The term Virtual Reality (or VR) refers to a simulated experience that is either similar to or completely different from the real world. From a technical point of view, VR is a computer-generated three-dimensional environment that is explored and interacted with by a person.
Today, VR technology is used in various fields including design, engineering, education and entertainment. Standard virtual reality systems use either a multi-projected environment or virtual reality headsets to create realistic images, sound and other experiences.
For example, if you use a VR headset, you will be able to view/move around an artificial world and interact with the virtual objects present in it. The effects are generated using a head-mounted display connected to the VR headset.
The best thing is that you don't have to use an expensive display to create a virtual environment. Any smartphone screen will work flawlessly. This means that all you need is a smartphone and a VR app to simulate physical presence in a virtual environment.
However, several standalone VR headsets, such as Oculus, come with a built-in display system and have their own app store.
VR Space
Price: Free Platform:
No touch controls or other controllers required.
VR Space allows you to discover the stars and vast galactic space while enjoying stunning views and atmospheric music.
The app is optimized for cardboard headsets and is currently one of the best adventure tools among controllerless VR games.
VR Crazy Swing
Price: Partially free Platform:
It will take you on an incredibly emotional virtual reality adventure.
The app contains a variety of VR games, such as space shooters, thrilling rides, crazy 3D racing and zombie apocalypse horrors. All of them are combined with detailed graphics and intense sounds to give you the most immersive atmosphere.
It works on a freemium model: you can play completely free during the trial period, and if you really like the app, you can pay to get unlimited access.
Cameras for creating VR video
Nokia Ozo
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Expensive professional camera that shoots virtual reality video. Eight microphones and eight Nokia Ozo cameras allow you to shoot videos with a 360-degree viewing angle and surround sound. At the same time, the spherical camera weighs no more than 2.5 kilograms and has only one memory card.
Nokia Ozo is aimed at professional filming for film studios and costs about $60,000.
Nokia Ozo →
Vuze VR Camera
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Vuze VR Camera is eight cameras in one body that simultaneously shoot in Full HD format. Unlike professional models, Vuze is available to ordinary users, since the price of the camera will not exceed $1,000. In terms of controls, anyone without professional video shooting skills can easily pick up Vuze and shoot 360-degree video, then quickly edit it in Vuze Studio.
The camera is controlled via an application for iOS or Android, and the created videos can be viewed on any device for creating virtual reality, on a regular TV or with glasses.
The creators plan to release Vuze on sale in August 2016.
Vuze VR Camera →
VR Haunted House 3D
Price: Free Platform: /
Realistic haunted house and horror environment.
If you like horror movies and games, this app is for you. There is a house with restless guests and mysterious creatures. You need courage to enter this house, and once you do, you will experience many extraordinary moments along the way.
The game features various horror effects and animations, 3D realistic sound effects and three different game levels.
Dive
The glasses fit comfortably on the head, everything adapts to its shape and size. Nothing falls off, the glasses themselves are light, do not strain, they do not put pressure on the face and relieve the force on the bridge of the nose thanks to the elastic strap.
Even small children feel comfortable playing with them. The smartphone is firmly secured, even with rapid head movements. The image is smoothly updated according to the position of the head, but this largely depends on the smartphone and software.
When testing the glasses, I had only positive impressions. No negative aspects were noticed.
VeeR VR
Price: free Platform: |
Plus: There are plenty of interactive films, documentaries, animations and fiction.
Veer VR provides thousands of videos, photos and interactive experiences with full-screen viewing. Find your favorite VR content through personalized recommendations on the home page or trending topics by category.
The platform has several popular creators such as Warner Bro. Studios, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, World Bank, etc. You can upload your own work, create new collections, and download items for offline viewing.
The app supports almost all VR platforms, including HTC Vive, Xiaomi VR and Oculus.
Oculus and modern VR headsets
A real breakthrough in the VR industry happened in 2012, when the world saw the first prototype of the Oculus Rift
at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. For several years, a young self-taught engineer, Palmer Luckey, developed his own VR headset and shared his successes on the forum, where he was noticed by John Carmack, co-founder of id Software. That same year, Luckey founded Oculus VR and launched a Kickstarter campaign that raised $2.4 million.
Two years after the creation of Oculus VR, Facebook became interested in the company and bought it for $2 billion. This was a defining moment in the history of VR. It was after this deal that the popularity of VR began to quickly gain momentum.
Sony announced work on a VR headset for the PlayStation 4, Google released Cardboard, Samsung announced Samsung Gear VR - virtual reality capabilities are becoming available to the general public.
Many companies, such as HTC, Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft Sony, Samsung, are starting to develop their own VR headsets. In 2016, HTC releases HTC VIVE
. It was the first commercial release of a touch-tracking headset that allowed users to move freely through space.
“In 2022, virtual reality becomes real”
- this is how Forbes magazine describes this year. It was at this time that the standalone Oculus Quest headset appeared on the market, and the number of monthly connected VR headsets on Steam exceeded 1 million for the first time.
The transition from wired to standalone VR headsets has greatly advanced the technology among everyday users. VR is now being used not only for immersive gaming experiences, but also to help treat psychological disorders, teach new skills, and enhance creativity.
Google Cardboard
Price: Free Platform: /
Cardboard app allows you to experience virtual reality in a simple, fun and delightful way. It comes packaged with a set of demo versions.
- Photo Sphere: Look around the photo spheres you have captured.
- Exhibit: analysis of cultural artifacts from different perspectives.
- Tour Guide: Visit Versailles with a local guide.
You can also experience your favorite artist's new music video as if you were right there on the set, with 360-degree video content and more.
VirtualSpeech - VR courses
Price: free Platform: |
VirtualSpeech helps you hone your public speaking skills by placing you on a virtual stage with a virtual crowd, where you can practice presenting yourself in front of an audience that imitates the sounds and mannerisms of real people.
The app offers various VR courses with additional scenarios and VR features. This includes basic public speaking, sales pitches, business networking, and storytelling. It tracks your progress and provides real-time feedback on various parameters such as eye contact, hesitant words and voice tempo.
Comfortable to wear
This complex characteristic determines how comfortable and unnoticeable it will be for the user to wear a VR device for a long time (at least two hours). It consists of the following aspects that need to be taken into account when choosing a device for VR:
- Dimensions and weight : the lighter the device, the less pressure it will put on the cheeks and bridge of the nose, and the adjustable straps and arms allow you to comfortably secure the device to your head. If you wear glasses, you should also consider whether there will be room for them inside your VR headset.
- Padded : Almost all devices are padded on the inside to reduce friction and pressure on the head. If you have sensitive skin, choose VR devices with soft, breathable padding. It would also be nice if the lining was removable so that it could be taken out and washed at times.
- Cooling : like any electronic device, the VR helmet heats up during operation, and therefore has a ventilation system. More advanced models have built-in coolers.
- Sensory Compliance : When using VR devices, the user may experience dizziness and nausea, similar to motion sickness. The more accurately a VR device adjusts the virtual scenery to the user’s movements, the lower the risk of VR syndrome.
A huge VR helmet at an exhibition in 2015. Photo: Oculus
InCell VR
Price: free Platform: |
InCell is an action/racing VR game with a bit of science and strategy. It takes you into a fascinating microclimate of human cells, where you must stop the spread of harmful viruses.
While the game focuses on VR, you can play just fine without a set. To turn off VR mode, simply touch and hold the button on the screen or use the headset trigger to open the main menu.
Daydream
Price: free Platform:
Daydream is the official VR application developed by Google. It includes many applications and games with high-quality virtual reality content.
With this app, you can play exciting games, explore new worlds, and return to your own personal VR cinema. Plus, this app brings new content to the forefront, so you always see something fresh when you put on the headset.
However, there is a downside: to use this app, you will need a Daydream-enabled smartphone and a Daydream View-enabled headset.
Cinema and holograms
Microsoft HoloLens
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Technically, Microsoft HoloLens is not a virtual reality headset. It creates augmented reality around its owner, combining real objects and a virtual interface.
Unlike a regular VR headset that connects to a computer or smartphone, HoloLens is essentially a small computer shaped like glasses. The surrounding reality is read using two conventional and two IR cameras, after which it is processed by two processors - holographic and central. HoloLens also includes a gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetometer. The device supports gesture and voice control.
There are a great many options for using HoloLens, but prototypes of the device are still far from the ideal shown in the videos. In March 2016, the first versions of HoloLens were sold to developers in the US and Canada for $3,000. The release date of the finished device for users is still unknown.
Microsoft HoloLens →
Vuzix iWear Video Headphones
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This device is mainly positioned as a mini cinema for watching 3D videos on a virtual 125-inch screen. Vuzix iWear Video Headphones also track head movements so that the user can watch videos from different angles.
Vuzix iWear Video Headphones will play video from any gadget - PC, smartphone, tablet, console or 3D-Blu-ray player.
Vuzix iWear Video Headphones →
Expeditions
Price: Free Platform: Android (moved into a separate application)
Google Expedition allows you to take a trip to virtual reality or explore artificial reality objects. It is an ideal tool for small group learning.
You'll see more than 800 tours, ranging from historical sites and museums to space. If you're a teacher or guide, you can use the app to explain complex phenomena or point out interesting things along the way.
What else do you need to know?
All of the above are general characteristics that do not depend on the type of device. When choosing certain types of devices for VR, the following characteristics are also important:
- When purchasing a wired gadget, you need to consider the length of the cable, the number of sensors that will be placed in the room, the display resolution (maximum 4K), and also make sure that you have a powerful and productive computer with a good graphics processor;
- When purchasing a wireless gadget, you need to consider the battery life, again, the resolution (for wireless devices, the maximum available is 2560 x 1440), as well as the amount of internal memory for storing content (on average, it varies from 16 to 32 GB).
- For a mobile gadget, the operating time is again important, as well as the display diagonal (varies from 4.5 to 6 inches), the quality of cooling (these devices heat up twice as much) and the supported operating system (Android, iOS or both).
Google Daydream - mobile virtual reality glasses.
Photo: Google Taken together, knowing all these characteristics will help you decide which VR gadget on the market is best for you. Enjoy the shopping!
Nature Treks VR
Price: $7.99 Platform: /
With Nature Treks VR you can explore underwater oceans, tropical beaches and even stars in outer space. Adjust the weather, control the time of day, customize your own world, and find different types of animals in the virtual world.
It features nine stunningly color-themed environments, each carefully designed to influence specific emotional states. To create a powerful and emotional effect, be sure to activate the audio visualization.
What is virtual reality: properties, classification, equipment - a detailed overview of the field
In December, we wrote about what trends in the IT world are worth paying attention to in 2017. One of the points was virtual reality, and for good reason. Interest in VR has grown greatly over the past 2-3 years and continues to grow, more and more different equipment and technologies are appearing, and most importantly, new ideas that require developers to implement.
In this introductory article we will talk about the properties, types and areas of application of VR - this will help better navigate those who want to start their journey in a developing and relevant field.
Virtual reality is a computer-generated three-dimensional environment with which the user can interact, fully or partially immersing himself in it.
VR Properties
It is rare to find a complete set, but below are the features that you need to focus on when creating virtual reality.
- Believable – supports the user’s sense of reality of what is happening.
- Interactive - provides interaction with the environment.
- Machine-generated - based on powerful hardware.
- Explorable - Provides the opportunity to explore a large, detailed world.
- Creating an effect of presence - involves both the brain and the body of the user in the process, influencing the maximum possible number of senses.
Types of VR
Immersive VR
This type implies the presence of three factors:
- A believable simulation of the world with a high degree of detail.
- A high-performance computer capable of recognizing user actions and responding to them in real time.
- Special equipment connected to a computer that provides an immersive effect while exploring the environment. We'll talk about it in more detail a little later.
VR without immersion
Not everyone and not always needs complete immersion in an alternative reality. Non-immersive simulations are simulations with high-quality images, sound and controllers, ideally broadcast on a widescreen screen. Also included in this category are projects such as archaeological 3D reconstructions of ancient settlements or models of buildings that architects create to demonstrate their work to clients. All of the examples listed above do not fully meet VR standards, but they allow you to experience the simulated world several levels deeper than other multimedia tools, and therefore are classified as virtual reality.
VR with shared infrastructure
This includes “virtual worlds” like Second Life and Minecraft. The only property listed above that they lack for a complete set is creating the effect of presence: such worlds do not provide complete immersion (in the case of Minecraft, this only applies to standard controls - the game already has a version for virtual reality that supports Oculus Rift and Gear helmets VR). However, virtual worlds have a good level of interaction with other users, which is often lacking in “real” virtual reality products.
Virtual worlds are not only used in the gaming industry: thanks to platforms such as 3D Immersive Collaboration and Open Cobalt, 3D work and study spaces can be organized - this is called “immersive collaboration”.
Creating the possibility of simultaneous interaction in the community and complete immersion is now one of the important directions in the development of VR (remember Minecraft).
VR based on Internet technologies
Computer scientists have developed a way to create virtual worlds on the Internet using Virtual Reality Markup Language technology, similar to HTML. It was neglected for a while and is now considered outdated, but with Facebook's growing interest in VR, the future of virtual reality promises to be based not only on interaction, but also on Internet technologies.
There is also AR, not to be confused with VR
AR (augmented reality) is augmented reality. Yes, PokemonGo (which, by the way, everyone has already forgotten about) belongs precisely to this category, although it is a somewhat simplified example. Unlike VR, in which we deliberately isolate ourselves from the environment, augmented reality allows us to create an overlay of the virtual world on the real one in the user’s field of perception. This way we can simultaneously receive information from two sources.
Technically, AR is not virtual reality, but the questions that arise when creating it are similar to those that arise when creating VR (for example, how to get the device to calculate its exact location and adjust to the smallest changes made by the user in real time). Therefore, AR and VR technologies are considered quite closely related.
We invite you to learn more about the features of augmented reality, read the guide for beginner AR developers and watch video reviews of 12 AR application development platforms.
Equipment
Helmets and glasses / Head Mounted Display, HMD
Such devices consist of two small screens placed in front of each eye, blinders to prevent outside light from entering, and stereo headphones. The screens display slightly offset stereoscopic images, providing a realistic 3D experience. The helmets also contain built-in accelerometers and position sensors. Most advanced VR headsets are quite bulky, but recently there has been a trend towards simplified, lightweight options (including cardboard ones, like the one in the picture above), which are usually designed for smartphones with VR applications.
Virtual reality helmets are divided into three types:
- For a computer - work in conjunction with a PC or consoles: Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Playstation VR.
- For mobile devices - they are called headsets and work in conjunction with smartphones, they are a holder with lenses: Google Cardboard, Samsung Gear VR, YesVR.
- Independent virtual reality glasses are independent devices that run special or adapted OS: Sulon Q, DeePoon, AuraVisor.
Wearable has a list of the best VR headsets of 2022. You can read more about virtual reality headsets on the Virtual Reality Society website.
Rooms / Cave Automatic Virtual Environment, CAVE
An alternative for those who don’t want to ruin their hair, the images in this case are not broadcast into the helmet, but onto the walls of the room, often represented by MotionParallax3D displays (although for a more complete UX in some of these rooms you need to wear 3D glasses or even combine CAVE and HMD ). There is an opinion that VR rooms are much better than VR headsets: higher resolution, there is no need to carry a bulky device, in which some people even get motion sickness, and self-identification is easier due to the fact that the user has the opportunity to constantly see himself. However, purchasing such a room, of course, will be much more expensive than buying a helmet.
Datagloves
To satisfy the instinctive need of the user to touch with his hands what he finds interesting in the process of exploring the environment, gloves were created with sensors to capture the movements of the hands and fingers. The technical support for such a process varies - it is possible to use fiber optic cables, strain gauges or piezoelectric sensors, as well as electromechanical devices (such as potentiometers).
Joysticks (gamepads) / Wands
Special devices for interacting with a virtual environment, containing built-in position and motion sensors, as well as buttons and scroll wheels, like a mouse. Nowadays they are increasingly being made wireless to avoid inconvenience and clutter when connecting to a computer.
VR Applications
Education
VR is used to simulate training environments for activities that require prior training, such as flying an airplane, skydiving, and even brain surgery.
The science
VR improves and accelerates the study of the molecular and atomic world: immersed in a virtual environment, a scientist can handle particles as if they were LEGO bricks.
Medicine
In addition to helping train surgeons, VR technology also proves useful during the operations themselves: the doctor, using special equipment, can control the movements of the robot, thereby gaining better control of the process.
Industrial design and architecture
Instead of building expensive models of cars, airplanes or buildings, you can create a virtual model that allows you not only to examine the project from the inside, but also to test its technical characteristics.
Games and entertainment
At the moment, this is the most famous and widest area of use of VR: it includes both games and cinema, virtual tourism and visiting various events.
As we said, VR continues to integrate with different areas of our lives and has evolved from a science fiction myth into (virtual) reality, so choose an area to develop and go ahead. The international organization Global Virtual Reality Association is currently involved in the standardization of VR technologies.
Translation of the article “Virtual reality”
A virtual reality
Bacteria interactive educational VR 3D
Price: Free Platform: | Android
Now you can study biology in a whole new way. This app allows you to study bacteria using interactive 3D animation. It is specially designed for students and is available in many languages.
You can zoom in, rotate interactive scenes the way you want. There are several predefined views in complex scenes that are easy to navigate. While most 3D scenes come with built-in animations and narratives, some include a walk-through mode for you to explore on your own.
Mozaik3D
Price: free Platform: |
Mozaik3D is an interactive educational application that teaches you geography, history, mathematics, physics, biology, chemistry, technology, fine arts. It has over 1200 3D scenes to explore.
On the app's home page, you'll find the option to filter 3D images by topic or use the search bar to get a specific 3D scene. To activate VR mode, simply tap the VR headset icon in the bottom right corner.
Fulldive VR
Price: free Platform: |
Fulldive VR offers you everything from photo storage and web browsing to YouTube video streaming. The app has its own store, which contains hundreds of VR-enabled apps and games.
You'll be able to take pictures, browse anything online, and stream 3D and 360-degree YouTube videos in VR. All materials are obtained from reliable sources. You can also follow what your friends are watching, reacting, commenting on and sharing their favorite videos.
Results
All of the games and applications presented above work great on both iOS and Android, while perfectly supporting virtual reality. The HIPER devices tested with these games perfectly fulfilled their task: they conveyed the feeling of virtual reality and gave an unforgettable experience.
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