Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mixed Reality: The Complete Story
THE HISTORY
All technologies are connected to one another through development from a simpler technology to now. That also includes the realities we know and love today. The ideas for what we now use to game and experience new worlds all started in the 1800s.
In 1838 a new stereoscope was created. This was done by combining two mirrors that were exactly the same to produce a picture on a wall or screen (History of Virtual Reality). Eventually this technology was developed into a View-Master. The View-Master was first invented in 1939 and is still being produced today (History of Virtual Reality). However, it may seem difficult to find how a View-Master can compare to a VR headset, these ideas are what led us to the technology we have now.
In 1956, the Sensorama was thought to being. The idea behind it was to create a simulation for movie goers to have the sensation of being a part of the movie (History of Virtual Reality). The Sensorama created a multi-sensory experience. Everything from vibrations to smells.
1960 was the year of the Telesphere Mask. This device would become the stepping stone for the virtual headsets we have today. The Telesphere Mask was the first design in which a person be standing or sitting (History of Virtual Reality). The mask allowed people to be surrounded by a world, while still enjoying the comforts of their home.
The virtual world first made an appearance in 1965, The Ultimate Display (History of Virtual Reality). This was the next big step to creating the virtual world he have today. It was the first time someone could interact with a world much different than our own and not have it be from a story or movie.
The 1970s and ’80s was a time of technological advances and science fiction. NASA created a virtual world for astronauts to train. This led to a major gain in optical technologies as they perfected how the technology would display different worlds to be more accurate (History of Virtual Reality). This was the first time there was a head mounted device combined with haptics and gloves. The device was a huge step in the direction of virtual reality we have now.
Once virtual reality was solid in stone and not an idea, we have now taken that to devices more accessible. Smart phones paved the way for augmented reality to be brought into existence. However, the start of augmented reality research started in the 1960s (A Brief History of Augmented Reality). It started after the first head-mounted device was created. This was attached to the ceiling above. This was only the start, as a laboratory was dedicated to the creation of augmented reality as we know it.
The first patented augmented reality devices was originally created for the military. The military used these as training devices for their pilots. It allowed for the pilots to see machinery and interact over the real world (A Brief History of Augmented Reality). The first time virtual reality was used for entertainment was an acrobatic performance. Each of the audience members were given an augmented reality unit to watch the acrobats perform against virtual elements. This event then created ideas that we see still used today. One example would be the NFL, the used augmented reality to show plays that teams would do on replays to help the audience understand the game better (A Brief History of Augmented Reality). This helped the technology grow even more. NASA ended up using augmented reality to help pilots in their space craft. They would use an augmented reality display to help show the pilots where they were going when looking at the horizon. It also allowed for a map display to be shown to give the pilot information when flying.
From pilots to military augmented reality has grown leaps and bounds. Augmented reality software programs were put out to the public in the 2000s for developers to tweak and create their own (A Brief History of Augmented Reality). This is when smart phones would come into play and create apps such as pokemon go or apps to help companies spread what they are trying to teach.
Mixed reality is the newer of the realities. It was first defined in the 1990s, but is still being learned about (What is Mixed Reality?). We don’t have any mixed reality devices to the public just yet, it is still being developed in labs. This will help to narrow down the way mixed reality is used. We’ve seen it in movies and stories, but soon it will also make its way into our world soon.
Uses and Unintended Uses for Virtual Reality
For every technology that has been unintended uses. From text messaging to using Facebook for dating. Companies create new ideas for people to use in a certain way, but people always find the loophole to use for their own desires. No matter how much the creators try to prevent the unintended uses, there is always someone who finds this loophole. The virtual, and augmented realities are no different. There are unintended uses from playing to micro-purchases.
One unintended use is the ability to travel to different locations around the world. The travel industry is loving this because they get people wanting to go to the places they saw in VR. However, that was not how VR was intended to be used. VR was intended to be used to be able to communicate to others in a virtual play space. Sometimes that means you could be in space or on some other world. It was never thought of to be used in a way to attract people to go to certain places around the world. Not only was it unintended to be used as a gateway to tourism, but it also is limited in what people can see (Virtual Reality Tourism). You can go to certain places and walk around in that environment, but it is limited to the resources the internet can find. Sometimes those sources can be from videos, but other times it can be from images (Virtual Reality Tourism). Limiting the free roaming only leaves people with a taste of what the place could really feel like. VR also cannot replicate the feeling of walking down the streets with locals or the smells and atmosphere you get with actually being at the location. In the smallest part of your brain you still remember that you are not at the place you are seeing. This then makes it look and feel more disappointing than normal. This limitation leads people to want to travel to these places because they only get a taste from VR. When viewing hotels VR has created a problem. Hotels use images to sweep their flaws under the rug using photoshop. However, if you are in the room inspecting it like you were really there those flaws shine. VR enhances what you see when viewing what a hotel would be like. Some hotels show off just how pristine they are and some really do not like this new way of viewing their hotel (Virtual Reality Tourism). A lot of times this makes the hotels lose more customers and money than if they were viewed on a website.
One problem with VR is that it is too expensive for people to afford most of the time. Since it is a newer technology, at least the VR headset, it can be a little out of people’s price range. As newer headsets come out the price continues to grow. While the older models will decrease in price, the newer models will become even more expensive with newer technology. Even to this day the high end VR headsets cost $1000+ (Why is Virtual Reality so Expensive). The majority of people who get the headset for cheap are influencers who are sponsored. This allows them to have advertisements without much of a cost. It also gives a fake sense of affordability to kids who watch them (Why is Virtual Reality so Expensive). All in all it creates a loop of costs and trying to balance it out. Soon companies are going to try and make the devices cheaper to allow more people to buy their technology (Why is Virtual Reality so Expensive). The hope is quality won’t be the consequence in decreasing the price.
AR comes with it’s own problems. Today AR is mostly used for games such as Pokemon Go to Wizards Unite. Within these games you gather and collect to gain more experience to level up. However if you are impatient there are ways around the long grind. Micro purchases have become a common thing in mobile games. The AR games are no exception. It is how the games create revenue if they don’t show ads. This means users lose many dollars to a game they downloaded for free on their mobile device (Mirco purchases in Pokemon Go). Sometimes this will outweigh some of the normal costs of life. Micro purchases aren’t only for mobile games though. Many consoles have been bringing micro purchases to create a little extra cash. With consoles VR headsets have had the opportunity to have micro purchases. There are many headsets that connect to PS4 or Xbox, and with those games gives the opportunities to make that game “better” or to have an easier time playing by buying levels. All of this creates more problems between AR and VR games.
Effects of the Realities
Technology has become an important part of today’s society. This includes virtual, augmented, and mixed realities. Mixed reality is still a relatively new technology and is not widely known, but they do have tests to show the problems and how to fix mixed reality to be used in daily life. The others (augmented and virtual reality) are used in workplace training and helping people with mental disabilities as therapies.
Mixed reality is new and comes with some problems. Mixed reality is the combination of augmented reality and virtual reality. This means that you have a headset like virtual reality, but with inputs of the real world like augmented reality. The headset then has many sensors and cameras that are required to make this headset work correctly. With the sensors and cameras constantly giving you feedback, you constantly have data streaming in order to give the experience needed for mixed reality. However, data will be constantly streaming the person’s data and very easily picked up by someone else (Mixed Reality Safety). With these problems there are some speculations on what mixed reality can be used for. Mixed reality will eventually be used for training that are hard to make scenarios for. For example, first responder training. There is no way to make a scenario happen without using a virtual or mixed reality world. Mixed reality will help people become more trained and more knowledgeable in their fields (Mixed Reality Safety). Having people well trained with mixed reality will allow for a much safer society.
Augmented reality can affect people not only in the workplace but also their social behaviors. Many researchers have done studies and tests on how people react when having an augmented reality apparatus. Many people will end up not sitting in the chairs where a virtual person is sitting. They do this not entirely realizing that the person isn’t real (Augmented reality affecting people’s behavior). Augmented reality takes the world around us and adds a virtual aspect to it. That’s why games on the phone use augmented reality and there are augmented reality glasses. Augmented reality is used for more than just studies of how people interact with virtual characters, but also as seeing about social behavior. Researchers have seen that people will often treat the virtual characters the same as their co-workers in real life (Augmented Reality affecting people’s behavior). One thing about our species is that we have a tendency to empathize with each other, real or not. However, when people see augmented reality versions of other people they feel as if they are not connected with others (Augmented Reality affecting people’s behavior). With knowing how people empathize, companies have now been using augmented reality to train their employees. These training sessions could consist of situations and scenarios like harassment or shooter situations.
Virtual reality affects people by communication, but also as a way of therapy for mental health issues. Right now there are therapies for phobias and anxiety. The VR headset is able to create scenarios of their anxieties. By creating these worlds and immersing a person into the virtual reality, the person can learn to overcome their fears (Why Virtual Realities is Set to Transform Mental Health Treatment). This technology is still being developed, but it is one thing that virtual reality can help to change now and more in the future. Another therapy is meditation techniques in virtual reality. How this is done is by creating a virtual world with relaxing music and atmosphere. By instructing the patient, the therapist can guide their patient through meditation techniques. After a few sessions the patient should be able to conduct mediation on their own through the virtual mediation world (Why Virtual Realities is Set to Transform Mental Health Treatment). This is to help with both stress and anxiety management. With all the therapy sessions and technology prices can become pretty costly. Especially in the United States, healthcare prices seem to be increasing rather than decreasing. As of 2017 one of the therapy VR systems cost at a minimum of $6,000 and the iPhone version costs $1,000 at the cheapest (Why Virtual Realities is Set to Transform Mental Health Treatment). With this form of therapy being new and still researched, the prices will not drop for a little while yet.
How VR can affect our society in the workplace is quite different than what we originally thought. VR is used in training, especially since the game work simulator came out. There are multiple educational programs that have been created to allow for different training situations (Will Virtual Reality be a Part of Everyday Life?). You can also use VR for recruitment and healthcare. There are many educational programs to show patients about the surgery they are going to have before having the procedure (Will Virtual Reality be a Part of Everyday Life?). Knowing this reduces anxiety before signing the papers for a medical surgery.
There are many ways that the realities become part of our world. We still have a long way to get where it will be fully integrated into our society. We need to fix problems of price and accessibility to everyone, but also our human nature of wanting to feel connected. We may be able to see each other in the virtual world, but it doesn’t replace the quality time we need with each other.
The Future of Virtual Reality
The future is full of possibilities and that is also true for virtual reality. Everything from the advancement of technology we have now to future uses for different industries.
Many prototypes are in the works to make virtual reality more immersive to the player. Technology is advancing bringing more technology to give us ease while playing. It almost looks like the technology they have in the movie Ready Player One (Here’s What the Future of Haptic Technology Looks [Or Rather, Feel]) Like). Many companies are creating technology that has haptic capabilities. Multi directional treadmills, haptic gloves, and haptic vests all exist today, however there are more improvements that need to be done. In order to speak about this technology we need to know the 3 categories of haptic technology (Here’s What the Future of Haptic Technology Looks [Or Rather, Feel]) Like).
The first type of haptic technology is graspable haptics. Most of the time this is paired with joysticks. The haptics can be from a video game and you have some resistance on the joystick to allow for a little more realism or it can be used when controlling robots to feel how efficiently the robot is operating (Here’s What the Future of Haptic Technology Looks [Or Rather, Feel]) Like). This is used in virtual reality with the controllers that come standard with the system. They have buttons and joysticks to allow for the player to move around and feel around the world, but it isn’t as immersive as some other technology. The second type of haptics are wearable haptics (Here’s What the Future of Haptic Technology Looks [Or Rather, Feel]) Like). Wearable haptics take advantage of the nerves on our hands to immerse us into the reality we are participating in. The gloves try to make the person feel the pressure or heat or cold when in a virtual environment. Like the website says a person was able to “feel” the chalk in her hand as she was writing on a virtual chalkboard (Here’s What the Future of Haptic Technology Looks [Or Rather, Feel]) Like). However we may have prototypes of this technology, they are super expensive and only for commercial use. Lastly there is the touchable haptics. A good example of this would be the vibration when opening an app on a phone. Different bumps and buzzes that technology gives off helps to simulate texture that isn’t really there (Here’s What the Future of Haptic Technology Looks [Or Rather, Feel]) Like). Touchable technology would also include when typing and the vibrations or sounds give off the illusion of typing on a real keyboard. These different haptics help to further VR and AR and will be very relevant to virtual worlds in the future.
Haptic technology can go far and wide in the future. I think it will allow us to be fully immersed in the realities we are trying to. One way for that would be haptics, especially wearable haptics. We already have multiple prototypes, however they are only for commercial use or EXTREMELY expensive (Here’s What the Future of Haptic Technology Looks [Or Rather, Feel]) Like). I think in the future that these devices will become smaller and easier to use. As right now you have to have help to set up the devices, I think in the future it would be as simple as putting on gloves and a vest.
I imagine there are some changes in how technology would be used in the future. I know there has been loads of changes because of the pandemic. One thing that my mom (who is a teacher) has had to deal with is how to teach her kids in class and kids who want to stay home. I could imagine VR and AR could help in this aspect. It could allow for her kids to be able to seem like they are in class, but are still safe at home. It will also allow them to participate without having their whole home life on view for all to see. Students will be able to participate with haptics and seem like they are sitting at desks with their classmates. One article I read says that some teachers already like using VR to be able to maintain their students attention (The Future of VR and AR in Education). In the future I could see this happening possibly like a virtual zoom classroom. Another way to think about it could be an educational VR chat room. I know some teachers and professors are trying to adapt to the technology already (The Future of VR and AR in Education). However now and especially in the future there will be some limitations.
Limitations are a part of all technologies in our world. Most of the time price is a factor especially when it comes to newer technology. In the future I could see the prices go down, but with inflation there will still be financial problems (The Limitations of Virtual Reality). If VR and AR wanted to be used in the classroom that would be a pertinent limitation. There will economically be people who could not afford the technology that will be needed for a virtual classroom in VR (The Limitations of Virtual Reality). This means that either the district or school would have to be able to provide the technology. However, most of the time the educational districts and schools do not get enough money to be able to afford one for each of their students. I feel like these would still be problems and limitations in the future.
