Virtual Reality

Virtual reality (VR) is a technology that creates a three-dimensional computer-generated simulated

environment. A person can interact with VR using electronic devices such as goggles, headsets, gloves, or
bodysuits. VR attempts to create an illusory environment that can be presented to our senses with
artificial information, making our minds believe that it is (almost) a reality. Unlike AR, VR creates a
completely immersive experience for the user.
Using sensors of various types, a VR environment responds to the user’s movements and adjusts views
and perspectives in real-time. VR also enables users to touch and manipulate virtual objects by way of
data gloves equipped with force-feedback devices. This is how a VR creates the illusion of being in a real
environment.
The Difference between VR and AR
AR and VR are both known for their enriched and interactive experiences with rich 3-D visuals.
However, there are some differences between the two. The following table summarizes the major
differences between the two technologies.
Table 2.1 the difference between Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality

Application of VR and AR
The potential areas of application of AR and VR are very wide. The interactive nature of these
technologies, however, makes them more attractive to areas such as education, healthcare, and
entertainment. The following are examples of the application of AR and VR within the three
areas.
Education: AR and VR have a wide array of uses in education and enable to learn-on-the go
using real-time instructions. They also make learning interactive and fun. Among the reasons
why such technologies are very useful in education include:
 They allow students to travel in time and space and see historical events in a very
interactive manner.
 AR allows students to learn various things more concretely. For example, students can
see the different organ systems visually and interactively.
  The complexity of some concepts can be reduced when presented in a three-dimensional
interactive manner.
 They are a good alternative in an environment where resources are scarce such as
laboratory equipment.
 Learning will be made possible from anywhere using relatively more accessible devices
like smartphones.
 Students can get connected interactively with students from different parts of the world.
This helps to instill desirable values like empathy and collaboration in students.
Healthcare: there are numerous AR and VR applications implemented in the medical industry.
Some of the applications in use today include:
 Physicians and medical students are trained and taught using AR/ VR technologies. The
technologies allow them to learn life-saving operations like surgery in a risk-free
environment.
 AR improves disease diagnosis in a manner that is less invasive and pain-free for the
patient.
 By helping surgeons visualize the patient’s muscles, bones, and internal organs, AR
supports a surgical procedure in a low-risk and much more accurate way.
 Tele-surgery, which is conducted with the patient and the surgeon being in different
locations, is supported by VR.
 VR can be used to distract patients from stressful experiences caused by prolonged
recuperation in hospitals. Such patients can use VR headsets to focus on entirely different
things and make their medical treatment less stressful.

Figure 2.22 Example of augmented reality (A) and virtual reality (B) in healthcare
Entertainment: this is another area where the use of AR and VR has become very popular. The
following are some examples of the application of AR and VR in entertainment:
  By adding computer-generated data on artifacts in art galleries and museums, AR creates
a very interactive and enjoyable experience for visitors.
 VR movie theatres equipped with individual armchairs that have extra gear, glasses,
helmets, or tools for aroma injections can create a completely new and immersive
experience for movie fans.
 VR and AR components can be added to amusement parks to help visitors enjoy their
visit more.
 Different manufacturers are introducing numerous AR applications which present gamers
with new ways to interact with the real world. The rise in the number of mobile gamers
has also created a demand for augmented reality games.

Figure 2.23 Example of augmented reality (A) and virtual reality (B) in entertainment
2.3. Data Science
The amount of data that is being generated by organizations from different sources is growing
exponentially. In order to properly utilize such an enormous amount of data in a manner that
ensures competitiveness, an appropriate type of approach or method on how to use data is
required. Data science provides the tools and techniques that are used by organizations to take
advantage of the vast amount of data that they own.
Data Science is a blend of tools, algorithms, and machine learning (ML) principles used to
discover and extract hidden patterns. It is an interdisciplinary field that includes areas such as
statistics, mathematics, and computer science. Data science employs various tools at different
stages in finding valuable solutions. A professional who is charged with the responsibilities of
the activities involved in data science is known as a data scientist. Data scientists use different
types of algorithms to turn data into useful insights.
 Figure 2.24 Data science disciplines
The concept of big data is strongly associated with data science. Big data refers to a huge volume
of data that cannot be processed using traditional methods, and it is characterized by volume,
variety, and velocity. For example, in 2020 Facebook generated 4 petabytes of data every day —
that is a million gigabytes. Data science applies mathematical and statistical approaches and
computer tools for processing big data.

Figure 2.25 Characteristics of big data

The insights generated through data science tools and techniques apply to almost all fields. In
manufacturing, for example, data science can be used to forecast product demand that will be
used to determine the precise amount of raw material that needs to be ordered. The
personalization of information on social media is achieved through the use of data science tools
on the massive amount of data that social media companies collect from their users. Weather
predictions in the agricultural sector, preventive medicine in health care, and risk management in
business are but a few examples to mention about the areas where data science has improved
results to a great extent.
The application of data science in sites like social networking sites involves the collection of
large amounts of user data. But this sometimes creates tension with the issue of privacy,
especially in countries where there are strong privacy regulations. Data anonymization and data
generalization are some of the ways suggested for tackling issues of data protection and privacy.
Data anonymization refers to removing personally identifiable information from data, while data
generalization is about bunching data into broad categories such as age groups and geographical
areas. As these approaches limit the level of insight that companies generate from data, privacy
remains to be a contentious issue.
2.2.3 Limitations of Cloud Computing
Cloud computing are not without their limitations. However, It’s critical to weigh both the
benefits and limitations of a new service before choosing if it is the best fit for us. Below are
some of the limitations of cloud computing:
Server downtime – No cloud provider can guarantee that you will not have service
interruptions, which will prevent you from accessing your data or files. Because cloud
computing is dependent on an Internet connection, if it goes down, so will your cloud services.
Security and privacy issues – When it comes to handling sensitive data, companies are always
concerned about how safe and private it is. There is still a risk of intruders, even though a cloud
provider would have security processes in place to ensure that your data is maintained and
protected properly. Intruders are constantly attempting to find new ways to break into cloud
providers’ systems in today’s digital world. Therefore, cloud computing services are not
completely safe.
Data ownership and transparency – Companies may think that there is a lack of transparency
concerning data ownership. Does data that is uploaded to a cloud computing system become the
cloud provider’s property? Another concern is lack of data openness. Companies may be
concerned about how their data is managed and whether it is being compromised or not.
Inflexibility – Some cloud computing providers may take a corporation off guard by requiring
the usage of their applications and formats. For example, they can limit that a corporation can
only upload data developed in a specific application program. Because the cloud provider has
complete control over your cloud service infrastructure, they have ultimate authority over how
your data is handled.
Lack of support – Cloud-based services, in comparison to other hosting services and providers,
provide minimal to no customer assistance. Customers who are unable to contact cloud providers
by phone or email frequently turn to Internet forums for answers to their questions.
Cost – Another disadvantage of this service is the unknown fees. Although cloud hosting
eliminates the need for on-site infrastructure, it is often necessary to ensure that you are paying
for all of the features that your organization needs to get the most out of the service. A cloud
computing service can become costly in this regard.
Types of Cloud Computing
There are mainly four types of cloud computing available currently, namely: 1. public cloud 2.
private cloud 3. hybrid cloud 4. community cloud
Public cloud– It is a standard cloud computing model where a service provider’s resources are
shared across different clients (See Figure 2.19). For example, if you rent 10GB of public cloud
storage, you will get the requested capacity of a disk from a bigger chunk of a single storage
device that is logically divided into small parts and distributed to multiple users isolated to make
it private across different clients.

Private cloud – As the name indicates, the private cloud has all resources dedicated to your
application. It can be either from a cloud service provider or your company’s data center. It gives
complete control over data security and privacy. The private cloud provides an additional layer
of protection to process sensitive and confidential information

Community cloud – It is a collaborative, multi-tenant platform used by several distinct

organizations to share the same applications. The users are typically operating within the same
industry or field and share common concerns in terms of security, compliance, and performance
In essence, a community cloud is a private cloud that functions much like a public cloud. The
platform itself is managed privately, either in a data center or on-premises. Governmental
institutions, healthcare facilities, financial services companies, and other professional
communities frequently use these solutions.
Hybrid cloud – It is the combination of public cloud and private cloud. You can host your
public service in the public cloud, and confidential and data-related services in the private cloud.
It offers a very flexible and comprehensive benefit of both models (See Figure 2.21).

2.2.5 Cloud Computing Services

There are several cloud computing services. The three major cloud computing services are: -
Software as a Service (SaaS) - Platform as a Service (PaaS) - Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)

Different businesses use some or all of these components according to their requirements.
Software as a Service (SaaS) - SaaS is a software distribution model in which applications are
hosted by a vendor or service provider and made available to customers over a network or the
Internet. SaaS is becoming an increasingly prevalent delivery model as underlying technologies
supports of web services. Through the Internet, this service is available to users anywhere in the
world. Traditionally, software applications needed to be purchased upfront and then installed
onto your computer. SaaS users on the other hand, , subscribe to it, usually on a monthly or
yearly basis using the Internet.
SaaS is compatible with all Internet-enabled devices. Many important tasks like accounting,
sales, invoicing, and planning can be performed using SaaS (Figure 2.24).
Examples of SaaS - are Google Workspace, Dropbox, Microsoft Office 365, Slack, Cisco
WebEx, Concur, GoToMeeting, and many more.
Platform as a Service (PaaS) - provides a platform and environment to allow developers to
build applications and services. This service is hosted in the cloud and accessed by the users via
the Internet. To understand this, let us compare it with painting a picture, where you are provided
with paint colors, different painting brushes, and paper by your school teacher, and you just have
to draw a beautiful picture using those tools. Similarly, PaaS provides a platform to support
application development (See Figure 2.25). It includes software support and management
services, storage, networking, deploying, testing, collaborating, hosting, and maintaining
applications.

Examples of PaaS – are Windows Azure, Heroku, Force.com, Google App Engine,
Apache Stratos, OpenShift, and many more.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)- IaaS is one of the fundamental service models of cloud
computing, alongside PaaS. It provides access to computing resources in a virtualized
environment- “the cloud”- on the Internet (See Figure 2.26). IaaS is a complete package for
computing. For small-scale businesses that are looking for cutting costs on IT infrastructure, IaaS
is one of the solutions.

Examples of IaaS are - Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cisco Metapod, Microsoft Azure, Google
Compute Engine (GCE), and many more.