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34 3. Applications and Implications of VR
seated in a closed mechanical device. These were one of the first simula-
tors to be developed, but now we have simulators for firefighters, surgeons,
space mission controls and so on. The appeal of VR for training is that it
can provide training nearly equal to practicing with real-life systems, but at a
much reduced cost and in a safer environment. In fact, VR is the ideal train-
ing medium for performing tasks in dangerous or hazardous environments,
because the trainee can be exposed to life-threatening training scenarios
under a safely controlled computer-generated environment. If the trainee
makes a mistake then the simulation can be stopped and the trainer will have
the chance to explain to the trainee exactly what went wrong. Then the
trainee will have the opportunity to begin the task again. This a llows the
trainee to develop his skills before being exposed to dangerous real-life envi-
ronments.
Many areas of training can take advantage of VR. For example:
• At the University of Sheffield (UK), researchers are investigating a flex-
ible solution for VR to be used for training police officers how to deal
with traffic accidents [14];
• the Simulation and Synthetics Laboratory Environment at Cranfield
University (UK) has developed a number of VR training simulators
[12]. These include surgical procedure training, flight deck officer
training and parachute training;
• Fifth Dimension Technologies has developed a range of driving sim-
ulators for cars, trucks, forklifts, surface and underground mining ve-
hicles. These simulators range from a single computer screen with a
game-type steering console to a top-of-the-range system which consists
of a vehicle with a field of view of 360
◦
mounted on a motion base.
The explosion of VR for training purposes can be well justified. It is an
ideal tool for training people how to use expensive equipment. This not only
safeguards the equipment, but also means that it will not have to be taken out
of the production line for training purposes. VR is also cost-effective when
the equipment has a high running cost that could not be justified for training
purposes only.
Of course the military is also a huge user of VR technology, not just for
training pilots but also for training personnel in all forms of combat simu-
lations. Despite this, it is in fact the entertainment industry who is driving
the technological advances needed for military and commercial VR systems.
In many ways, the entertainment industry has grown far beyond its m ili-
tary counterpart in influence, capabilities and investments in this area. For
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3.4. Education 35
example, Micr osoft alone expected to spend $3.8 billion on research and de-
velopment in 2001, compared to the US Army’s total science and technology
budget of $1.4 billion [5]. Indeed, the computer-game industry has con-
siderable expertise in games with military content (for example, war games,
simulations and shooter games) [5] and is in fact driving the next level of
war-game simulations. Macedonia highlights the development of these simu-
lations [5]. He discusses the US Army ’s training needs and goals, and how the
Army came to realize the best way to achieve these goals was to work hand-
in-hand with academia and Hollywood. The use of VR for military purposes
is self-explanatory. It allows soldiers to experience battlefields without endan-
gering their own lives. Obviously, mistakes made in a virtual battlefield are
less permanent and costly than they would be in reality.
And of course, let’s not forget about the use of VR in medical training.
We gave an overview of the use of VR for medical visualization. This overlaps
somewhat with training applications, for example, keyhole surgery etc. The
benefits of VR training here again are self-evident.
And we could go on and on. Essentially, anything that people require
training for can be implemented in a virtual environment. It is only the
imagination which limits the applications in the area of training.
3.4 Education
Before we begin to describe the latest developments of VR for education, it
would perhaps be beneficial to review the differences between education and
training. Education and training might be considered to be quite similar,
yet there is a subtle difference. The objectiv e of education is usually to gain
knowledge about facts, concepts, principles, rules etc. This knowledge can
then be used to solve problems. Training, on the other hand, usually involves
gaining a particular skill to enable you to carry out a specific task. O f course,
training and education are sometimes intrinsically linked. F or example, you
may be trained on how to operate a VR system, but then you may go on,
in time, to learn other functions of the VR system you were not specifically
trained in. The hypothesis is that VR can successfully be used to support com-
plex understanding by stimulating and exploring all human senses, whereas
traditional notions of learning tend to focus on purely intellectual skills [4].
So how can VR be used to aid the learning process? The most obvious
is within the long distance learning arena. Obviously the Internet and video-
conferencing technology have been used for many years to assist in distance
learning. Whilst this has been helpful to those, for example, taking part-time
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36 3. Applications and Implications of VR
study courses in a different state or country, there are certain disadvantages.
The most significant is the lack of direct interaction between the educator
and the student, making it difficult for the educator to gauge the reaction
of his or her students. Teleconferencing could of course be used, but in a
multi-user situation, it is near impossible for the educator to keep track of
multiple screens. And of course, there are all the usual pr oblems associated
with streaming real-time video across the net. VR can be utilized to overcome
these disadvantages. In its most simple conception, a virtual classroom can
be set up on a remote server which all students must log into. Each student
can be represented by an avatar (a graphical representation of themselves),
and can interact with the educator and the other students. This enhances the
feeling of being involved in a multi-user learning environment.
Many software packages have also been developed that provide interac-
tive knowledge spaces that allow users to create multimedia galleries of the
pictures, video, sounds and Internet links that they use. That is, users can
create their own VR environment to aid their own learning. Indeed, prob-
ably one of the most difficult aspects of education is teaching difficult con-
cepts that students are unable to visualize. All the positive aspects of VR for
visualization, detailed in Section 3.2, can be utilized to enhance the learning
process.
We could go on and on. There is a wealth of literature available on the
uses of VR in education and its associated benefits. These are summarized
very nicely in a paper by Fallman [4] which we recommend you read if y ou
are thinking of utilizing VR for educational purposes.
3.5 Other Applications
The list is almost endless. An easier question to pose is what can’t VR tech-
nology be used for? Looking at the conference paper titles of the Virtual
Reality Conference 1995, we can see a list of different areas of research that
VR technology was being developed for more than 10 years ago.
• Theoretical and practical issues for the use of virtual reality in the cog-
nitive rehabilitation of persons with acquired brain injuries.
• Using virtual and augmented reality to control an assistive mobile robot.
• Remote therapy for people with aphasia.
• Ethical pathways to virtual learning.
• Virtual reality in the assessment and treatment of body image.
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3.5. Other Applications 37
• Vir tual presence and autonomous wheelchair control.
• A virtual science library to accommodate needs of students with cere-
bral palsy.
• Virtual reality and visual disability—proceed with caution.
• Virtual reality’s increasing potential for meeting needs of persons with
disabilities: what about cognitive impairment?
And the list goes on. Now let’s have a look at what more recent published
articles are doing.
• Feasibility, motivation and selective motor control: virtual reality com-
pared to conventional exercise in children with cerebral palsy.
• Integrating haptic-tactile feedback into a video-capture-based virtual
environment for rehabilitation.
• Responses to a virtual reality grocery store in persons with and without
vestibular dysfunction.
• Using virtual reality to improve spatial perception by people who are
blind.
• Immersive virtual reality as a rehabilitative technology for phantom
limb experience.
• Three dimensional virtual environments for blind children.
• Simulating social interaction to address deficits of autistic spectrum
disorder in children.
These titles were taken from the Journal of C yberPsychology and B ehavior
(9:2, 2006). Research 10 years ago and that ongoing today have a common
thread. An interesting application area which has developed over the past 10
years is the utilization of VR to help people with disabilities or to aid in reha-
bilitation. Particularly important is this use of VR for workers with disabilities.
Indeed, as Weiss [15] has indicated, individuals with disabilities comprise one
of the most underemployed groups of workers. Reasons for their difficulty in
obtaining jobs include their limited mobility, reduced manual capabilities and
limited access to educational facilities and work settings. VR can help people
with disabilities overcome some of these difficulties by facilitating their ability
to carry out some of the tasks required in the work setting. Many people have
been researching this application area for some time. And if we look at the
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38 3. Applications and Implications of VR
field of rehabilitation, it is really like using VR for training. When someone is
in need of rehabilitation, they are essentially in need of cognitive or physical
training or both. And as we have seen already, this is a growth area for VR.
3.6 Distributed VR
One of the hottest topics in VR research is distributed VR. This means not
only can we run a simulated world on one computer, but we can run that
same world on several connected computers or hosts. So in theory, people
all over the world can connect and communicate within the same virtual
environment. In terms of communication, the crudest method available is
to communicate with other users by simple text messages. At the high-tech
end, people can be represented by avatars and thus people can communicate
in a m ore meaningful way with other people’s avatars.
Distributed VR embodies all the applications we have already considered,
because it is able to take them one step further. Take for example VR and
simulations. The biggest advantage that VR has over typical simulations is
that VR allows multiple users. With distributed VR, we can have multiple
users connected up at different sites globally. Thus w e can have distributed
VR training facilities, distributed entertainment (to a degree, we have had this
for some time if we think about the online computer-gaming industry, where
multiple users connect to the same game and compete against each other) and
distributed visualization (again, this is really an extension of teleconferencing,
but here people can enter into the meaning ful simulations from multiple sites
throughout the world).
Of course, before distributed VR really takes off, there are a number of
problems that must be resolved, including:
• Compatibility. This refers to the fact that people may be using different
hardware and software at their host sites.
• Limited bandwidth. If we require global connections then we have to
rely on the Internet, and as such the realism of the VR connection will
depend on the bandwidth available at the host sites.
• Latency. Again, with global connections between the host sites, we have
to rely on Internet communication protocols. As such, it is difficult
to ensure the real-time delivery of information simultaneously to each
host’s site.
It won’t be long before these bottlenecks are resolved and then distributed VR
will know no bounds.
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