vol.1 Virtual Magazine issue2 | Page 25

I would love to goto Mars. I would love to climb up the highest mountain, swim with the dolfin, do a free fall from skyscraper, run an Olympics 100 meters, DJ or sing on stage LIVE. Virtual Reality allows me to do those wishes I have and many more without ever being forced to leave home. Unlike real reality, virtual virtual reality means simulating bits of our world (or completely imaginary worlds) using high-performance computers and sensory equipment, like headsets and gloves. Apart from games and entertainment, it's long been used for training airline pilots and surgeons and for helping scientists to figure out complex problems such as the structure of protein molecules.

Virtual reality means blocking yourself off from the real world and substituting a computer-generated alternative. Often, it involves wearing a wraparound headset called a head-mounted display, clamping stereo headphones over your ears, and touching or feeling your way around your imaginary home using datagloves (gloves with built-in sensors).

Virtual reality (VR) means experiencing things through our computers that don't really exist. From that simple definition, the idea doesn't sound especially new. Chris Woodford mentions on his article posted on May 27, 2015:. When you look at an amazing Canaletto painting, for example, you're experiencing the sites and sounds of Italy as it was about 250 years ago—so that's a kind of virtual reality. In the same way, if you listen to ambient instrumental or classical music with your eyes closed, and start dreaming about things, isn't that an example of virtual reality—an experience of a world that doesn't really exist? What about losing yourself in a book or a movie? Surely that's a kind of virtual reality?

If we're going to understand why books, movies, paintings, and pieces of music aren't the same thing as virtual reality, we need to define VR fairly clearly. For the purposes of this simple, introductory article, I'm going to define it as: A believable, interactive 3D computer-created world that you can explore so you feel you really are there, both mentally and physically.

Chris also mentions, virtual reality is essentially:

1.Believable: You really need to feel like you're in your virtual world (on Mars, or wherever) and to keep believing that, or the illusion of virtual reality will disappear.

2.Interactive: As you move around, the VR world needs to move with you. You can watch a 3D movie and be transported up to the Moon or down to the seabed—but it's not interactive in any sense.