Building a New World with Virtual Reality
Virtual reality is a billion-dollar industry. It’s a futuristic field with potential applications in several areas, including education, healthcare, defense, and space research. The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the chances of adopting virtual reality among people. People of all ages are discovering the addictive quality of simulated experiences that closely resemble real-world experiences. Gaming and entertainment companies are competing with each other to capture people’s attention and imagination. A VR gaming enthusiast can now don a VR headset and participate in a virtual wargame with the most modern weapons and arsenal, scale mountains, and trek through desert landscapes or the jungles of Amazon. With code that can help build a new world with virtual reality, you can go on the most fantastical virtual adventures.
What Is Virtual Reality?
Virtual reality uses computer code to create a simulated 3D environment, complete with scenery and objects. You can enter into and navigate 360 degrees of this virtual world, and you can interact with the environmental elements designed within it using a VR headset device. A VR headset is a device that you can wear to explore and interact with a virtual reality environment, just like your spectacles. VR headsets such as Samsung Gear, Oculus Rift, and Google Cardboard help you interact with a virtual reality experience. In addition, the code for VR can track your movements through sensors and relay your responses to the VR system.
Experiential games and immersive entertainment represent the tip of the iceberg of VR possibilities. There are real-world applications in healthcare, engineering, media, education, research, sport, manufacturing, and business. Let’s explore two ground-breaking fields of VR application that tread beyond gaming and entertainment.
VR in Healthcare: Medical schools provide experiential training to surgeons and cadaver-free training to students. Hospitals use VR headsets in pain management to distract patients and reduce anxiety during surgery and other invasive procedures. As referenced in Stanford Medicine’s article, medical professionals use VR extensively for planning surgeries and educating patients in the pre-operative phase.
VR in Spaceflights and space exploration: NASA uses VR in astronaut training for spaceflights and simulations with unforeseen scenarios that astronauts are likely to encounter in space missions, as referenced on the website.
The possibilities seem endless with VR, and almost every human interaction we can think of, could one day be reproducible in a new world with virtual reality. Visit Google Arts and Culture to start a 3D VR experience or hitch a ride on some magical Disney journeys at Disney Movies VR.
Your child can learn to write code that can help us build a new world with virtual reality by mastering a few programming languages listed below.
- Python is a great language for beginners
- C# (pronounced C Sharp), C, and C++ for VR applications such as gaming
- Java for VR development, including non-gaming applications
- JavaScript for web-based VR applications
These programming languages will help build a good foundation in coding. They can use these skills for coding to build new worlds with virtual reality.
What the Future of Virtual Reality Looks Like
Today’s VR experiences provide an immersive experience focusing on your sense of sight and sound. For instance, you can view the environment of the virtual world and hear various sounds as you visually interact with the world. Technology companies enhance this code to build experiences that can engage your sense of smell, taste, and touch. Future VR applications will incorporate artificial intelligence to offer more personalized interactions.
VR simulations can provide more effective training and educational applications. Your child could be dissecting a virtual human body in a virtual hospital. Virtual reality is expected to revolutionize work environments and interpersonal meetings by connecting office workers in virtual offices and a metaverse network of virtual worlds. You could meet your friend in a virtual café or have your next office team meeting by a beach in Hawaii. You could plan a guided tour with your child to a museum located miles away from your home, from the comfort of your home!
Virtual reality is an exciting domain with scope for exploring various technical skills such as designing a virtual environment and enriching the design with details that mimic the real world. VR development also involves recording and tracking user interactions to provide analysis and data to improve the experience. You can help your child to explore these areas and learn code that can help us build a new world with virtual reality.
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