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3
Applications
and Implications
of VR
According to engineering legend, this guy Fubini came up with a law (excuse
the lack of reference here, but it is a legend after all). It may not be a law in
the true sense of the word, but it certainly is an interesting observation that
goes something like this:
• People initially use technology todowhattheydonow—onlyfaster;
• then they gradually begin to use technology to do new things;
• the new things change lifestyles and work styles;
• the new lifestyles and work styles change society;
• and eventually this changes technology.
Looking back on the incr edible advances that have been made in technology,
we can see this simple law is breathtakingly accurate. Look at the Internet—
it has revolutionized the world of communications, like nothing has done
before it. The Internet began in the 1960s with an arbitrary idea of connect-
ing multiple independent networks together in order to share scientific and
military research. As such, the early Internet was only used by scientists and
engineers. Today, nearly every home has an Internet connection, and we use
the Internet for our banking needs, shopping desires etc. In fact, we don’t
even need to venture outside our homes anymore! However, this increased
usage of the Internet has necessitated the development of high-speed proces-
sors, larger bandwidth communications and more. Now try to tell us that
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30 3. Applications and Implications of VR
the Internet has not changed lifestyles and work styles, and a result our future
technology needs.
So what about VR? Does it have the same potential to impact upon our
daily lives the way the Internet has? Whilst VR is still a rapidly evolving tech-
nology undergoing active research and development so that it can be made
more robust, reliable and user-friendly, many potential applications have been
identified for its use. Indeed, it is already used in some specialized areas. In
this chapter, we would like to outline some of the current and potential uses
of VR. And we ask the question that if this new technology has the potential
to change lifestyles and work styles, will it do so for the betterment of society?
To put it another way, the main idea of this chapter is to give a brief outline
of the current and potential future uses for VR so that you can begin to think
about how you could use this technology. Then, as you progress through the
remainder of the book, where we show you what hardware and software you
need to achieve various degrees of realism within numerous types of virtual
worlds, we hope you will be enthused to implement some of your own ideas
and start creating your own VR system.
3.1 Entertainment
Cinema, TV and computer games fall into this category. In fact, computer
game development has somewhat driven the development of VR technology.
In computer games, being fast and furious is the name of the game, with as
many twists and turns as can be accomplished in real time as possible. The
quality of images produced from games’ rendering engines improves daily,
and the ingenuity of game developers ensures that this is a very active area
of research. And the market of course is huge. In 2000, some 60 percent
of Americans had a PC connected to the Internet, and 20 percent had a
gaming console. Gaming companies now make more money than the movie
industry ($6.1 billion annually) [5], and of course a large portion of this
profit is poured into research and development to keep pushing forward the
boundaries of gaming.
This is good news, because any developments in computer gaming are
almost certainly replicated in VR technology. Indeed, it is sometimes dif-
ficult to understand the difference between computer gaming and VR. In
fact, many researchers are customizing existing computer games to create VR
worlds. Researchers at Quebec University suggest that computer games might
be a cheap and easy-to-use form of VR for the treatment for phobias. The
main reason for this is that the games provide highly realistic graphics and can
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3.2. Visualization 31
be easily adapted to an individual’s particular fears. Graphics chips have now
become so powerful that anyone can make virtual worlds [8].
Of course, computer gaming and VR technology go hand in hand with
computer animation. In computer animation, we hope to produce realistic
pictures or a sequence of pictures that would be very difficult, impossible or
too expensive to obtain by conventional means. The movie, TV and adver-
tising industries have adopted this use of 3D computer animation with great
enthusiasm, and, therefor e, perhaps it is they who have provided the main
driving force behind the rapid improvements in realism that can be achieved
with computer graphics. If we link this with developments in graphics proces-
sors, we now are able to produce highly realistic and complex imagery in real
time, which undoubtedly benefits VR. In particular, this benefits VR where
the imagery must be updated in real time to reflect any movements made by
the human user.
Amusement arcades and adventure parks are also prime examples of how
the entertainment industry has benefited from VR. Take the example of
amusement arcades. They started out with just the notorious fruit machine.
Then in 1976 came the first computer arcade game. Then in the mid ’90s
came the simulator rides. Befor e this, simulators were a curiosity of high-tech
businesses. The first simulators built were used to train pilots, and were often
incredibly expensive. Nowadays, anyone who had been to an arcade or an
adventure park has more than likely been on a simulator ride (Back to the
Future at Universal Studios being a prime example). This is testimony to
the fact that arcade games and simulators are moving towards VR in terms
of the realism of their visual display and the extent to which interactions are
possible.
3.2 Visualization
It isn’t just the world of entertainment that is driving VR technology; psy-
chologists, medical researchers and manufacturing industries are all showing
a keen interest. Scientific visualization is the process of using VR technology
(and in particular computer graphics) to illustrate experimental or theoretical
data, with the aim of bringing into focus trends, anomalies or special features
that might otherwise go unnoticed if they were presented in simple tabular
form or by lists of numbers. In this category, one might include medical
imaging, presentations of weather or economic forecasts and interpretations
of physical phenomena.
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32 3. Applications and Implications of VR
Imagine: a blue series BMW slams against a concrete wall at 56 kilometers
per hour without braking. The bonnet on the driver’s side heaves upwards and
is crushed almost as far as the w indscreen. The car is a write-off [9]. This is
thankfully not reality, but a simulation carried out a t BMW’s virtual reality
center. They crash cars approximately 100 times before they even reach the
prototype stage! Users of this system say that this type of crash visualization
is essential for understanding the results of all the calculations necessary to
see what effect different types of forces and impact collisions will have on the
car’s structure and, of course, on the passengers.
This type of simulation represents the visualization of a real object under
virtual conditions. Indeed, the virtual environment can represent any three-
dimensional world that is either real or abstract. This includes real systems
such as cars, buildings, landscapes, underwater shipwrecks, spacecraft, archae-
ological excavation sites, solar systems and so on. Abstract systems might in-
clude magnetic fields, molecular models, mathematical models and so on. A s
such, VR seems a natural progression to the use of computer graphics that en-
ables engineers and designers to visualize structures before actually building
them. In addition to building and visualizing these structures, the designers
are also able to interact with them, which can allow designers to conceptual-
ize relations that might not otherwise be apparent. Thus VR can also be an
invaluable tool for:
• The radiologist trying to visualize the topology of a tumor [11];
• the chemist exploring ways that molecules can be combined [1];
• the urban planner trying to re-create simulations of a growing city [2].
One area of special interest is visualization for medical applications. Take
for example keyhole surgery or laparoscopy. This surgical technique leaves
minimal scars, allows the patient to get up and about sooner and reduces
the chance of infections. It makes the whole process of having an operation
safer. Of course, nothing comes for free; laparoscopy r equires an even greater
degree of skill in the surgeon, as well as extra training. Sometimes even very
proficient surgeons just can’t adjust to the constraints imposed on them by
laparoscopy. (Imagine trying to sew up a hole in your socks; now imagine
trying to do the same thing under the duvet in bed at night while wearing
them, using a feeble torch for light, only able to see what you are doing by
putting a video camera down the bed and connecting it to the TV. For good
measure, you are also wearing thick skiing mittens!)
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3.3. Training 33
In laparoscopic operations, there are many standard procedures: needle
insertion thr ough a port, suturing, cutting, stapling, suction, holding and or-
gan displacement. During each of these tasks, the surgeon must carry out
close inspection, as well as using the camera to obtain a broad overview of
the operation and tool delivery volumes. A broad camera overview permits
the surgeon to become oriented and find complex structures that are often
difficult to identify. Positioning the camera requires careful synchronization
and understanding between the surgeon and the endoscopic camera assistant.
Unfortunately, no matter how good the video image augmentation is, it is a
fact that vital anatomical structures remain concealed beneath the immedi-
ately visible tissue. The ultimate challenge is to map the visible field of view
against a 3D description of the surrounding anatomy, ideally the anatomy of
the actual patient. (This is somewhat analogous to the way in which Google
Maps blends street and highway detail with satellite images of the same area
to give an extremely useful, informative and striking result.) The first and
most obvious way to do this is to use scan data, MRI and CT.
3D reconstruction of patient anatomy from CT and MRI images can be
utilized to project images of the patient’s anatomy that is obstructed from the
surgeon’s view. Using this special technology, surgeons can interactively ma-
nipulate the view they have in real time. In addition to advances made to the
actual surgery, training simulators have also been developed which allow sur-
geons to practice many different types of surgery prior to the operation. For
example, Dr. Joseph Rosen [7] of Dartmouth University Medical Center has
a VR model of a face with deformable skin which allows surgeons to practice
a plastic surgical procedure and demonstrate the final outcome before making
the incision on a patient. And indeed, Immersion Medical has a whole range
of surgical simulators available for purchase, those being endoscopy, endovas-
cular, hysteroscopy and laparoscopy simulators. Studies show that physicians
who train on simulators which are lifelike mannequins with hearts that beat,
lungs that breathe, and veins that respond to injection make fewer errors and
work more quickly than those who practiced on animals or learned by obser-
vation. And since we are talking about training, we can move onto the next
large application area of VR technology.
3.3 Training
Training is one of the most rapidly growing application areas of VR. We all
know about the virtual training simulators for pilots. These simulators rely
on visual and haptic feedback to simulate the feeling of flying whilst being
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