Until recently, virtual reality (VR) was viewed as a video gaming technology. A computer-generated environment that allows users to experience a different reality, VR has long been embraced by video game developers and enthusiasts who wanted to feel like they are actually “in” the game rather than just watching it. And by donning a special headset, they could do just that.
However, as the requisite headsets have become less expensive and more readily available, VR technology has begun moving beyond the gaming community. Growing numbers of industries and organizations are looking for ways to incorporate VR into their business models, says Michael Lee Yohe, virtual reality project lead at Huntsville-based Intuitive Research and Technology Corporation, which has been developing VR environments for customers for several years.
“We’ve been working in this area for quite a while, but it’s really starting to build momentum now,” Yohe says. “Everybody’s tired of PowerPoint, and our customers realize they need to engage a younger soldier or a younger employee. Just like the overhead projector gave way to PowerPoint, now virtual reality offers a more engaging way to train workers or design workplaces.”
Virtual Reality in the Workplace
For instance, rather than sending soldiers blindly into a war zone, the U. S. Army is using virtual reality to familiarize warfighters with the environment in which they will be fighting. The Department of Defense can also train pilots on new aircraft with a virtual environment, “and they don’t have to buy a $10 million airplane surrogate to train people,” Yohe says.
The same type of training can translate to healthcare workers who may need to practice procedures on virtual patients before they work with live patients, or a variety of other industries. Also, before constructing, remodeling or furnishing a new office or warehouse, a virtual reality program can allow decision makers to experience what it’s like to walk around in the planned facility and make design changes from an informed perspective.
“With virtual reality, we can transport people into a very realistic environment that they may be familiar with or need to become familiar with,” Yohe says. “We can make the environment as realistic as possible and the software allows people to really experience it, manipulate it and tinker with it.”
How It Works
INTUITIVE‘s VR team focuses on designing software programs to solve problems with virtual reality. The team includes both artists and engineers to ensure that VR environments are both visually accurate and technically reliable. They spend time with each customer, storyboarding and scripting, to learn about the virtual environment and how it will be used.
After becoming educated about the environment they need to create, the VR team develops software that replicates that environment. The customer can then take the software to be used in their own office or other location; all they need is a computer and a viewer such as the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift.
When employees don the viewers, they will be visually immersed in a new reality, which allows them to inspect, test and understand the environment, including interacting with objects in that virtual world. Smaller viewers that are compatible with smartphones can also make the VR environment portable. “It’s a great way of learning, especially difficult subject matter,” Yohe says. “It’s way beyond reading something in a book; you’re actually learning by doing, so it sticks with you.”
Article Source: http://blog.al.com/sponsored/2016/09/virtual_reality_changing_how_b.html