May 23, 2022

Gabrielle Alder

9th Grade

Ramaz Upper School

When we think of virtual reality, our thoughts typically conjure up high-tech video games.  However, virtual reality is far more complex and is now being utilized for a number of important everyday functions. Virtual reality (VR) uses computer modeling to enable a person to interact with an artificial three-dimensional sensory environment. VR simulates reality using goggles, headsets, gloves, or bodysuits that send and receive information. 

The illusion of being somewhere else is created by motion sensors that pick up the participant’s movements and adjust the view on the stereoscopic screen. This calls upon our brain’s ability to process an image as having depth or dimension, and this is done by displaying numerous pictures at once from slightly shifted perspectives to allow our brain to put the pieces together like a puzzle and visualize the whole picture, as though it were truly right in front of us.  

Besides video games or historical simulations, if something is too dangerous, expensive, or impractical to do in reality, then virtual reality can step in and help.  Whether training pilots to fly or doctors to do surgery, virtual reality allows the user to take virtual risks in order to gain experience with the real task. With virtual reality progressively becoming a more accepted practice and method to train specialists in different fields, the cost of VR equipment is decreasing as well, to the point where we can expect it to be used frequently if not regularly in the education and business worlds. 

In the workplace, for instance, employees need to be trained for everything from fire drills to handling robberies to customer relations. VR technology is lifelike, mimicking the complex skills necessary for practical and even hazardous training.  It’s one thing to read about and practice what to do in case of emergency; it’s quite another thing to experience that situation repeatedly firsthand with minimal risk in real life. 

The sensory immersion is key to its effectiveness.  When things look and sound as if they were real, the brain processes this virtual reality as though it were a real experience. Walmart, the nation’s largest employer, is already using VR to interview job seekers. Through virtual reality, the employer can see how the applicants react in different situations and decide whether or not they would be a good fit for a job. 

Measuring soft skills is not easy, but many companies find that the use of virtual reality leads to employees who perform better in reality. And with this amount of success so far, one can only imagine what new things VR will help humanity accomplish in the future.