Virtual Reality: Technology, Applications, and Future Prospects

This report provides a comprehensive overview of virtual reality (VR) technology, exploring its core concepts and functionalities. It delves into the applications of VR in various media avenues, including gaming and film, highlighting how this technology offers immersive experiences through visual, auditory, and haptic feedback. The report discusses the evolution of VR, its impact on audiences, and the changes in the language used in these mediums. Furthermore, it analyzes the differences between traditional media and VR experiences, providing insights into the future possibilities and growth of this technology, including its potential impact on industries, and the benefits for individuals with disabilities. The report also references key studies and publications to support its findings.

Running head: VIRTUAL REALITY
Virtual Reality
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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1. Research to find out as much information you can about the new technology.
Familiarise yourself with its capabilities and the applications of it in different avenues of
media.
The virtual reality can be explained as the computer emulated reality that does not
really exits. In simple world it can be said that it is a computer generated experience in a
simulated experience. It works using the visual sensors as well as hearing sensors but also
uses other sensors like the feedback and haptic (Laver et al. 2015). This immersive looks and
feels like the real world by creating fantastic graphical images which can make the brain that
the virtual world is the real world. There are several organisations like the play station,
Facebook, Microsoft which makes the technology. The technology was initiated from the
year of the 1960s and have developed a lot in the late 20s. The use of the technology have
craved in the gaming industry in a shorter time than it have been expected. In the field of the
gaming, the technology have some of the best real life effects and the person playing the
game can feel like he is present in the game. As the technology uses the haptic feedback
options the person can feel like He/She is in the game and the surroundings are similar to the
game. In the case of the film industry have an also indulged very much. In certain films the
use of the Virtual Reality have found some of the sign fact use (Ohta and Tamura 2014). The
use of the virtual reality enhances the user’s ability to watch a movie in more detailed manner
and feel the presence. The VR increases the view of the user to 360 degrees apart from the
normal 2d views. Thus it can be said that this is one of the major advantage that helps in the
process of ensuring total entertainment without any hustle. This technology have developed
in a much faster rate because of the factors that it enables the user to view the concentres in
360 degree views, lets the user to move with around the souring and experience the same.
2. How are we able to engage with the medium? How does this differ from tradition
films/animations/games?

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Using a Virtual Reality medium is one of the greatest experience that can be
experienced. I have used the Virtual Reality machine for playing games and watching short
films. The experience is one of the best things that I have ever felt. In case of of 2D game
which is the most traditional gaming concept is very much simple and can be played in any
screen. But in the case of the VR I have experienced the character of the game (Earnshaw
2014). The sound effects and the visuals were so much realistic that I felt like I am in the
gaming world. It felt like the world that I have been put to the world of the game and have
been totally disconnected from the original world. In the case of the movie the experience is
one of the major thing that is to be experienced. In the movie is able to see everything in a
360 views, and hence it was very much a detailed experience of the movie.
3. How have the changes in technology altered the possibilities for audiences and
the languages used?
The new technology is very much attractive in its kind and are effecting a lot number
of the views in the world. The majority of these have been seen to be used by the modern
teenagers. The use of the VR have been seen by mostly by the people who are more attracted
towards the modern technology (Jerald 2015). In certain cases it have been seen that people
gets fascinated by the technology. Also in some cases it have been seen that people fear the
technology because of the fact of unknowns. The organisation that are making the VR like
the oculus by Facebook, PlayStation VR by Sony provides free demos for the people who are
intern3sted in the technology. With the millennial generation turning to digital media for
creating social change, getting them interested in the potential of VR is an important step
(Rendon et al. 2012). It can be said that the VR enhances the imagination of the produces
hence provides the best results. It can be said that the VR is a medium to a different world. It
have also started the people who are curious of new viewing new things. In certain cases it
have been seen that virtual reality attracts certain people who are unable to do certain things

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in real life. One of the major example of this is an handicapped people using the VR for the
purpose of experience things that the person in unable to do in real life (Liszio and Masuch
2016). Thus it can be said that VR is one of the revolutionary idea that have helped a lot in
the process of attracting different groups of people who have some common interest in the
technology.
4. Discuss what you think is the future for the technology? What are the possibilities?
How will it grow?
The virtual reality machines have some of the major impact in the world in the current
age. It can be said that in the future generation the use of the VR can help in many processes.
In the gaming industry it have already brought some of the major changes and will introduce
some more. While in the case of the film industry it can enhance the modern concept of the
films that is existing (Boas 2013). People having physical disabilities uses the technology to
see things that are not possible to them in the real world. Although, VR is still in its very
early stages, and it's likely that it will take many more years before it becomes mainstream
(Biocca and Levy 2013). It can be said that the virtual reality can change the current media
industry that we see, it can help in the process of enhancing the modern films and views that
we see in the modern world.

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References
Biocca, F. and Levy, M.R., 2013. Communication in the age of virtual reality.
Routledge.
Boas, Y.A.G.V., 2013, January. Overview of virtual reality technologies.
In Interactive Multimedia Conference (Vol. 2013).
Earnshaw, R.A. ed., 2014. Virtual reality systems. Academic press.
Jerald, J., 2015. The VR book: Human-centered design for virtual reality. Morgan &
Claypool.
Laver, K.E., George, S., Thomas, S., Deutsch, J.E. and Crotty, M., 2015. Virtual
reality for stroke rehabilitation. Cochrane database of systematic reviews, (2).
Liszio, S. and Masuch, M., 2016, September. Designing shared virtual reality gaming
experiences in local multi-platform games. In International Conference on Entertainment
Computing (pp. 235-240). Springer, Cham.
Ohta, Y. and Tamura, H., 2014. Mixed reality: merging real and virtual worlds.
Springer Publishing Company, Incorporated.
Rendon, A.A., Lohman, E.B., Thorpe, D., Johnson, E.G., Medina, E. and Bradley, B.,
2012. The effect of virtual reality gaming on dynamic balance in older adults. Age and
ageing, 41(4), pp.549-552.