Introduction To Virtual Reality

Virtual reality refers to the capability of simulating normal, abnormal, dangerous or unforeseen
events, scenes, and situations in which the human mind can participate, interact, and exist. It
allows one to be actually present in a virtual environment of destruction without inflicting any
injury to anyone. Thisr67 can be created by the computers using various sensors that work on
human responses and not on programs.
Virtual reality can, thus, be defined as “a way for humans to visualize, manipulate and interact
with computers and extremely complex data”. The idea is to show the user or viewer, a computer
generated environment that can be adjusted according to the user and his/her movements.
It is a high – end user interface that involves real – time 3D simulations and interactions through
position and motion tracking, stereo audio and video and feedback technique.

Comparison between Animation and Virtual Reality

The computer animation sequences are developed on a frame – by – frame basis, which when
played back at a suitable speed, create the desired animation. On the other end, virtual reality is
a real time environment where animated movement is a natural feature of the experience.

Summary
Virtual Reality is a term that refers to a computer generated environment where sight, sound, and
sometimes even touch are simulated to create pictures, sounds, and objects that actually seems
real. Virtual reality uses Head Mounted Displays, or gloves; gesture tracks; and 3 – dimensional
sounds.

Requirements in VR Systems
VR systems uses a mode of interaction which is possible with immersive real – time computer
graphics systems. Therefore the primary requirement of any computer system intended for VR
applications is that it should be able to update images at high speed. This speed should not be
slower than conventional video frame refresh rates which are 25 Hz for PAL and 30 Hz.

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Types of VR system
VR systems can be divided into 3 groups:
 Immersive
 Non – immersive
 Hybrid

Immersive VR Systems
Replaces our view of a real world with the computer – generated images that react to the
position and orientation of the user’s body. For example 3D movies.

Non – Immersive VR Systems

Leaves the user visually aware of the real world but let the user observe the virtual world through
some display device such as a graphics workstation.

Hybrid VR Systems
Permits the user to view the real world with virtual images superimposed over this view. For
example, a surgeon’s view of a brain surgery is overlaid with images from earlier CT scans and
real – time ultrasound.

Levels of VR system
Depending upon the hardware and software used in a VR system, it can be classified into
various levels as follows:

Entry VR (EVR)
Uses a PC or workstation and implements a Wow system (Window on a World: complete VR
displayed on a computer – screen). It includes graphics display, 2– dimensional input device
(keyboard, mouse, memory, hard disk).

Basic VR (BVR)
Next level VR which adds some basic interaction and display enhancements like input / output
control.

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Immersion VR (IVR)
Adds some type of immersive display system. E.g., Head Mounted Displays. Also adds some
form of touch, feedback, or force interaction mechanisms.

Big Time VR (EVR)

More advanced systems acts as a substitute for different input devices and simulation systems.

Intelligent Multimedia System

The concept of a multimedia system consists of an integrated environment with a human –
computer interface designed as an intelligent agent. The human – computer interaction should be
based on the model in which two people or more communicate naturally.

Intelligent VR software systems supports the following issues:

 It should be 3 – dimensional and interactive.
 It must use one or more devices in an attempt to provide the user with a sense of presence,
be it visual, or auditory.

An intelligent multimedia system should have the ability to:

 Conduct a dialogue with the user.
 Maintain knowledge and belief models to enable the system to understand user inputs and
compose system outputs.
 Maintain knowledge base of information
 Act as an intelligent assistant for accessing and using application system.
 Decide on how information and responses are to be presented to the user.

VR Operating System
An operating system is a software of programs designed to run other programs on a computer.
It is software, consisting of programs and data, that runs on computers and manages the
computer hardware and provides common services for efficient execution of various application
software.
In VR, the computer generates visual, auditory or there sensual outputs to the user of a “World

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within computer”. The user can interact with the world and directly manipulate objects within
the world. Some worlds are animated by other processes also like physical simulations or simple
animation scripts. A VR operating system should support light weight shared memory processes.
This will minimize the time required for context switching and inter process communication. The
operating system should be capable of assuming that high priority processes can be serviced at
very short and regular intervals. Some systems uses a conventional computer monitor to display
the visual world (Desktop VR).
A virtual environment is an interactive visual simulating system which rightly integrate real
dimension, 3 – dimensional computer graphics, wide angle stereoscopic displays, hand and
gesture tracking, natural sound, and voice input / output technologies to create realistic synthetic
environment for users.
VR with the evolutions of silicon technology, personal computers and workstations have gained
more computing power with less cost. By carefully exploring the parallelism among various
tasks of a VR system, one can easily interconnect several computers by networking and
employing pipeline techniques to design a high performance virtual environment over
distributed low – end computers.

Virtual mounted display

Head Mounted Displays

Virtual Reality proposes a totally new interface for human – computer interaction. Keyboard is
replaced by interactive gloves and computer screen is replaced by a head slaved, head mounted
display or HMD.
HMDs includes helmets or face masks that holds the visual and auditory displays. These uses
special optics to focus and stretch the perceived field of view (FoV). The various requirements
for HMDs are as follows:
HMDs must have a resolution and FoV that approaches the reliability of the human visual
system.
HMDs must be smaller, lighter and non – tethered (not joint/non - tied).
HMDs require a position tracker in addition to the helmets.
Low cost HMDs uses LCD displays whereas expensive HMDs use special CRTs mounted

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alongside the head or optical fibers to pipe the images from non – head mounted displays.
Limitations / Side effects of HMDs:
Wearers of HMDs suffers stress because they are unable to utilize eye convergence (convergence
is the simultaneous inward movement of both eyes toward each other, usually in an effort to
maintain single binocular vision in which both eyes are used together when viewing an object)
and accommodation when viewing virtual objects at different distances.
Applications of HMDs:
The major application of HMDs is Military pilots for integrating navigational and tactical data
with out – of – cockpit scenes. Another application may include commercial market.

Haptic Displays
Haptic describes the human sensory domain of touch and force. It includes the sensory
information obtained from holding an object like surface textures as well as attributes such as
temperature, wetness, stickiness, tension and force.
Haptic displays are available in the form of gloves, fitted with pressure pads which are magnified
to simulate the wearer’s fingertips. Such devices may be categorized into two types based on
the different types of interfaces:
A ground surface interface (for feet): These permit the user to experience the active sensations of
walking, running, climbing, etc. in a constrained space.
A surface pads (for hand): These devices permit the user to read information stored in the
computer by experiencing, for example, vibrations from the pad.

Classic Virtual reality HMD with glove

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Auditory Displays
Auditory devices are those used to play sound(s) to the user. Auditory devices are based on two
techniques:
In the first technique, auditory displays presents sound which exhibit the same spatial (like
velocity) and temporal (sequential) patterns as when listening to sounds in a natural environment.
For example, an illusion of the self – rotation simulated by a sound field rotating around the head
of a stationary object.
The second technique uses the cognitive cuing where, for example, visually induced self –
motion is augmented by the sound of a virtual wind or engine aircraft. Here cue is a signal that
stimulates a person to exhibit a previously learned behavior pattern. Hence cuing is the process
of manipulating the previous pattern to create a new pattern.

There are no hard and fast rules about VR modeling systems. VR systems depend upon a range
of different systems to address various applications. Interactive modeling environment varies
from different applications like office environment, airport scene.
Features of VR Modeling Systems:
Libraries. Modeling systems must provide the user with a variety of tools to select shapes and
objects from a system library. System library may include the following:
Shape library, that holds parametric definitions of circles, arcs, squares, etc.
Object Library contains cubes, boxes, spheres, etc.
Interactive commands are available to delete or insert vertices, reverse a vertex sequence in a
facet (component/part/surface) or delete a facet.
Standard tools such as extruding (process of shaping an object by forcing through a die) and
sweeping (brush off, away, means cleaning up the objects) are also used to construct more user
– specific objects.
Object Sorting. In order to speed up the rendering process, proper rendering sequence is
required in modeling environments. Thus Object sorting is provided for proper sequencing of
objects.
Surface Attributes. These provides the various attributes related to the surface of the objects that

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needs to make the objects in virtual environment look real. These includes color, texture,
positioning, scaling, transparency.
Lighting. Different lighting effects may be used to illuminate the entire environment or specific
objects. Depending upon the requirements of the application, the light sources can be directional,
point or spot light.
Dynamic Vertices. Dynamic vertices allows vertices to be animated between two end points. An
in between tweening procedure determines a sequence of in-between shapes. When they are
rendered in a sequence at a faster speed, it creates an animated effect.

Physical Simulation. The real problem in designing intelligent VR software systems for
simulating physical behavior arises in case of interface design. VR system will not be able to
support every type of physical behavior used in stop – frame animation. With the
advancements in Virtual environment technologies, it may be possible in the future to interact
with a complex virtual environment in real time. Designers of VR software try to include
procedures that animate the virtual environment with credible simulated behavior.

In today’s world, virtual environment is used in various fields of applications. Few of these are
discussed below:
Telepresence. It is the capability to interact in a distant environment using robotic technology.
For example, exploring a planet.
Teleconferencing. It is the interactive electronic technology for communication among two or
more people at different sites that are geographically separated from each other.
Engineering and Architecture. In architectural engineering, clients can see, touch, or walk
inside and around virtual buildings, planes, automobiles, and other such products that don’t yet
exist in the real physical world. Machines, cars, automobiles can also be designed in virtual
space, and engineers can test their applicability and utility before they are actually fabricated.
Medicine and Surgery. A surgeon could practice a procedure with a virtual patient or a medical
student could literally take a tour through the human body virtually.
Science, Education and Training. Educational applications may include medical tours, meeting

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long – dead historical figures and walking through an ancient city or even on surface of another
planet. Also trainees can experience situations that would be too dangerous or expensive if
simulated in real environment.
Entertainment and Games. Entertainment may include various 3 dimensional movies and games.

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