Virtual Reality and Its Impact on Society
Joseph D. Cotrell
Valerie Schroeder
INF 103, Computer Literary
Virtual Reality and Its Impact on Society
Technology has transformed people’s perception of the world by either creating new environments for them to traverse, or by providing them passage to corners of the earth they will never otherwise visit in their entire lifetimes. Technology has put to reality what people in the past could only dream of. Virtual reality, briefly defined as an environment that is computer-simulated, has transcended social and geographical barriers ever since its applications have been increasingly used by everyday people. Social and geographical barriers are just terms of the past and do not anymore apply on the strictest sense. Everyone can be anyone online. Whereas before it was limited only to labyrinth and high-cost applications availed of by expert users, virtual reality has now broadened its breadth to encompass the general public – which optimizes the Internet to configure, share and create virtual communities – benefitting society in the areas of education, law enforcement, medicine and industries.
Defining Virtual Reality
Virtual reality is an environment, which is computer-simulated, and the simulation could be that of an imaginary world, or a real one (Gajera, n.d.). Virtual reality environments are mainly three-dimensional “visual experiences” that are “displayed either on a screener through special or stereoscopic displays,” and enhanced by sensory information such as sounds that emanate from headphones or speakers (Gajera, n.d., p. 3). There are modern applications that provide force feedback or tactile information, which are generally used for gaming and medical applications. To experience this, multi-modal devices such as the omni directional treadmill, the Polhemus boom arm, or a wired glove is used, as in Figure 1 at Appendix Page (Gajera, n.d.).