I am interested in virtual reality. This is a new technology, and I became interested in how it is being used. I found three ways I’d like to talk about: Education, Gaming, and Journalism.
Education
The “World of Comenius” is an educational virtual reality environment. The purpose of this environment is to simulate the teaching of 17th Century Czech science educator, John Amos Comenius. The project is to demonstrate how future educational applications might present ideas, and allow users to interact with learning materials.
Gaming
A popular use for virtual reality is gaming. Popular virtual reality games in 2015 included ones that were set in historical fantasylands, with dungeons and fairies. There was also a popular game called Minecraft, where you can build different buildings. Another game that was featured in 2015 was a car driving game where you can pretend you are racing.
Journalism
This TED talk describes an application of virtual reality in journalism. One of the things they did was create a virtual reality experience based on a real event, where a man standing in line for a food bank collapsed into diabetic coma. This was helpful to illustrate for people exactly how horrible this situation can be.
Conclusion
2015 was an exciting year for new applications in virtual reality. It will be interesting to see what happens in 2016 and beyond!
Images by Dave Pape,
