Is Virtual Reality the Future of Reality?
Fancy snorkelling in the Great Barrier Reef, kayaking over a waterfall in Iceland or flying over the Las Vegas strip? Well you can without travelling or even leaving your house with virtual reality (VR) technology (but it will still cost you).
Contrary to what many believe, this technology is not new —it was back in the 1950’s that Morton Heilig created the Sensorama, one of the first VR products, an arcade-style cabinet intended to stimulate all of the senses. What is new about VR is the sophistication of the technology involved and how much more affordable the equipment has become. VR technology is now firmly on the consumer market and can be explored through products including HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Wizdish Rovr. An implication of living in a digital world is that VR technology is likely to shape our future society.
Experiencing the New
For me, being a citizen of this digital era comes with exciting possibilities - one of these is experimenting with the interactive technology available. On our Digital Society class ‘field trip’ to Digilab, I tried different VR technology and found the Wizdish Rovr, the most interesting. This piece of equipment involves a VR headset combined with a sort-of-treadmill where you can walk around (well — slide around) in a new reality.
I played PAC-MAN and learnt how realistic the virtual world you enter can be. Andy Boxall, a technology enthusiast, discussed his thought that this form of VR where you can see and ‘walk’ around could be the future of classroom education. However, I think problems arise with this theory including… the serious cost — the minimum for Rovr 1 is approx £500 (not including the headset required!), the equipment taking up space and that it cannot be used by everyone — such as those with certain physical disabilities. Also, the sliding action takes some getting used to (and doesn’t give you the same ‘walking around’ feeling) and there are health and safety concerns. I know first-hand that without the bars surrounding the Wizdish Rovr - I would have immediately ended up on the floor when I tired it. Melissa Woodley commented in Topic C that she also felt she could fall over at any moment during her experience of the Wizdish Rovr.
Will VR be virtually the only way people learn in future…?
VR technology is likely to shape mainstream education and transform how we learn. I remember as a primary school child the excitement I felt when our school had its first interactive whiteboard installed. It seems in the near future children may be feeling the same about VR headsets as they could become commonplace in the classroom. How about a dive into the ocean, accompanied by David Attenborough as your guide? It certainly beats learning about marine life from a textbook, in my opinion anyway, and really gives new meaning to ‘interactive learning’! Other possibilities include use in training medical students or in the military which could improve accuracy, ability and understanding.
So is VR just useful for education and gaming?
The answer is no, VR has so much potential. We live in a world where the global population is expanding. The UN predicts by 2050 there will be approximately 9.7 billion people in the world. That is a lot of people. Digital technology plays a role in decreasing mortality rates in so many ways (such as in epidemiology, diagnostic tools, training and the list continues…). However, it can also alleviate the pressure that is placed on services working to support this vast population. In our class session on smart cities, we learnt the Smart City Council define these as having “digital technology embedded across all city functions”.
We were encouraged to brainstorm imaginative ideas about how we would combat city problems with digital technology and smart city solutions. This led me to think that VR technology could become an integral part of how a smart city meets the needs of its population. Just one example is VR’s application to treat and understand mental health problems, which currently one in four people will experience during their lifetime. There are many ideas of how VR could be used but the main uses could be in the simulation of stressful situations to threat those with anxiety, and for virtual counselling sessions.
A key problem with using VR technology for mental health treatment is there is currently a lack of research into this. The potential is there but more work needs to be done to derive evidence into the result of using this kind of technology.
VR Ethical Considerations
The digital world connects people, with the internet offering endless possibilities and a platform for expression and communication. VR however can almost make people more isolated than connected. Arguably the biggest focus for this technology (currently) is for use in video games - aiming to enhance user experience. However there are problems with this… video game addiction is already a recognised issue leading to problems including depression… would this technology only make that worse?
As Kevin Horner discussed in his post in Topic C, are we going to reach a point where people favour virtual reality to reality? Will we create a world where people spend their lives in an alternative reality — connected by a headset (or a contact lense or a currently unimaginable piece of technology)? Also thinking to the future, VR equipment may cause long term health problems. It has been shown that the equipment may have an effect on long term hand/eye coordination as well as increasing seizures, nausea and eye strain. There is a lack of research and really, the long term consequences are unknown…
REFLECTION
- Overall… we are all citizens of the digital world. It is part of us and we are part of it — whether we like it or not.
How have I been challenged?
Before I started the Digital Society course, I didn’t appreciate how important and interesting the digital world was. I have been challenged to look beyond my original understanding of topics we studied and have learnt there is so much more to the digital society than I first thought. I am not the most confident public speaker and so performing the PechaKucha in front of my peers was also a challenge.
What have I gained?
I think the most important thing I have gained is an appreciation for the digital world around me and an interest in new developments relating to this. Before I started this course I would never bother to read news articles on digital related topics — thinking that they were not relevant to me. Now I regularly check for new stories relating to digital society. I’ve also learnt a lot from our class discussions and discussion posts on Medium. I really enjoyed learning from my fellow classmates and particularly hearing thoughts from people that study different subjects to me. I especially liked hearing how many people around me with fascinated with self driving cars in our Internet of Things session and the long debate we had over ethical questions relating to these!
How may this help me in the future?
This course has made me want a bigger and better digital footprint. It was during Mini Mission 1 and I had googled myself and used SALT.agency to see how I appeared online. There was NOTHING. Using these two methods, I did not appear. I was invisible online. I have often heard that employers look for potential candidates social media so you need to be careful with your online presence. OK, fine. I was being careful…. but I think I was being too careful. I read and heard comments by fellow students that they had been pleased with what they had found. Mini Mission 1 had showed them that their proud achievements, or their impressive Instagram page, were visible online. I decided I needed to make a change — the digital society was something that I was now, after this course, proud of being part of. I needed to create some online content for myself and be more active online. Hopefully next time I google myself (I don’t regularly do this, just to point out), I will be happy with what I find.
Finally, it was from our final class session that focussed on reflection and careers that I saw just how many skills I had developed during the Digital Society course. These skills included: teamwork, online image attribution, writing a blog and making and performing a PechaKucha. I know these will be applicable in many other aspects of my life and I’m glad I have developed them through such an enjoyable course.
