| You may have come across the phrase either in | | | | body entirely, the display inside the projector will |
| gaming forums of in science fiction, but exactly | | | | move to match the user's movement, creating |
| what is meant by virtual reality, what is it, and | | | | the illusion of the user actually moving around |
| does it present us with any possible benefits or | | | | within this three dimensional world of the |
| advantages in the future? | | | | computer's. |
| This phrase can be answered by either simply | | | | Taking this idea further, the world may contain a |
| looking at the technology currently used, and | | | | number of objects, such as furniture, doors, |
| understanding the basics of how it works, and | | | | objects that can be picked up and examined. By |
| what it tries to achieve. The more complex way | | | | wearing special gloves which have a whole range |
| of looking at this concept is by firstly asking what | | | | of sensors built in to them, the computer can |
| we understand by the word reality, before we | | | | track the position, movement and actions of the |
| try understanding the idea of an alternate, virtual | | | | user's hands, and work out whether they would |
| version of reality. | | | | be touching anything, and if so, how the objects |
| Basically, if we understand the idea of reality to | | | | would react. Would they be being picked up, |
| be the sum of all of the sensory inputs our brain | | | | turned, knocked over and so forth? |
| receives, virtual reality is the use of technology to | | | | By adding audio as well, the user can be very |
| replace as many of those sensory inputs as | | | | immersed within this world, and with advancing |
| possible with computer generated ones, to fool | | | | technologies making greater and more realistic |
| the brain into believing in a world which is false, | | | | computer generated scenes, the user can very |
| and which only exists within the brain of the | | | | easily start to believe in this virtual world, or |
| computer. | | | | reality. |
| The most common form of virtual reality is one | | | | One way in which this technology is an exciting |
| where the user wears a visor which wraps | | | | area for development is within computer and |
| entirely round their normal field of vision. The | | | | video games, and already we are starting to see |
| computer then projects or displays a visual three | | | | early developments of this with basic visors, and |
| dimensional world onto the inside f this visor, | | | | hand controls which are motion sensitive. |
| entirely replacing what the user would normally | | | | Eventually we may well all find ourselves entering |
| see with a computer generated view. The clever | | | | an alternative reality in which to play our games, |
| part of this is that the visor has a number of | | | | which would make chase scenes, fights and cliff |
| motion sensors built in to it, so that if the user | | | | top adventures even more breath taking! |
| turns their head, tilts their head, or moves their | | | | |