The first thing that comes to the mind when one speaks the word virtual reality tend to conjure up images of a digital world such as those seen in a science fiction movie, or having to put on head gears or using machines to enter a different world like that portrayed in the movie The Matrix. However, there is no actual definition of what virtual reality really is as everyone has different perceptions and understandings. But in actual, virtual reality really just begins with the mind. What your mind imagines, a world or place that takes shape in the mind, is a form of virtual reality. For example, when one reads their mind would form a picture of the place or person described by an author, or say when one dreams, our dreams sometimes seems so real that we would experience deja vu or might even mix up our dreams with reality. These can also considered as virtual reality as it is a made believe world, and we immerse ourselves into it through our mind. The term merely means a world that exist beyond ours, an imagined or made up world. The word 'Virtual' merely means 'almost or very nearly the thing described, so that any slight difference is not important' (Oxford Dictionary).
One of the reasons why it has been closely linked to digital or computer generated environments is because computers help realise the world for the users to view has made it easier to picture a world outside our own, and as present day, even allows the users to be fully immersed in it.
Having computer aid helps put those thoughts to shape to let others see our point of view. The exact year that computers started being used is unknown, but it is believed to be sometime in the 1960s. Ivan Sutherland invented the sketchpad which is a program that he wrote in 1963 for his PhD thesis (thesis could be read here). It allows one to draw directly onto the computer screen with a pen and it revolutionized how one would interact with the computer. He also published an essay titled 'The Ultimate Display', published in 1965 (essay could be read here), whereby he wrote his thought about the future and possibilities of virtual reality which mostly became true.
(To be continued)
No comments:
Post a Comment