Introduction To VR

1.1. Prototype development

Half of a century from now, the first prototype facility of virtual reality technology appeared in the autumn of 1968. Nevertheless, virtual reality did not attract too much attention until recent years. “The Sword of Damocles” is widely considered to be the very first virtual reality system, which was created by computer scientist Ivan Sutherland in 1968. While using the device, the user had to have his head securely fastened with the device. [1] Why people considered “The Sword of Damocles” as the first virtual reality system? Some vital features defined by this device have been followed for years. Such as: Stereoscopic display Virtual view generation Head position tracking Virtual environment interaction Recent years have seen a significant achievement of the virtual reality. Not only we have high resolution in the stereoscopic display, high speed generation and rendition of virtual view, high accuracy of head tracking. We also have gesture recognition and speech control. Three dimensions model generation is no longer a difficult problem.

1.2. Features of VR

Virtual Reality is a modern high-tech with the help of computer science, which can generate specific lifelike virtual environment. What’s more, user can interact with the object in the virtual environment and would be surrounded with immersive graphics. Though nowadays there are many different types of virtual reality systems but they mainly share the same characteristics. They all have the ability to generate three-dimension images, which are appeared in life-sized, and provide immersive experience to the user. An ideal VR system should generate all the perception a human can feel and has a natural interaction with the user to make it lifelike. The virtual environment should respond to the user’s actions in real time which means adjust the artificial alike reality. Its main features are [2]: • Multi-Sensory: Expect the visual perception, the computers should have tactile sensing, motion sensing, even including taste, smell, perception and the like. Ideal virtual reality should have all the people with the sensing function. • presence Refers to the user feel as degree of simulating the real environment. Ideal simulation environment should enable the user to be difficult to distinguish between true and false degree. • Interactivity It refers to the degree of user-operable objects within the simulation environment and natural degree feedback from the environment. • Autonomy It refers to the virtual objects in the environment based on the degree of real-world physical laws of motion actions. Nowadays, there are different applications for virtual reality become practical, which include: entertainment, medicine, education, design and architecture. Virtual reality can lead to unbelievable discoveries in these aspects and result in enormous change in our daily lives.