Understanding Virtual Reality Technology: Advances and Applications

Abstract

Virtual Reality (VR) is not an entirely new concept; it has existed in various forms since the late 1960s. It has been known by names such as synthetic environment, cyberspace, artificial reality, simulator technology and so on and so forth before VR was eventually adopted. The latest manifestation of VR is desktop VR. Desktop VR is also known by other names such as Window on World (WoW) or non-immersive VR (Onyesolu, 2006). As a result of proliferation of desktop VR, the technology has continued to develop applications that are less than fully immersive. These non-immersive VR applications are far less expensive and technically daunting and have made inroads into industry training and development. VR has perhaps at last come within the realm of possibility for general creation and use most especially in education where computer-based virtual learning environments (VLE) are packaged as desktop VR. This, in turn, points the way for its inclusion in educational programs (Ausburn & Ausburn, 2004). These computer-based virtual learning environments (VLEs) have opened new realms in the teaching, learning, and practice of medicine, physical sciences and engineering among others. VLEs provide students with the opportunity to achieve learning goals. VLE-based applications have thus emerged in mainstream education in schools and universities as successful tools to supplement traditional teaching methods. These learning environments have been discovered to have greater pedagogical effectiveness on learners. Virtual learning environments provide three-dimensional (3D) insights into the structures and functions of any system desired. Students can thereby learn the principles of such system in a fast, effective and pleasurable way by interacting with and navigating through the environment created for such system (Onyesolu, 2009a; Onyesolu, 2009b). It is known that VR can make the artificial as realistic as, and even more realistic than, the real (Negroponte, 1995).