[WEB SITE] Top 10 Virtual Reality Applications In Today’s World

by Anch | 26 August 2019

The premise of virtual reality has always been exciting. Slip-on a pair of goggles or a headset, and you’re on your way to another world. Unlike at the cinema or in front of your TV screen, you’re free to interact with your surroundings and wander wherever you please.

VR exploded into public consciousness around the same time as the personal computer in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Back in those days, however, the difference between the real world and the pixel-heavy digital landscapes of the time was too great for everyone but for the most hardcore fans. As a result, VR was more or less put on the backburner for a couple of decades.

However, the birth of the Oculus Rift in 2012 and its subsequent purchase by Facebook in 2014 led to a renewal of interest in virtual reality applications. It also served as an uptick in virtual reality recruitment as companies cottoned on to the medium’s vast potential.

How Does Virtual Reality Work?

So, how does virtual reality work? Nowadays, virtual reality is implemented using computer technology via tools such as headsets, goggles, treadmills, and handsets. These tools stimulate our senses to create an illusion of reality. This is far more complicated than it seems: human physiology is calibrated to provide a finely synchronized experience, and if anything is ‘odd’, our bodies will usually let us know via unpleasant sensations such as nausea or motion sickness. A successful virtual reality experience involves careful synchronicity of software, hardware, and of our senses. The most memorable virtual reality uses are those that enable us to interact naturally with our surroundings with no latency or glitches that could create a feeling of artificiality.

This leads us to ask ourselves, “Why do we go to all that trouble to create these highly technical worlds that just aim to imitate reality?” The truth is, virtual reality applications are numerous and beneficial across many fields.

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Ten Most Exciting Applications Of Virtual Reality

1.  Entertainment

Entertainment is an obvious application of virtual reality. Who wouldn’t want to slip on a headset and escape into another world?

The first thing that comes to mind is gaming. It is a historical virtual reality application that is still very much among the main VR uses today. Other entertainment forms are however hot on its heels. While 3D cinema has been around for quite a while now, the rise of VR headsets is providing users with immersive cinema experiences without them even having to leave the house. Apps such as Oculus Cinema enable viewers to watch movies on their very own virtual screen. At the same time, developers are working on software that will enable sports fans to cheer on their favorite teams from the comfort of their couches. An example is LiveLike VR’s virtual stadium.

Using virtual reality, music lovers can attend concerts and festivals taking place on the other side of the world. Moreover, those who have been bitten by the travel bug can wander sunny beaches without leaving their front yard. What’s not to love?

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2.  Training

It is essential for military personnel to gain first-hand experience of the terrain of their deployment. Likewise, when you get on a commercial flight, you assume your pilot has mastered the aircraft and can respond appropriately in any kind of emergency. But have you ever wondered how rookie soldiers and pilots get in their training hours without putting themselves in danger?

Some activities are just too dangerous, impractical, or expensive for beginners to be able to practice them from the get-go. This is where VR comes in. Virtual reality education companies offer software aimed at training new personnel. The US military uses virtual reality simulators to train soldiers before deployment. These VR simulators enable them to practice working together in the kind of environments they will come up against. Likewise, flight simulators are used to train new pilots or refresh their knowledge before they can get before the controls of a real-life plane.

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 3. Healthcare

With elevated costs, a tendency towards personnel shortages, and people’s lives at stake, the healthcare industry is generally quick to adopt exciting new tech that can boost efficiency and improve performance. Virtual reality is no exception.

Medical institutions can use VR to make diagnoses and define treatments. Some VR simulators are now able to use images from MRIs or CAT scans to create 3D models of a patient’s anatomy. The training applications of virtual reality enable trainee doctors to practice surgery with no risk to patients. Moreover, they can help more experienced ones to determine the safest way to operate.

There are other interesting virtual reality applications in the healthcare industry beyond surgery and diagnoses. For rehabilitation of stroke and brain injury victims, healthcare industries use VR. It provides virtual exercises to help patients gain independence in everyday activities, aided by real-time feedback.

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4. The Arts

Fans of the performing arts will probably find the idea of a screen between the artist and audience a strange one. However, there are many exciting virtual reality applications when it comes to theatre, opera, dance, circus, and other performing art forms that are characterized by their fleetingness. That is, you have to be there on the night, or else, it’s gone forever. VR enables you to watch a live performance at any time you please. You can even be in the best seat in your house. Why not even from the middle of the stage if you’re feeling adventurous?

There are many other virtual reality applications when it comes to the arts. Directors can create a stage set before they build it. Applications such as Tvori enable you to create 3D animations that you can walk around. The possibilities are endless!

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5. Meditation

According to the World Health Organization, stress is the health epidemic of the 21st century. Furthermore, many seem to think that tech is part of the problem. But what if it was also part of the solution? Apps along the lines of Calm and Headspace already enable you to take a break wherever you happen to be. Moreover, VR is promising to add an extra dimension to your meditation experience.

One of the hardest things about meditation for people who are just starting their meditation journey is learning to just “let go”. Virtual reality meditation apps make that all easier by allowing you to slip on your headset and instantly slip into another world.

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6. Mental Health

Virtual reality applications help you relax and let go. Likewise, its applications include therapeutic tools for people who have been through traumatizing experiences or suffer from debilitating stress, PTSD, or phobias.

Virtual reality can provide a safe virtual environment. This enables patients to come into contact with the source of their phobias or fears without endangering themselves. Moreover, interesting advances have already made notably in the field of treatment for war veterans suffering from PTSD.

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7. Marketing

AI-powered data analysis is enabling digital marketers to tailor experiences to fit individual tastes like never before. At the same time, consumers are constantly bombarded with advertising. It means that banner blindness is becoming a real problem – and that’s before we even mention adblockers.

VR is a gamechanger for marketers. It enables them to provide exciting, immersive experiences with high entertainment value. In the UK, the cheese manufacturer, Boursin, recently offered a delightful virtual reality exhibit. Users were taken on a journey through a fridge filled with tasty treats, complete with wind simulators for an even more immersive experience.

8. Shopping

Imagine that you’re wandering through a fashionable SoHo boutique looking to pick out a new accessory, and at the same time on your couch several hundred miles away in your pajamas.

Online retailers are now part and parcel of our day-to-day life and are looking to get a make-over. Thanks to the power of VR. The VR start-up Trillenium creates virtual stores for online retailers and has already partnered with the likes of ASOS, one of Europe’s biggest online retailers. Instead of clicking their way through online catalogs, shoppers can go on a virtual tour of a store for a real-time shopping experience. They can even share it with their friends.

9. Journalism

Another exciting virtual reality application is on journalism and online media. VR is enabling media outlets to create immersive storytelling experiences that give the viewer the impression of truly being part of the action. Major players such as the Washington Post and the New York Times are now entering the VR field by offering 360° reports and documentaries. The New York Times made a big splash in 2014 by sending Google Cardboard headsets to its subscribers for them to use with their smartphones.

 10. Architecture

Another exciting application of virtual reality is in architecture. This is for being able to offer their clients virtual walkthroughs, a great way for firms to showcase their projects compared to more traditional 3D projection. It is by giving clients a true sense of space and design.

The potential uses of virtual reality are widespread and diverse, spanning everything from entertainment to healthcare and from journalism to digital marketing. With technology becoming cheaper and more widely available, we can expect to see many more exciting virtual reality applications in the years to come. Stay tuned!

 

via Top 10 Virtual Reality Applications In Today’s World | Robots.net

[Editorial] E-Rehabilitation: New Reality or Virtual Need?

 

Journal of Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Mental Health

This is an era of digitalization, internet, wifi, use of mobile and smart phones, virtual world, applications and technology. On one hand these are contributing to cyber psychopathology, on the other hand these have a potential for management.

With the understanding of disability as a complex interaction between the effects of illness and contextual factors, both personal and environmental, the relevance of new avenues to deliver rehabilitative services is profound. A significant proportion of the population is underserved, with the National Mental Health Survey of India 2016- a survey which covered 34,802 individuals from 12 states of India- showing a mental morbidity of 10.6% in those over the age of 18 years, and 7.3% in those between the ages of 13 and 17, but with a treatment gap of 28–83% (and 86% for alcohol use disorders). In addition, “three out of four persons with a severe mental disorder experienced significant disability in work, social and family life” [1]. Given the extent of the need and the dearth of services, the report recommends the following, “Technology based applications for near-to-home-based care using smart-phone by health workers, evidence-based (electronic) clinical decision support systems for adopting minimum levels of care by doctors, creating systems for longitudinal follow-up of affected persons to ensure continued care through electronic databases and registers can greatly help in this direction. To facilitate this, convergence with other flagship schemes such as Digital India needs to be explored” [1]. Recent data has shown that smartphone user base in India has crossed 300 million users in 2016, making it the second largest smartphone market in the world [2]. The potential for service delivery via internet enabled devices seems likely only to rise over time, but what are the possibilities before us now, and equally important, what are the challenges to such approaches?

An exploration of the role of modern technology in rehabilitation in January, 2016, has highlighted the various possibilities in terms of social networking and peer support, telepsychiatry, E health services as well as smartphones and apps [3]. It’s interesting that estimates at the time alluded to smartphone users crossing the 200 million mark in 2016, a 100 million users less than later estimates! Looking ahead these are the ways new and emerging technologies could change the ways we approach and conceptualise recovery,

1. (a)

   Information access: Access to information and more specifically, access to relevant and accurate information have to potential to allow caregivers and patients to recognise mental health issues early, and seek help. Some of this information will be from traditional media, such as radio and television, but a significant proportion of people are likely to glean this information from social media sites and communication apps—such as the almost ubiquitous Whatsapp—on which they also consume other services and obtain their daily news and information from. Search algorithms and the way they rank different sources of information are likely to play an important role in the way people form their opinions about the illnesses they suffer from and the way they seek help. There is a need for curated information on mental health, especially in the Indian context and in vernacular languages, that people can not only refer to themselves, but which they can direct their friends and family toward as reliable sources of information too. Health care professionals must be prepared to help their patients learn ‘eHealth literacy’ [4].
2. (b)

   Automation: Work is something that most people with mental illness aspire to do, and this can enhance their quality of life significantly [5]. Automation and applications of artificial intelligence are poised to change the face of industry as well as our lifestyles. Some traditional jobs such as fabrication and driving are poised to radically change. This will mean that vocational rehabilitation programmes will have to keep pace with a changing environment, and look to integrating industry expertise in the designing of courses and course materials which remain relevant to patients. Government programmes such as the Skill India initiative have the potential to help evolve this flexibility in course design, and to skill or re-skill persons in their quest to obtain and sustain jobs.

   Workplace is being replaced by home based workstations, computers, laptops and notebooks. People accustomed to these run their office from anywhere and everywhere. There will be a need to redefine ‘work place’ as ‘where ever the laptop is’. Thus, in future, persons undergoing rehabilitation, can ‘work from home’, provided they have the facilities, and job to do. Staying and working from home for persons with mental health problems, will prevent them from ‘live’ socialising, using social skills, and giving respite to family caregivers. On the other hand, they would be under direct supervision of the family, reducing their concerns and anxieties.
3. (c)

   Digital identities and digital payments: With the increasing digitisation of access to services, there is a growing need for education in digital literacy and security. Programmes which teach life skills will have to help their users familiarise themselves with the advantages of new technologies as well as the risks they bring. A number of records related to disability are likely to form parts of central databases, such as the Unique Disability ID [6], and the potential to offer a number of services through a single user interface to those with disability is significant. It would also ease the accessing of such benefits even when patients travel or move to other states, whether temporarily or permanently. The storage of health records in electronic formats, e-health records, would allow patients to exert control over access to their own records and enable transfers from one healthcare provider to another without delay or loss of information. An e-health record format which is shared among different providers and which allows different hospital information systems to effectively share information is an important need. There can be a possibility to maintain a central registry of persons receiving mental health rehabilitation services.
4. (d)

   Wearables and digital phenotyping: The mobile devices and other wearable accessories we use have the potential to collect vast amounts of information about our health. Newer approaches look to collect information such as changes in the speed of our typing or motor movements, or the searches we repeat and use these to make estimates about the status of our cognitive and neurological health in real time–an approach called digital phenotyping. This could aid in monitoring persons suffering from dementia or mild cognitive deficits. It could also be used to explore trajectories of development in children and adolescents, and could help inform early intervention programmes. Over and above monitoring, the use of digital assistants could be used to guide and shape behaviour in real time, provide cognitive aids and reduce dependency as well as the burden on caregivers for some tasks.
5. (e)

   Virtual Reality and Augmented reality: Virtual reality (VR) refers to an interactive immersive experience wherein a computer generated world which a user can interact with is simulated with either a screen or a heads-up display. Augmented reality systems allow perception of the environment around along with the simulated projection. It’s also used to refer to situations where mobile phones or wearables can be used to interact with the environment around to either generate a virtual experience or provide additional information.

   It’s been used as an application for interventions in phobias for some time. Recent gains in the technology have coincided with an expansion of uses to cognitive rehabilitation, social skills training and even craving management in alcohol use disorders [7]. The number of mental health professionals available to deliver these services is low compared to demand and unequally distributed. With the evolution of mobile systems that can deliver VR experiences, such as the Google Daydream platform, it may be possible to translate some of these packages into content that can be delivered across such platforms with fidelity. There is still some work to be done about how perception of such experiences can affect symptoms in those with mental illness, and even if the same visual illusions are perceived differently.
6. (f)

   Social networks, communication apps and peer support: Social networks and social media increasingly influence information access and viewpoints. They can serve as accepting communities to which people can feel as if they belong. They can also carry risks, including the spread of myths and misconceptions. Peer support groups, much like other networks, are now easier to form and to find. Hence, the potential for persons with mental illness to be involved in advocacy movements and to influence public policy is unprecedented, if still underutilised. The ability to use social networks and the internet to market products and expand networks can help those who chose to be entrepreneurs have greater reach and exposure. The ability to use these networks effectively, and other marketing skills, would also become a skill set that requires mentoring in.
7. (g)

   The use of learning networks: Virtual classrooms and virtual learning networks have the potential to raise standards of care delivery by spreading best care practices and knowledge. Initiatives like the ECHO network and the Virtual Knowledge Network, NIMHANS can help spread the expertise of institutes by mentoring professionals who are involved in care delivery. They can also serve as ways to allow different institutes to demonstrate their own best practices and innovative models of service delivery to their peers.

The future of psychiatric practice, including psychiatric rehabilitation, in relation to virtual reality, technology and gadgets is likely to change with advances in technology and their usage [8]. While the tools that are available are changing, they will still be guided by the principles that form the bedrock of good practice in rehabilitation. Patients and their families may be drawn to online resources for rehabilitation.

The current issue of the journal is rather healthy with seventeen articles. And there is a good global distribution as well, with descriptions of mental health and rehabilitation services in Vietnam, Nigeria, USA, UK, Canada, Malaysia, and Iran. These have also covered a wide range of themes, from recovery scales, models for community based rehabilitation and community participation, in patient services, first episode psychosis, helping mothers with intellectual disabilities, and infertility. In addition, a book review on a very useful book on challenges of care giving for mental illness, cover an interesting spectrum of articles.

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Source: E-Rehabilitation: New Reality or Virtual Need? | SpringerLink