6 minute read
Virtual Reality Expands into 2022
PHOTO STELLA JACOB
Are There Risks?
BY HAILEY MINTON
Want to flap your wings over the Empire State Building? Ski a double-black diamond in the French Alps without breaking bones? Swim with Great White sharks and keep your legs?
Virtual reality is one of the fastest-growing frontiers in the technological world since it was created in 1968 by Ivan Sutherland and his student, Bob Sproull. At the time, a huge, head-mounted contraption was suspended from the ceiling and proved far too heavy for application within the general marketplace. And until the mid-1980s, VR was still considered the stuff of magic realism for video gaming and science fiction. Today, mirroring the blast-speed of all technology in our daily lives, kids put on VR headsets and dance with robots so real that research shows that they elicit empathy in humans. Oculus, a new Me-ta-aka-Facebook VR headset, was the top-selling Christmas present at Costco in 2021, and Apple promises to release an ever-over-achieving version in 2022.
Most people think of a headset when they picture VR, but the methodologies of experience are also evolving. People can enter a designated “cave,” stand in front of a canvas, or wear glasses that track from a wearer’s point of view. Depending on the type of VR, users interact within an environment with controllers and sensors that track eye and body movement. Some virtual worlds are pixelated and clearly animated, and some replicate what we see in the real world, with visuals ranging from blocky to extreme realism. However, all graphics are now clear and highly-evolved. From an exclusive tool once used to train surgeons and pilots, VR is quickly becoming ubiquitous and affordable in our daily lives, allowing anyone to immerse themselves for entertainment, job training, healthcare assessments, and education.
High-tech VR development and testing at Silverdraft in Boise.
COURTESY SILVERDRAFT
Human Resource departments are turning to VR for soft skills training, especially as remote work has accelerated during the pandemic. Banks, call centers, and customer service positions offer new hires practice sessions, putting them in front of virtual customers before sending them into the workplace. Josh Bersin, a HR industry analyst, claims that VR immersion leaves a lasting impact because “experiential training” has been proven to be far more effective than traditional methods.
According to Faisal Aqlan and Hui Yang’s article in ISE Magazine, VR is also expanding into detecting mental disorders with sensor-based virtual reality. According to the World Health Organization, 35% to 85% of mental health conditions remain undetected and undiagnosed. VR places subjects in a virtual room where they are directed to complete tasks. The device meanwhile collects eye-tracking data in conjunction with the spoken feedback from the user. Anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia are often revealed from the data and appropriate treatment can be initiated.
PHOTO XR EXPO
Medical applications of VR are beginning to prove limitless. Another application places healthcare workers in the first-person perspective of someone with age-related cognitive decline. This decline can be due to Alzheimer’s, hearing or vision loss, or neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and dementia. This POV experience gives family and caregivers a heightened level of empathy for those suffering from these conditions.
The highest-end VR technology comes closest to making the virtual world look like our real one. Clouds swirl around your ankles depicting an incoming storm, or the vehicle you’re designing mirrors perfectly what you’ll see after you send it to production. Full global illumination incorporates light reflecting off objects in the same way it does off a lake or metal. Instead of pixelated avatars or settings, even snow looks so real that your hands reach out and truly expect to feel the biting cold.
Capturing that kind of three-dimensional depth in a virtual setting requires massive amounts of computing. Silverdraft, a Boise-based company, specializes in the supercomputing power that backs up these hyper-real virtual worlds. Many Silverdraft clients have millions of design dollars at stake and testing and finding solutions to problems virtually before building expensive prototypes can avoid expensive mistakes. “When you’re in a virtual environment, your brain needs to forget that it’s not real,” says Amy Gile, Co-Founder and CEO of Silverdraft. “You can get lost in that world. When your brain believes it, your creativity can grow; your brain can learn specific skills.”
“It is easier to move pixels than dirt,” Gile explains. ”If you’re able to build and design a car, test it, and do studies on that vehicle before you physically make it, it saves you time and money and iterations. It’s more sustainable.” To visualize data and take it from second to third requires a staggering amount of data. Vast amounts of computing carry the concern of heat build-up in computers and consequently, the dropping of frames in a viewer’s virtual world. Silverdraft provides solutions to prevent that from happening.
Gile has seen dropped frames that leave users feeling dizzy and suffering from headaches. “None of us know the longterm effects of that,” she says. Dropping frames is more common in consumer-ready VR since the user’s experience is dependent upon their computer’s processing ability. However, there haven’t been long-term studies on the physical or cognitive effects on users because VR use is developing faster than user analysis. Gile believes that VR that provides the most perfect realism lessens the risk of any yet unforeseen, long-term effects.
In truth, one user died wearing VR glasses by stumbling into his glass table- but most programs now offer alerts when physical obstacles threaten. Risks or not, VR development and application will continue to accelerate, expand, and become more affordable. If you can imagine it, most likely, it will “virtually” become real soon. And honestly, what better way to escape couch quarantine than driving in Nascar, scuba diving a tropical reef, or flying past Mount Everest?
Amy Gile, CEO of Silverdraft Supercomputing
