Such systems are increasingly being used in a variety of applications, from telecommunications and information visualization to health care, education and training, product design, manufacturing, marketing, and entertainment. More sophisticated systems-such as those used for pilot training and immersive entertainment experiences-can include head-mounted displays or large projection screens for displaying images, 3D sound, and treadmills that allow operators to walk through the virtual environment. Simple VR systems include home video games that produce three-dimensional (3D) graphical displays and stereo sound and are controlled by an operator using a joystick or computer keyboard. In VR systems, human operators are connected to computers that can simulate a wide variety of worlds, both real and imaginary, and can interact with those worlds through a variety of sensory channels and manipulators (National Research Council, 1995, pp. Virtual reality (VR) refers to a set of techniques for creating synthetic, computer-generated environments in which human operators can become immersed. 4 The research on head-mounted displays is but one illustration of the many ways in which federally sponsored research programs have influenced the VR field. The emphasis on head-mounted displays is not meant to downplay the significance of other VR technologies that are not addressed, such as the large projection environments at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It highlights medical and entertainment applications of VR because they demonstrate interesting aspects of the innovation process. The analysis is not intended to be comprehensive but rather concentrates on selected topics that illuminate the R&D process. In particular, it examines the diversity of funding agencies, missions, and environments, as well as the strong interactions between public and private research and personnel, that have promoted advances in the field. This chapter focuses on research and development (R&D) in computer graphics and related technologies that contributed to the emergence of VR as a practical technology. Applications range from navigation systems that enable pilots and air traffic controllers to operate in dense fog 2 to fully digital design environments for creating new car models 3 (see Box 10.1). 1 For much of its early development, VR often seemed more like science fiction than science, but it is now transforming fields such as military training, entertainment, and medicine. Virtual reality (VR) is a highly multidisciplinary field of computing that emerged from research on three-dimensional interactive graphics and vehicle simulation in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |