Virtual

Reality

Virtual Reality (VR) is the use

of computer technology to
create a simulated
environment.
Virtual Environment (VE)
Virtual reality is the creation of a virtual
environment presented to our senses in
such a way that we experience it as if we
were really there. It uses a host of
technologies to achieve this goal and is a
technically complex feat that has to
account for our perception and cognition.
It has both entertainment and serious
uses. The technology is becoming
cheaper and more widespread.
Applications Virtual Reality Architecture Training
Medicine

• Engineering and Design

• E-Commerce
• Entertainment
• Manufacturing
• Virtual Reality
  Cave Automatic Virtual
Environment
• A room with projections on all
walls, floor and ceiling
• The users wear shutter glasses
to get a 3D view of the world.
• The users are able to move
and control the environment
with some kind of input
mechanism
• Camera
• Device in hand
• Virtual Reality
 Outline

▪ Introduction
▪ The history of VR
▪ Types of VR
▪ Technologies of VR
▪ Architecture of VR system
▪ Applications of VR
▪ Current problems & Future work
▪ Summary
▪ Reference
 Types Virtual Reality

• Desktop (Window on a World)

• Video Mapping
• Virtual Reality
 Types of Virtual Reality
Devices
• Oculus Rift
• HTC Vive
• Samsung Gear VR
• Google Cardboard
• VR Box
 Types of VR
System

▪ Windows on World
– Also called Desktop VR.
– Using a conventional
computer monitor to display
the 3D virtual world.
▪ Immersive VR
– Completely immerse the user's
personal viewpoint inside the
virtual 3D world.
– The user has no visual contact
with the physical word.
PERCEPTION OF DEPTH
MODERN VR EXPERIENCES
Nintendo Pokemon Go is
a geolocation-based
game from 2016 that
allows users to imagine
a virtual world that is
superimposed on to the
real world. They can see
Pokemon characters
only by looking
“through” their
smartphone screen.
 Evaluating VR Systems and
Experiences
Perceptual Training
Most people who try VR for the first time are unaware of technical
flaws that would be obvious to some experienced engineers and
developers. If the VR experience is functioning as it should, then
the user should be overwhelmed by dominant visual stimuli and
feel as if he is inhabiting the virtual world. Minor flaws may be
subtle or unnoticeable as attention is focused mainly on the
targeted experience (as considered in the definition of VR from
Section 1.1). Some parts might not be functioning as designed or
some perceptual issues might have been neglected. This might
result in an experience as that not as good as it could have been
after performing some simple adjustments. Even worse, the flaws
might cause the user to become fatigued or sick. At the end, such
users are usually not consciously aware of what went wrong. They
might blame anything, such as particular visual stimuli, a particular
experience, the headset hardware, or even the whole concept of
VR.
 Perceptual learning factors and
mechanisms
Attentional weighting: The amount of attention paid to
features that are relevant to the task is increased, while
decreasing attention to others.

Stimulus imprinting: Specialised receptors are developed that

identify part or all of the relevant stimuli. These could be
neurological structures or abstract processes that function as
such.

Differentiation: Differing stimuli that were once fused together

perceptually become separated. Subtle differences appear to
be amplified.

Unitization: This process combines or compresses many

different stimuli into a single response. This is in contrast to
differentiation and becomes useful for classifications in which
the differences within a unit become irrelevant.
 Light and Optics
Knowing how light propagates in the physical world is
crucial to understanding VR. One reason is the interface
between visual displays and our eyes. Light is emitted
from displays and arrives on our retinas in a way that
convincingly re- produces how light arrives through
normal vision in the physical world. In the current
generation of VR headsets, a system of both engineered
and natural lenses (parts of our eyes) guide the light.
Another reason to study light propagation is the
construction of virtual worlds. Chapter 3 covered purely
geometric aspects of modeling. The next logical step is
to model the physics of light propagation through virtual
worlds; this will be continued in Chapter 7, which
describes what should be rendered on the visual display.
 Basic Behavior of Light
Photons: Tiny particles of energy moving through space at
high speeds (no need for quantum mechanics in this book!).
This interpretation is helpful when considering the amount
of light received by a sensor or receptor.

Waves: Ripples through space that are similar to waves

propagating on the surface of water, but are 3D. The
wavelength is the distance between peaks. This
interpretation is helpful when considering the spectrum of
colors.

Rays: A ray traces the motion of a single hypothetical

photon. The direction is perpendicular to the wavefronts
(see Figure 4.1). This interpretation is helpful when
explaining lenses and defining the concept of visibility.
 Audio
Hearing is an important sense for VR and has been
unfortunately neglected up until this chapter. Developers
of VR systems tend to focus mainly on the vision part
because it is our strongest sense; however, the audio
component of VR is powerful and the technology exists to
bring high fidelity audio experiences into VR. In the real
world, audio is crucial to art, entertainment, and oral
communication.

As mentioned in Section 2.1, audio recording and

reproduction can be considered as a VR experience by
itself, with both a CAVE-like version (surround sound) and
a headset version (wearing headphones). When
combined consistently with the visual component, audio
helps provide a compelling and comfortable VR
experience.