Virtual Reality is still here

Virtual Reality is still here

By JULIO C. CASTRO

I have heard of the famous "Last Lecture" by Dr. Randy Pausch, professor in the department of Computer Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University; I had also heard about the video and how popular it was on YouTube, but I had not actually gotten around to watching it. Today I did watch it, partly because the news about his death was all around the media, and because I wanted to see why people liked it so much. Professor Pausch was a renowned researcher in the field of Virtual Reality; his name is among those who have pioneered the field.

So, after that was out of the way, I was left wondering: what ever happened to virtual reality? While I was in college during the 90's, I heard a lot of talking about the subject in the media (scientific magazines, TV, newspapers). After I graduated and went to work I just stopped hearing about it. Virtual Reality (VR) is a technology that hooks up (or interfaces, as people in VR might say) a human to a computer in order to interact in an environment created by a software that is running in the machine. The advances in hardware and software have made VR more and more realistic than their predecessors.

It turns out that VR is as alive as it was during the 90's when there were several researchers from universities, research centers, and the private sector, involved in the development of this technology, tons of money from government (the military, especially) and private companies were being channeled into the advancement of VR. Movies were made about it (Disclosure and The Matrix), TV also had an opinion, and there was an ample coverage from media. Unfortunately, all of them (except researchers) were wrong about the capabilities and scope of VR. The computer power at the time could not handle the programs needed to create the environment that would make the simulation very realistic, plus the hardware involved was expensive and bulky.

Previous to the 1990's decade, research was mainly concentrated in developing the hardware needed for this technology: goggles, helmets, monitors and optical devices (screens) were invented and introduced in order to enhance the VR experience.

VR has grown in capabilities and applications, thanks to strides in technology during the las decade. Even more than before, many programs in US universities and abroad are working on this field. Carnegie Mellon has such a program; the University of Florida has a research program in this field as well.

But virtual reality is still an expensive technology, accessible to a small fraction of the population; however, Nintendo is getting closer to virtual reality through the improvements of their star product Wii™ (Wii Fit, for example). Nevertheless, I doubt that this technology is going to be widely available to the masses by the end of this decade.

Different companies have found applications to virtual reality; in fact some of them are even pioneers in the field. Disney© has invested lots of money in virtual reality and now they have very cool rides in their theme parks (you should check out Dinosaur in Animal Kingdom), but mainly virtual reality has stayed as an entertainment application more than a technology tool.

This is changing rapidly. There are now plans to develop a virtual reality program to train firefighters. VirtuSphere, Inc. has a new environment where the user wears the helmet that contains the screen with the virtual environment and moves around inside a hollow sphere that rotates while the user is moving. This would allow the system to load any program that may involve moving around a given terrain, building, or any close space where the firefighter is going to receive training.

All in all, these are only applications for industrial and commercial purposes, since the investment required to set up one of these machines is still out of the reach of the average American. So, I guess we would have to wait for a while before we can go to Gamestop and buy that new cool VR game. I hope the first one that comes out would be one for a Star Wars game, where I get to use the gun in the Millennium Falcon beside Han Solo.