed into the goggles we
know today. VR, in short, is a computer technology that uses software to generate
realistic images, sounds and other sensations that replicate a real environment. By
simulating a user's physical presence in this environment, by enabling the user to
interact with this space and any objects therein it creates a feeling of being in a
different reality and because it is generated by computers or projectors and other
devices, it is called a virtual reality.
This newly improved version of VR, is a game changer in many different markets and
is used by a lot of innovating and leading technology focused companies.

2. What does it do?

VR is described as "...a realistic and immersive simulation of a threedimensional environment, created using interactive software and hardware, and
experienced or controlled by movement of the body" (by:
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/virtual--reality) A person that is in a virtual
reality, typically, is able to look around and interact with the reality projected on
a screen or nowadays in goggles. It artificially creates or replicates a persons
senses, like, sight, hearing, touch and less commonly, smell. VR brings the user
into the digital world by cutting off outside stimuli. Because the user is not
receiving anymore stimuli he is now solely focusing on the digital content.

Virtual reality also refers to remote communication environments. These

environments provide a virtual presence of users with through telepresence and
tele-existence or the use of a virtual artifact (VA) e.g.: through the use of
standard devices such as a keyboard and mouse, or through more complicated
devices such as a wired glove or omnidirectional treadmills. The environment of
a VR can be similar to the real world in order to create a lifelike experience.
These experiences would be simulations for pilot or combat training, which
needs realistic images and sounds of the world in order to train these pilots or
soldiers in the best way possible. Or, it can differ significantly from reality, such
as in VR video games that take place in fantasy settings, where gamers can use
fictional magic and telekinesis powers or when people want to crawl in the skin
of a superhero.
3. The history of VR:

Before the 1950s:

The first references to the concept of virtual reality came from science fiction. Stanley
G. Weinbaum's 1935 short story "Pygmalion's Spectacles" in this science fiction he
described a goggle-based virtual reality system with holographic recordings, including
hearing, smell and touch.

19501970:

Morton Heilig created in the 1950s an "Experience Theatre" that could use all the
senses in an effective way, drawing the viewer into the onscreen activity. He later built
a prototype of the experience theatre dubbed The Sensorama in 1962. it engaged
multiple senses like sight, sound, smell, and touch. Morton Heilig created the first,
actual VR-experience, The Sensorama.

In 1968, Ivan Sutherland and his student Bob Sproull, created what is considered to be
the first virtual reality and augmented reality (AR) head-mounted display (HMD)
system. They named it The Sword of Damocles.

19701990:

The Aspen Movie Map, was created at MIT in 1978, the program was a virtual
simulation of Aspen, Colorado in which the users could wander the streets of Aspen,
Colorado in one of three modes: summer, winter, and polygons.
By the 1980s the term "virtual reality" was popularized by the newly founded
company VPL Research in 1985. They developed several VR devices like the Data
Glove, the Eye Phone, and the Audio Sphere. During the 1980s until the late 1990s,

virtual reality was not well known and most of its popularity came from marginal
cultures and people that were fond of the recreational drugs. Most ideas about VR
remained theoretical, this was because of the limited computing power available at
the time and its sheer expensiveness. The VR industry provided VR devices used for
medical, flight simulation, automobile industry design, and military training purposes.

2000present:
By 2007, Google introduced Street View, a service that shows panoramic views
of worldwide positions such as roads, indoor buildings and rural areas and which
also features a stereoscopic 3D mode.
In 2010, Palmer Luckey, the founder of the Oculus VR, designed the first
prototype of the Oculus Rift. Another virtual reality headset. It was only capable
of rotational tracking, but, it had a 90-degree field of vision, something that was
still unseen in the consumer market. This design would later be the basis of
many more VR-headsets to come.
In 2014, Sony announced Project Morpheus, a virtual reality headset for the
PlayStation 4 video game console. Ever since VR entered to world of gaming it
started to draw more attention in the media and opened a whole new dimention
of Virtual experiences

4. Why is VR useful?
Education and training:
Research shows that learning in virtual reality may enhance learning. Because it
cuts down the amount of time needed to start trainings and allows for a broader
portfolio of customizable situations. VR is used by trainers to provide learners
with an environment where they can develop their skills without the real-world
consequences of failing. Like this if someone were to crash a plane that person
would not die and the airplane would not be lost. VR plays an important role in
combat training for the military. It allows the recruits to train under a controlled
environment where they are to respond to different types of combat situations
by use of data suits, data gloves and VR weapons they are able to train for
combat in a nearly endless amount of combat situations.
VR has been used in automotive, aerospace, and ground transportation. It is
being used in product engineering and manufacturing engineering. It is being
used in these engineering industries because Virtual Reality adds more
dimensions to virtual prototyping, product building, assembly, service,
performance use-cases, all key factors in development of new products or
constructions.

5. Who benefits from VR?

Nearly the whole world benefits from VR: from gaming and film industries to even the
retail and engineering industries.

Movie industry:
In this industry both the consumers and the film-makers benefit, the maker because of
a larger group of people looking to buy or see the film and the consumer because of
the new experience, like this Netflix is launching a virtual reality app. Other uses for
VR in the movie industry is a way of filming (POV-style) and the use of omnidirectional
cameras. These are cameras that film in a 360 degree angle.

Gaming industry:
Here VR is known best, it gives a complete new idea of gaming as it puts the user in
the realm of the game rather than presenting it to the user. Because of the ways VR
uses the users senses, this might be to most potential industry for VR. This industry
also covers simulators, that help in education or training and thus offers a large
potential.

Retail (marketing):
Lowe's, IKEA and Wayfair and other retailers have developed systems that allow their
products to be seen in virtual reality, to give the consumers a better idea of how the
product will fit into their home, or to allow the consumer to get a better look at the
product from home. It enables customers to get a better sense of how a product looks
and what its features are.

Engineering:
It is being used in these engineering industries because Virtual Reality adds more
dimensions to virtual prototyping, product building, assembly, service, performance
use-cases, all key factors in development of new products or constructions.

Military:
The military uses VR to train their soldiers in the field and to teach them how to fly
complicated airplanes without the dangers that failure might bring. They use it to train
in different environments and situations and to give in-field experience without
actually having to deploy its soldiers.

6. Where does VR fit in a modern company?

Modern companies can use VR in a numerous amount of ways, they can use it in
engineering (virtual prototyping, product building and 3D-redering), marketing (Virtual
Reality has the potential Marketing strategies in small and middle sized enterprises,
Virtual Reality presents a unique opportunity for advertisers to reach a completely
immersed audience.), retail. (The retail travel industry has adopted VR to enable

customers in their stores to view cruise cabins, tourism content, and hotel rooms prior
to booking.)

7. Advantages and disadvantages of VR:

Advantages:

Training and Education

As discussed earlier VR prove its usefulness when learning something in a
simulation, it enables someone to learn basics without endangering himself or
others and their property. VR often provides the only safe environment in which
to gain advanced or even basic skills (e.g.: military training and pilot training.)

Entertainment and Gaming

goggles and headsets can place users in imagined worlds, thus, turning
watching a screen into a live experience. (e.g.: Oculus Rift and Playstation VR.)

Architecture and Planning

By applying virtual reality technology to architectural design, interior design and
urban planning, decision makers can visualize the outcomes and see if they like
it or if it needs some adapting

Disadvantages:

Separation of social classes

Those who do not have access or cannot afford this technology will be left
out and this will create a larger separation of social classes.

Addiction
People may become addicted to living in these virtual worlds, resulting
that people forget or neglect their responsibilities in real life because they
are happier or have more in the VR

Technology is still developing and there are still many flaws to be worked out
before it is perfectioned.

Motion sickness
Some people have been known to have motion sickness due to using the
VR headset.

List of sources:

By Breon Kaweroa and Edward Omo-Nnadiekwe (n.d.a.), retrieved from: http://virtualreality.weebly.com/pros-and-cons.html

By Elizabeth Mott (n.d.a.), retrieved from
https://www.techwalla.com/articles/advantages-disadvantages-of-virtual-reality
Information retrieved from webpage: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality