Foresights
Virtual reality
What is it?
Virtual reality (VR) technology allows users to interact with a computer-generated environment. Primarily, most VR systems present data visually, either displayed on a monitor screen, via a headmounted display (HMD), or in a specialised booth or grotto environment. Some systems may also incorporate audio or tactile (haptic) elements. VR systems that present users with a stereoscopic image, simulating actual vision via an HMD, are often referred to as immersive VR.
The concept of VR has been around for many years and its precise origins are often disputed, but it was in the late 1990s that it first attracted significant commercial interest. It was hoped that VR would enable a wide range of entertainment and advanced simulation and modelling applications but at that time the technology largely failed to deliver against its hype. The main barriers to adoption were technical limitations in processing power, graphics capabilities, and network bandwidth, not to mention the uncomfortable and cumbersome nature of HMDs for immersive VR applications.
Now, nearly a decade on, many of these limitations have been overcome and once again VR applications are attracting commercial interest. As well as the immersive simulation and modelling applications, the ‘virtual worlds’ of online gaming applications are attracting millions of users.
 To learn more about Virtual reality, download our full Foresight PDF file ( 293 Kb; opens in a new window).
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