Virtual Reality for Environmental Engineering and Sustainability

Working of Virtual Reality

The capacity to experience a virtual environment through computers is known as virtual reality. Virtual reality applications use interactive devices to send and receive data and immerse the user in a computer-generated environment that simulates reality. These devices can be worn as goggles, headsets, gloves, or body suits. VR is a crucial technology in reality- virtuality continuum. This is not the same as augmented reality (AR), which projects virtual objects onto the physical world. Realistic rendering of the entire area is more difficult in virtual reality. To use virtual reality, position a small screen—typically a highly resolution OLED or LCD panel—close to your eyes. The image is then warped to appear three-dimensional by the addition of stereoscopic lenses. In order to duplicate your activities in the real world in the virtual environment, the headset tracks your head motions and adjusts the in-game images to fit your position and orientation. By sensing the user's motions and adjusting the screen's display accordingly, motion sensors produce the illusion of “being there” (telepresence), usually in real time. This is typically done with a virtual reality headset, which puts one or two displays very near to your eyes and tracks your location to turn it into a virtual environment.

Figure 1.

Working of VR

Therefore, the neuronal activity you experience in the virtual world tricks your brain and body into thinking that what you see and hear is real. It gives you the impression that you are truly experiencing the event.