In
today’s world Virtual Reality was viewed as a gimmick until recently. Now it is
longer a gimmick or a thing of the future. It is mostly being used to do off
site job training for doctors, firefighters, and even astronauts. Some of the
biggest developments for this new technology came from a company called Oculus.
While making higher resolution and higher frames per second for their virtual
reality goggles they unknowingly sparked the ideas that gave us the offsite
training that thousands are utilizing today.
Although
the consumer version of the oculus rift isn’t projected to be available until
2015, it has been in development since early 2012. With the oculus’ head
mounted display it makes it possible to do things other than gaming. With the display
the way it is, it simulates being in any setting that the user chooses. Pairing
it with google street view allows disabled people who can’t usually travel to
virtually see things in person that they wouldn’t be able to normally. And
instead of moving a disabled patient from doctor to doctor, the oculus rift
makes it possible for remote examinations. A remote examination would mean that
a doctor could give a routine checkup without leaving the office or having the
patient come to the office. Another non-gaming use for the oculus rift is
training young doctors for surgery. It can accomplish this by playing a video
of an actual surgery and the motion trackers in the oculus allows the user to
lean in for a closer view.
“The magic of Oculus Rift – and
virtual reality in general – is how it grants us the ability to be present in
another world” (Joel Lee 2014). The way the oculus rift makes such a vivid
virtual reality is that they actual have separate displays for each eye. The
first version of the rift displayed at "640x800" (Oculus 2012) per eye while the consumer
version is going to have at least 960x1080 per eye. With this and the motion
tracking and sensing you can look up down 360 degrees around and you can lean
in toward whatever is in front of you. When you pair this kind of technology
with programs like Maya (Maya is a 3d modeling program used for video games and
movies) the user can do some pretty incredible things when they are limited to
2 dimensions. This makes things like architecture more cost effective because
not only do you not have to waste money on materials for a building that might
not work out the way you want it, you can construct your building in Maya with
extreme precision you can tour the 3d model of your building on foot with the oculus
rift.
The Oculus Rift has made a major impact on almost every
industry. Whether its used to simulate a surgery for an up and coming doctor,
to give a disabled person the trip of a lifetime, or to build and tour
structures more precisely virtual reality is something that everyone needs to
embrace because it can do nothing but make the lives of humans easier.
References
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-amazing-non-gaming-ways-people-using-oculus-rift/
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1523379957/oculus-rift-step-into-the-game?ref=nav_search
