virtual reality computersimulated environment simulating physical presence in real or imagined worlds virtuality redirects here for other uses see virtuality disambiguation not to be confused with simulated reality researchers with the european space agency in darmstadt germany exploring virtual reality for controlling planetary rovers and satellites in orbit virtual reality vr is an interactive computergenerated experience taking place within a simulated environment it incorporates mainly auditory and visual feedback but may also allow other types of sensory feedback like haptic this immersive environment can be similar to the real world or it can be fantastical augmented reality systems may also be considered a form of vr that layers virtual information over a live camera feed into a headset or through a smartphone or tablet device giving the user the ability to view threedimensional images current vr technology most commonly uses virtual reality headsets or multiprojected environments sometimes in combination with physical environments or props to generate realistic images sounds and other sensations that simulate a users physical presence in a virtual or imaginary environment a person using virtual reality equipment is able to look around the artificial world move around in it and interact with virtual features or items the effect is commonly created by vr headsets consisting of a headmounted display with a small screen in front of the eyes but can also be created through specially designed rooms with multiple large screens vr systems that include transmission of vibrations and other sensations to the user through a game controller or other devices are known as haptic systems this tactile information is generally known as force feedback in medical video gaming and military training applications etymology and terminology paramount for the sensation of immersion into virtual reality are a high frame rate at least 95 fps as well as a low latency virtual has had the meaning of being something in essence or effect though not actually or in fact since the mid1400s in 1938 antonin artaud described the illusory nature of characters and objects in the theatre as la ralit virtuelle in a collection of essays le thtre et son double the english translation of this book published in 1958 as the theater and its double is the earliest published use of the term virtual reality the term artificial reality coined by myron krueger has been in use since the 1970s the term virtual reality was first used in a science fiction context in the judas mandala a 1982 novel by damien broderick a cyberspace is a networked virtual reality virtual reality shares some elements with augmented reality or ar ar is a type of virtual reality technology that blends what the user sees in their real surroundings with digital content generated by computer software the additional softwaregenerated images with the virtual scene typically enhance how the real surroundings look in some way some ar systems use a camera to capture the users surroundings or some type of display screen which the user looks at eg microsofts hololens magic leap technology the virtual reality modelling language vrml first introduced in 1994 was intended for the development of virtual worlds without dependency on headsets all modern vr displays are based on technology developed for smartphones including gyroscopes and motion sensors for tracking head hand and body positions small hd screens for stereoscopic displays and small lightweight and fast processors these components led to relative affordability for independent vr developers and lead to the 2012 oculus rift kickstarter offering the first independently developed vr headset independent production of vr images and video has increased by the development of omnidirectional cameras also known as 360degree cameras or vr cameras that have the ability to record in all directions although at lowresolutions or in highly compressed formats for online streaming of 360 video history viewmaster a stereoscopic visual simulator was introduced in 1939 the exact origins of virtual reality are disputed partly because of how difficult it has been to formulate a definition for the concept of an alternative existence the first references to the more modern concept of virtual reality came from science fiction 19501970 the sensorama was designed in the 1960s morton heilig wrote in the 1950s of an experience theatre that could encompass all the senses in an effective manner thus drawing the viewer into the onscreen activity he built a prototype of his vision dubbed the sensorama in 1962 along with five short films to be displayed in it while engaging multiple senses sight sound smell and touch predating digital computing the sensorama was a mechanical device heilig also developed what he referred to as the telesphere mask patented in 1960 the patent application described the device as a telescopic television apparatus for individual usethe spectator is given a complete sensation of reality ie moving three dimensional images which may be in colour with 100 peripheral vision binaural sound scents and air breezes around the same time douglas engelbart used computer screens both as input and output devices in 1968 ivan sutherland with the help of his student bob sproull created what was widely considered to be the first headmounted display hmd system for use in immersive simulation applications it was primitive both in terms of user interface and realism and the hmd to be worn by the user was so heavy that it had to be suspended from the ceiling the graphics comprising the virtual environment were simple wireframe model rooms the formidable appearance of the device inspired its name the sword of damocles 19701990 the vr industry mainly provided vr devices for medical flight simulation automobile industry design and military training purposes from 1970 to 1990 david em became the first artist to produce navigable virtual worlds at nasas jet propulsion laboratory jpl where he was artist in residence from 1977 to 1984 the aspen movie map was created at the mit in 1978 the program was a crude virtual simulation of aspen colorado in which users could wander the streets in one of the three modes summer winter and polygons in 1979 eric howlett developed the large expanse extra perspective leep optical system the combined system created a stereoscopic image with a field of view wide enough to create a convincing sense of space the users of the system have been impressed by the sensation of depth a 1980 atari arcade video game battlezone used 3d vector graphics to immerse the player in a vr world atari founded a research lab for virtual reality in 1982 but the lab was closed after two years due to the atari shock north american video game crash of 1983 however its hired employees such as tom zimmerman scott fisher jaron lanier michael naimark and brenda laurel kept their research and development on vrrelated technologies a vpl research datasuit a fullbody outfit with sensors for measuring the movement of arms legs and trunk developed circa 1989 displayed at the nissho iwai showroom in tokyo by the 1980s the term virtual reality was popularized by jaron lanier one of the modern pioneers of the field lanier had founded the company vpl research in 1985 vpl research has developed several vr devices like the data glove the eyephone and the audio sphere vpl licensed the data glove technology to mattel which used it to make an accessory known as the power glove while the power glove was hard to use and not popular at us75 it was an early affordable vr device 19902000 in 1991 carolina cruzneira daniel j sandin and thomas a defanti from the electronic visualization laboratory created the first cubic immersive room the cave developed as cruzneiras phd thesis it involved a multiprojected environment similar to the holodeck allowing people to see their own bodies in relation to others in the room between 19891992 nicole stenger created angels the first realtime interactive immersive movie the interaction was facilitated with a dataglove and highresolution goggles in 1992 louis rosenberg created the virtual fixtures system at the us air forces armstrong labs using a full upperbody exoskeleton enabling a physically realistic virtual reality in 3d the system enabled the overlay of physically real 3d virtual objects registered with a users direct view of the real world producing the first true augmented reality experience enabling sight sound and touch antonio medina a mit graduate and nasa scientist designed a virtual reality system to drive mars rovers from earth in apparent real time despite the substantial delay of marsearthmars signals the 1990s saw the first widespread commercial releases of consumer headsets in 1991 sega announced the sega vr headset for arcade games and the mega drive console it used lcd screens in the visor stereo headphones and inertial sensors that allowed the system to track and react to the movements of the users head by 1994 sega released the sega vr1 motion simulator arcade attraction apple released quicktime vr which despite using the term vr was unable to represent virtual reality and instead displayed 360 photographic panoramas nintendos virtual boy console was released in 1995 forte released the vfx1 a pcpowered virtual reality headset in 1995 in 1999 entrepreneur philip rosedale formed linden lab with an initial focus on the development of vr hardware in its earliest form the company struggled to produce a commercial version of the rig which was realized in prototype form as a clunky steel contraption with several computer monitors that users could wear on their shoulders the concept was later adapted into the personal computerbased 3d virtual world second life 2000present in 2001 sas cube sas3 became the first pc based cubic room developed by za production maurice benayoun david nahon barco and clart it was installed in laval france the sas library gave birth to virtools vrpack by 2007 google introduced street view a service that shows panoramic views of an increasing number of worldwide positions such as roads indoor buildings and rural areas it also features a stereoscopic 3d mode introduced in 2010 in 2010 palmer luckey designed the first prototype of the oculus rift this prototype built on a shell of another virtual reality headset was only capable of rotational tracking however it boasted a 90degree field of vision that was previously unseen in the consumer market at the time this initial design would later serve as a basis from which the later designs came in 2013 valve corporation discovered and freely shared the breakthrough of lowpersistence displays which make lagfree and smearfree display of vr content possible the playstation vr a 2016 virtual reality headset exclusively for the playstation 4 console in 2014 sony announced project morpheus its code name for playstation vr a virtual reality headset for the playstation 4 video game console in 2015 google announced cardboard a doityourself stereoscopic viewer for smartphones the user places their smartphone in the cardboard holder which they wear on their head michael naimark was appointed googles firstever resident artist in their new vr division the kickstarter campaign for gloveone a pair of gloves providing motion tracking and haptic feedback was successfully funded with over 150000 in contributions by 2016 there were at least 230 companies developing vrrelated products facebook had 400 employees focused on vr development google apple amazon microsoft sony and samsung all had dedicated ar and vr groups dynamic binaural audio was common to most headsets released that year however haptic interfaces were not well developed and most hardware packages incorporated buttonoperated handsets for touchbased interactivity visually displays were still of a lowenough resolution and framerate that images were still identifiable as virtual in 2016 htc shipped its first units of the htc vive steamvr headset applications applications of vrvr is most commonly used in entertainment applications such as gaming and 3d cinema consumer virtual reality headsets were first released by video game companies in the earlymid 1990s beginning in the 2010s nextgeneration commercial tethered headsets were released by oculus rift htc vive and sony playstation vr setting off a new wave of application development in robotics virtual reality has been used to control robots in telepresence and telerobotic systems world skin a photo safari in the land of war maurice benayoun jeanbaptiste barrire virtual reality installation 1997 in social sciences and psychology virtual reality offers a costeffective tool to study and replicate interactions in a controlled environment with the supervision of experts to provide feedback simulated vr surgical environment provide effective and repeatable training at a low cost allowing trainees to recognize and amend errors as they occur virtual reality has been used in rehabilitation since the 2000s despite numerous studies conducted good quality evidence of its efficacy compared to other rehabilitation methods without sophisticated and expensive equipment is lacking for the treatment of parkinsons disease vr can simulate real workspaces for workplace occupational safety and health purposes educational purposes and training purposes it can be used to provide learners with a virtual environment where they can develop their skills without the realworld consequences of failing it has been used and studied in primary education applications for vr are facilitated by technologies that go beyond the use of graphics and headsets there are a multitude of techniques technologies and hardware solutions to enhance the immersive experience and derive data from the users responses to that experience the use of haptic clothing the first fine art virtual world was created in the 1970s immersive vr engineering systems enable engineers to see virtual prototypes prior to the availability of any physical prototypes virtual realitys growing market presents an opportunity and an alternative channel for digital marketing in fiction and popular culture virtual reality in fiction there have been many works of fiction that reference and describe forms of virtual reality in the 1980s and 1990s cyberpunks viewed the technology as a potential means for social change the recreational drug subculture praised virtual reality not only as a new art form but as an entirely new frontier concerns and challenges health and safety there are many health and safety considerations of virtual reality most virtual reality systems come with consumer warnings including seizures developmental issues in children tripandfall and collision warnings discomfort repetitive stress injury and interference with medical devices a number of unwanted symptoms have been caused by prolonged use of virtual reality privacy the persistent tracking required by all vr systems makes the technology particularly useful for and vulnerable to mass surveillance the expansion of vr will increase the potential and reduce the costs for information gathering of personal actions movements and responses conceptual and philosophical concerns in addition there are conceptual and philosophical considerations and implications associated with the use of virtual reality what the phrase virtual reality means or refers to can be ambiguous mychilo s cline argued in 2005 that through virtual reality techniques will be developed to influence human behavior interpersonal communication and cognition computer science portal information technology portal 16k resolution allosphere computermediated reality diorama extended reality holographic universe methods of virtual reality mixed reality realityvirtuality continuum virtual body virtual globe virtual machining virtual reality headset virtual taste webvr choi sangsu kiwook jung and sang do noh virtual reality applications in manufacturing industries past research present findings and future directions concurrent engineering 2015 1063293x14568814 wikimedia commons has media related to virtual reality external video virtual reality computer chronicles 1992 isaac joseph 2016 step into a new world virtual reality vr retrieved 2 july 2016 basic concepts of virtual reality along with research challenges explained in simple words mixed reality scale milgram and kishinos 1994 virtuality continuum paraphrase with examples drummond katie 2014 the rise and fall and rise of virtual reality the verge retrieved 15 november 2014 interviews on the history and future of virtual reality by leaders in the field virtual reality in humansystem interaction vtemajor fields of computer sciencenote this template roughly follows the 2012 acm computing classification systemhardware printed circuit board peripheral integrated circuit very large scale 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algorithms algorithm design analysis of algorithms algorithmic efficiency randomized algorithm computational geometry mathematicsof computing discrete mathematics probability statistics mathematical software information theory mathematical analysis numerical analysis informationsystems database management system information storage systems enterprise information system social information systems geographic information system decision support system process control system multimedia information system data mining digital library computing platform digital marketing world wide web information retrieval security cryptography formal methods security services intrusion detection system hardware security network security information security application security humancomputerinteraction interaction design social computing ubiquitous computing visualization accessibility concurrency concurrent computing parallel computing distributed computing multithreading multiprocessing artificialintelligence natural language processing knowledge representation and reasoning computer vision automated planning and scheduling search methodology control method philosophy of artificial intelligence distributed artificial intelligence machine learning supervised learning unsupervised learning reinforcement learning multitask learning crossvalidation graphics animation rendering image manipulation graphics processing unit mixed reality virtual reality image compression solid modeling appliedcomputing ecommerce enterprise software computational mathematics computational physics computational chemistry computational biology computational social science computational engineering computational healthcare digital art electronic publishing cyberwarfare electronic voting video games word processing operations research educational technology document management book category portal wikiproject commons vtemixed and virtual realityconcepts virtuality virtual cinematography augmented reality augmented virtuality real life projection augmented model realityvirtuality continuum artificial reality simulated reality ubiquitous computing virtual world persistent multimodal interaction telepresence immersion technology haptic suit wearable computer omnidirectional treadmill display headmounted display optical headup display virtual retinal display virtual reality headset stereoscopy computer vision stereo camera camera resectioning omnidirectional camera software compositing imagebased modeling and rendering realtime computer graphics visual hull chroma key hidden surface determination photography free viewpoint television 360degree video vr photography tracking motion capture tracking system types optical inertial devices wired glove gametrak google glass microsoft hololens playstation move leap motion kinect sixense truemotion immersivedevicespersonal merge vr ar daydream google cardboard htc vive oculus rift samsung gear vr playstation vr pimax osvr magic leap rooms allosphere cave treadport history sensorama virtual boy famicom 3d system sword of damocles sega vr virtuality applications pervasive game artoolkit arcore interactive art virtual graffiti simulated reality in fiction authority control lccn sh92000880 nara 10675494 ndl 00806287 