The new frontiers of virtual reality
Virtual
reality can change the way individuals and groups interact, and for those
interested in experiencing and sharing its powerful benefits
Virtual
reality (VR) has entered its golden age and now has the potential to help
people experience episodes and incidences, across time periods, from a uniquely
first-person perspective. While VR continues to make its mark on entertainment,
it has immense potential to allow people to experience something
ground-breaking. It equips people to experience being in two realities at once,
making ‘duality of presence’—being present in two ‘worlds’ at once—a
possibility. This extrapolation of VR into reality has an extraordinary
potential to create greater empathy, understanding, compassion, and connection
to the ‘real world’.
Virtual
reality has the capability to make one feel, and the power to make one ‘know’.
By immersing in a ‘real’ experience, VR provides a perspective from prime
sources and acts as a representation of the real world. It has the potential to
positively impact sectors such as healthcare, media and bring immersive
experiences to life.
Immersive
healing
High-resolution
imaging and detection technologies help enable precise, swift, and timely
diagnosis, can limit the number of invasive procedures, and support preventive
care. As an example, VR is currently being used to help patients suffering from
post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Utilizing Bravemind,
a clinical, interactive, virtual reality-based exposure therapy tool, an
immersive and realistic virtual environment as well as unique interactive
scenarios can be recreated. These enable a full-body experience to help
normalize the patients’ experiences, thus fast-forwarding the therapy in some
cases by as much as two to three years.
Immersive
discoveries
VR
opens the avenues to experience places and time periods otherwise inaccessible
to an individual. This feeds into man’s desire for continuous discovery of the
earth, ocean and even the stars. One such example of this is the creation of
Cry Out: The Lonely Whale Experience, an underwater VR expedition. It takes the
viewer into the depths of the sea where they can witness the underwater life
and how pollution has disrupted and injured the delicate ecosystems that create
our oceans. This experience educates individuals about the implication of a
mere ordinary act on climate change.
Immersive
action
VR
has also made an impact on journalism, bringing stories closer to life for
viewers. With video content fast becoming one of the most popular modes of
consumption, many media houses are significantly investing in platforms which
enable a video-first content approach. With a firm foundation of traditional
journalism, experiences are designed which offer viewers a fully embodied
walk-around technology. This offers a virtual but “first-hand” sensation of
being an actual witness as a story unfolds.
Many
media houses internationally have already ventured into virtual journalism and
have produced numerous VR documentaries. With the rapid technological
advancements in India, VR stands at the cusp of altering storytelling forever.
Indian documentaries such as Cost of Coal (India’s first documentary in VR) and
Displaced, planned for release in 2016, are indicative of the potential in the
technology.
What’s
next?
VR
can fundamentally change the way individuals, groups and organizations
interact, and for those interested in experiencing and sharing its powerful
benefits, it offers an exceptional opportunity, perhaps unlike any other
medium. To realise the full potential of VR, pioneering VR headsets and
VR-capable hardware and software are required. This is only possible through
the partnerships and vision of companies and organizations that bring the most
cutting-edge technology to this virtual table. And that’s the reality.
Source | Mint – The Wall Street Journal | 22 December
2016
Regards
Pralhad
Jadhav
Senior
Manager @ Library
Khaitan & Co
No comments:
Post a Comment