Education is another area which has adopted virtual reality for teaching and learning situations. The advantage of this is that it enables large groups of students to interact with each other as well as within a three dimensional environment.

It is able to present complex data in an accessible way to students which is both fun and easy to learn. Plus these students can interact with the objects in that environment in order to discover more about them.

Virtual reality astronomy

For example, astronomy students can learn about the solar system and how it works by physical engagement with the objects within. They can move planets, see around stars and track the progress of a comet. This also enables them to see how abstract concepts work in a three dimensional environment which makes them easier to understand and retain.

This is useful for students who have a particular learning style, e.g. creative or those who find it easier to learn using symbols, colours and textures.

One ideal learning scenario is medicine: virtual reality can be used to develop surgery simulations or three dimensional images of the human body which the students can explore. This has been used in medical schools both in the UK and abroad.

The use of virtual reality in medicine is discussed in a series of separate articles in the virtual reality and healthcare section.

Virtual reality and tech-savvy children

Then there is the fact that children today are familiar with all forms of technology and use these at school as well as at home. They have grown up with technology from a very early age and unlike adults, do not have any fear or hesitation in using it.

Plus we live in a technological society. So it makes sense to implement virtual reality as one of several forms of technology in order to educate tomorrow‘s technological elite. Education has moved on from books, pencils and pens to the use of interactive technologies to help impart knowledge and understanding.

Better collaboration and product design

Engineers at companies like Caterpillar and General Motors already use VR systems, virtually “creating” products to test design principles, safety, and more. Ford Motor Company over the last seven years has made VR central to its automotive development.

Andrew Connell, CTO of Virtalis, a world-leading virtual-reality company based in the United Kingdom, believes that the use of VR systems in engineering and product design allows people to better understand and interact with product data while also fostering communication between designers, manufacturers, trainers, marketers, and management.

“We kind of trap engineers behind the computer screen now, so they can only touch a product with a mouse,” Connell says. “But we want people to become immersed in their 3D model; to reach in with their hands and really dig about inside a product to explore, learn about, and improve it, while also communicating with others in the organization about that product.”

Virtalis’s Visionary Render VR software allows companies to do just that. Users are able to access and experience, in real-time, an interactive and immersive VR environment created from 3D datasets. Engineers, marketers, project managers, and others involved in a product’s creation can virtually collaborate with each other as avatars.

“The VR systems network people together so they all see the same product on their screens and can have a meeting around this product,” Connell says. “So if somebody in, say Bristol, moves a component, everyone else sees it move. And they’re all immersed with avatars in the virtual worlds.”

The VR environment can be accessed via large virtual displays or on something as small as a desktop system. The end result is that VR allows users to have a natural “physical” interaction with a virtual product to figure out its optimum design, and this interaction in turn progresses into more communication between departments.

“As soon as you make things interactive,” Connell explains, “it can become collaborative, and that’s really important.”