Virtual Reality The Future Of Tomorrow Essays - Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality: The Future Of Tomorrow Virtual Reality: The Future of Tomorrow Although some doubt the potential of virtual reality, the reality is our technologically dependent culture is making virtual reality a part of everyday life. Popular in video games, virtual reality allows the user to totally control a computerized character. Every action the user makes is imitated by the character and instantly displayed for the user. However, since the early 90s, the use of virtual reality has developed and taken the spotlight past evolving video games. Virtual reality has already made its mark on fields such as aviation, medicine, and even meteorology. Where is this new technology heading in the future? According to the Millennium edition of the Wall Street Journal, even conservative forecasts suggest education, entertainment, the workplace and the boundaries of human expression will be greatly transformed by virtual reality (Cox 40). Increasingly advanced technology could put virtual reality in the drivers seat of countless industries. In recent years virtual reality has already been involved in several technological areas. Even those who have little knowledge about the production of virtual reality are most likely aware of its use in video games. However, many people may not be aware of the numerous other areas where it has been applied. For example, astronaut trainees have recently used virtual reality to simulate a trip to space. Medical students have substituted a carcass for a fiberglass mould of a body and a headset when training to perform surgery. A popular online chat is developing into a society of interactive, animated users. Introducing virtual reality to the real world has already proven to be beneficial for every industry it encounters. Welcome to the new world of virtual technology, the advantages have only begun. Virtual reality (VR), as defined by The Newbury House Dictionary of American English, is experiencing events that seem like real life by putting on special eye glasses, hearing devices ad gloves attached to a computer. With the help of these hardware devices, the VR users actions totally control of the computers resulting actions. This control sets virtual reality apart from previously developed technologies. Because of the amazingly fast processing speed of the computer, VR accepts the users every move and displays the differences in the virtual environment. When electronic media originated, people were not only amazed, but also already easily influenced and persuaded by the entertainment. For example, on Oct. 30, 1938, Orson Welless radio enactment of The War of the Worlds, had some people believing that a real alien invasion was occurring. In similarity, television and the movies of today have the ability to brainwash people immensely. Next came the computer generation with countless ways to drown people in the entertainment computers provide. Electronic games, along with the Internet, are probably the greatest contributors to keeping people indoors, and what some consider as lifeless. The greatest impersonator of the real world is virtual reality. Virtual reality can place the user anywhere doing anything imaginable. Want to take a mission to the moon? You can with virtual reality. Dont believe it? With virtual reality, people are already on their way up. Perhaps the only aspect of virtual reality that isnt on its way up is the price. Jaron Lanier is a computer scientist who established the term virtual reality in the early 1980s. According to the Wall Street Journal, Lanier expressed that: good virtual reality equipment remains very expensive and that the software tools required to create the virtual-reality environments remain crude and difficult to use. As with all types of information technology, the costs are dropping fast and the quality keeps improving. But for now, only a select few have experienced what will one day become a commonplace use of virtual reality. (Cox 40) Since the price of virtual reality continues to drop, perhaps the future will inhabit virtual reality in nearly every technological situation. Regardless, one thing is for sure: virtual reality is changing the way we see things. Those who view virtual reality as a benefit to our society, base their opinion on its success throughout numerous fields of study. However, the issue is not whether or not virtual reality works, but if it is truly beneficial. Not only could virtual reality become a