VIRTUAL REALITY AND AUGMENTED REALITY

Have you ever thought of making your own world where you will be master of your own will? Or, have you ever imagined of merging your own world with the real world? Just imagine how it would be if you can ride a vehicle sitting in your room and roam around the world, the same way it is shown in the film “Black Panther”. Another great use of VR and AR is shown in the film “Johnny English Strikes Again”. With the rapid growth of technology in the last few decades, these impossible things are rising to the occasion in the form of VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augmented Reality). Our future might become exactly the way it is shown in the movie “Ready Player One”.

What is Virtual Reality?

Virtual Reality or VR is nothing but a computer-generated simulation of 3D image or environment that can be interacted with in an evidently real or physical way by a person using special electronic equipment. 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 head-mounted display with a small screen in front of the eyes, but can also be created through specially designed rooms with multiple large screens.

History of Virtual Reality

In 1956, Cinematographer Morton Heilig was the first to create a VR machine called Sensorama. Although, the discovery of VR is traced back to 1838 with Sir Charles Wheatstone’s discovery of stereopsis. This discovery of stereopsis lead to a lot more discoveries and gradually VR is introduced to the world. In 1960, Heilig patented the first HMD (Head-mounted Display). A year later 2 Philco Corporation engineers Comaeu and Bryan made the first motion tracking HMD. In 1975, Krueger's Videoplace, the first interactive VR platform, was displayed at the Milwaukee Art Centre. In 1977, Aspen Movie Map was created by MIT. This program enabled users to virtually wander through Aspen city in Colorado, like with Google Street View. There were three modes: summer, winter and polygons. With gradual developments affordable home VR handsets were made available by 1995 and Google Street view was also made possible by 2007. 2014 onwards VR possibilities become widely available to the general public.

Technical Briefing of Virtual Reality

VR uses VRML (Virtual Reality Modelling Language) as it’s software. It was introduced in 1994 for the development of “virtual worlds” without dependency on headsets. WebVR, a JavaScript API (application programming interface), provides an online support to various VR devices such as Google Cardboard, HTC Vive, etc.

Modern virtual reality headset displays are based on technology developed for smartphones including: gyroscopes and motion sensors for tracking head, body, and hand positions; small HD screens for stereoscopic displays; and small, lightweight and fast computer 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.

What is Augmented Reality?

Augmented Reality is a technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user’s view of the real world, thus providing a composite view. It is the blending of virtual reality and real life, as developers can create images within applications that blend in with contents in the real world. With AR, users are able to interact with virtual contents in the real world and are able to distinguish between the two. AR fulfils three basic features: a combination of real and virtual worlds, real-time interaction, and accurate 3D registration of virtual and real objects.

History of Augmented Reality

The ascend of AR began with the invention of virtual reality HMD, The Sword of Damocles, by Ivan Sutherland with his student Bob Sproull in 1968. The term “Augmented Reality” was first coined by former Boeing researcher Thomas P Caudell in the year 1990. In 2000, the first-ever outdoor mobile AR game, ARQuake was created by Bruce Thomas. 2014, Google launched Tango, an AR computing platform. In 2016, the most famous AR game, Pokémon Go by Niantic and Nintendo. Experts predict that by 2025 AR cloud-based experiences will gain prominence, supported by 5G networks.

Technical Briefing of Augmented Reality

A key measure of AR systems is how realistically they integrate augmentations with the real world. The software must derive real-world coordinates, independent of camera and camera images. That process is called image registration and uses different methods of computer vision, mostly related to video tracking. Many computer vision methods of augmented reality are inherited from visual odometry. An augogram is a computer-generated the image that is used to create AR. Augography is the science and software practice of making augograms for AR.

Hardware components for augmented reality are a processor, display, sensors and input devices. Modern mobile computing devices like smartphones and tablet computers contain these elements, which often include a camera and Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) sensor such as GPS, accelerometer, SSC (Solid State Compass), etc, making them suitable AR platforms.

Virtual Reality VS Augmented Reality

Virtual Reality	Augmented Reality
Replacement of the real world with the 3D virtual world.	Overlying of 3D virtual digital content on real-world to augment the latter.
VRML creates an interactive sequence of audio, animations, videos, URLs.	AR system detects markers and user locations and system calls on pre-defined content to be overlaid.
No need for makers and user location detection to present 3D content.	AR content overlaid on detected marker or user location.
Lower bandwidth of at least 25 Mbps required to stream.	The higher bandwidth of at least 100 Mbps required to stream.
Best suitable when the the app should give full immersion.	Best suitable when the app must capture user’s environments.

Table courtesy: https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/ar-vs-vr-comparison/

Applications

Using present technology VR and AR can be used mainly in the gaming and other entertainments. Many use this amazing technology for education and training purpose also. Several studies have shown that people who learn and train in VR retain the information much more deeply and for longer periods of time than those who simply use books and videos and other traditional methods. VR and AR are also used for excellent treatments of some serious disorders like PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). Google uses technology in a vast application. Google street view is an excellent example of the use of AR.

There are lots of future use prediction of VR and AR. Experts say that in future AR and VR will be very helpful in workspace communication and staffing. Due to the same technology the window shopping will take a very different leap in window shopping. This technology will absolutely revolutionize the e-commerce industry. One of the greatest possibilities is “Virtual Showrooms”. Lenskart 3D trails are one of the examples of such possibility.

Conclusion

We can easily imagine a future like “Ready Player One”. This film is absolutely a masterpiece in the use of AR and VR. Virtual 3D meetings will be available, virtual tour and travels will never be an imagination. The education system will never be the same. Social distancing might not be a social problem due to AR and VR. It will open new opportunities for creatives and open new and more convenient methods for psychological treatments. VR and AR will play big roles in everyone’s day-to day life, especially shopping, education and advertising.

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Reference:

·        https://www.newgenapps.com/blog/applications-of-vr-ar-future-uses-augmented-reality-virtual-reality/

·        https://www.verdict.co.uk/augmented-reality-timeline/

·        https://www.techtimes.com/articles/5078/20140406/augmented-reality-vs-virtual-reality-what-are-the-differences-and-similarities.htm

·        https://virtualspeech.com/blog/history-of-vr

·        https://www.wikipedia.org/