Virtual reality (VR), also called immersive media or computer-simulated reality, is an emerging technology that imitates a real or imagined three-dimensional environment while simulating the user’s physical presence so that they can interact with this environment. Currently, VR systems use VR headsets or multi-projected rooms that generate realistic images and sounds to immerse the user in the simulated environment. Therefore, the user can look and move around in the environment, interact with certain features or objects and perform certain actions. To create this immersion, VR headsets have a head-mounted display with a small screen in front of the user’s eyes. VR usually incorporates both auditory and video feedback.
Essentially, one’s perception of reality is created through their senses. The goal of virtual reality is to present the user’s senses with a computer-generated artificial environment so realistic that the senses perceive it to be real. However this is very difficult to achieve at present. The human brain can usually tell when something is “off,” which explains why people can sometimes experience motion sickness or headaches when using VR. To make the environment more realistic, changes in the environment should respond to the changes in the user’s field of vision. It also needs to process the user’s actions in real time since any delay in reaction can break the user’s sense of immersion.
Most of the conversations about virtual reality usually revolve around gaming, but VR has even greater potential. VR has a wide variety of applications, including architecture, medicine, entertainment, sports and the arts. VR is also being used for military and medical training to simulate scenarios that would be too impractical or expensive to create in reality. It can be used to visit cities and landmarks around the world without ever leaving your home. Multiple people all using VR can also communicate with each other in the virtual environment. In the future, VR could be used for educational or productivity purposes as well.
Recently, senior citizens have been using virtual reality for traveling and for alleviating certain health issues. For example, 84-year-old Joy Golliver used VR to visit Seattle, Washington without leaving her home in Tuscon, Arizona.
“This technology can take us to any memory in our life that we want to visit,” Golliver said.
Golliver resides at one of the two retirement communities in Tuscon that are implementing a VR program called Engage VR to observe how VR technology impacts seniors. Some researchers believe that virtual reality can positively impact seniors by aiding them with cognition, dementia and loneliness.
The developers of Engage VR hope to make the program available to retirement facilities all over the U.S. in the future.
