Virtual Reality for Dummies Part 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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In my previous blog post, I briefly discussed the concept of virtual reality, and my curiosities towards trying to create it. This is based on a project I’m undertaking at university as part of my digital artefact (you can come to think of it as an electronic research project, where I’m given capabilities to explore different media and mediums, and also create some really cool and innovative stuff).

For this blog post however, I’m planning on outlining some of the implications associated with VR, while also delving deeper into some of the benefits that I discussed previously. I hope that by looking at both the advantages and disadvantages of VR that it will help me when curating my digital artefact.

Benefits of VR

I’ll spare you the long, monotonous speech of how great virtual reality is and instead delve deep into the benefits that I didn’t get around to covering in my last bog post.

Education

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Although the concept of ‘bring your own device’ to school is relatively new, using virtual reality as a learning tool in the classroom is not that far away.

Kavanagh et al. have stated that “numerous studies of VRs use in education yielded positive findings, ranging from increased time-on-task, to enjoyment, motivation, deeper learning and long term retention.” (2017, p. 85)

The studies that were discussed by Kavanagh et al. mainly focused on virtual reality being implemented in health related subjects, science and engineering. There were only a few studies mentioned that focused on the arts, which was incredibly disappointing however I feel like this is an area in the future to which VR definitely can contribute to.

One of the examples given discussed virtual reality educating students through simulating an environment that may be either difficult, impossible or too expensive to travel to. In ancient history for example, the use of VR could transport students to 16th century Spain, or the architectural brilliance of the Pantheon, all without leaving their classroom (Kavanagh et al. 2017, p. 92).

This is the near future of education, changing to fit the parameters of the modern day world, while still remaining enjoyable for all levels of education.

 

Exposure Therapy for PTSD

Exposure therapy is one of the most successful ways to treat specific phobias, some of which include fear of spiders, heights and flying. However, when it comes to PTSD, exposure therapy can present some limitations, but with the introduction of VR, it can help patients with prolonging their exposure in order to overcome their PTSD.

Bottela et al. suggest that “VR offers other advantages that could play an important role, for example, in reducing aversion to prolonged exposure, treatment drop out and prevention.” (2015)

These are three prominent issues that VR could help solve, especially as VR is a flexible tool that can replicate different physical and situational environments, that can be replayed over and over again in order to deal with different mental disorders and also deal with the different levels of PTSD others experience.

Implications of VR

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Don’t get me wrong, the capabilities of virtual reality are astounding. What’s been produced so far has contributed to more than just the entertainment world, however I feel like I need to address the implications that have arose so far in order to review VR as a whole, and also to take them into consideration when creating my digital artefact.

Motion Sickness

Motion sickness, a term that is unappealing in all aspects, but even more so, as it can be brought on by virtual reality.

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“Despite intensive efforts on the part of manufacturers, the problem has persisted and has been acknowledged as the principal limitation on the widespread use of these systems.” (Munafo, Diedrick & Stoffregen, 2016, p. 890)

Motion sickness brought about by virtual reality is caused because these virtual environments do not move relative to the Earth, which can lead to nausea fairly quickly. Also if you’re a woman, you’re more susceptible to succumbing to visually induced motion sickness.

“This effect has been confirmed in vehicular travel, and in the present study, closed-loop motion of a virtual environment in a head-mounted display.” (Munafo, Diedrick & Stoffregen, 2016, p. 900)

Generally speaking, women are more susceptible to motion sickness in real life scenarios, however these results also conclude that men also feel the effects of motion sickness when accessing VR, just not as much as women do.

Long-term effects

One of the major implications of VR (in this case, discussing head set technologies) is that they haven’t existed for long enough to allow major long-term studies to be conducted.

An article written by The Guardian discussed the short-term effects associated with VR such as motion sickness, seizures, and trouble with hand-eye coordination. However, this article also discussed the uncertainty of whether any of these will play a role with long-term effects of the technology.

“We haven’t really yet got to the stage where people have been using virtual reality for prolonged periods of time – over, for example, periods of weeks or months – to identify with any clear certainty any long-term effects of virtual reality.” (Davis, 2016)

The most important thing about using VR is that yes certain detrimental effects do exist, but overall this shouldn’t stop us from using the technology, as long as we’re being safe and cautious most of these effects won’t come into play.

Digital Artefact

I’ve still stuck with the original idea for my digital artefact, which is creating virtual reality of some sort. Due to being a relative beginner I’ve decided to try and create a building or house of some sort, just because of the structure it allows, which I feel will be easier to create and let me learn how to focus on fine details.

I plan on using Unity, which I’ve had a short go of messing around with but not enough to build an architectural structure of some sort. A blog post will be up in the next week or so detailing my first experience with trying to create VR, stay tuned!

References

Botella C, Serrano B, Baños R. M, & García-Palacios A 2015, ‘Virtual reality exposure-based therapy for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder: A review of its efficacy, the adequacy of the treatment protocol, and its acceptability’, Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 11, 2533–2545.

Davis, N 2016, ‘Long-term effects of virtual reality use need more research, say scientists,’ The Guardian, 19 March, https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/19/long-term-effects-of-virtual-reality-use-need-more-research-say-scientists

Kavanagh, S, Luxton-Reilly, A, Wuensche, B, & Plimmer, B 2017, ‘A systematic review of Virtual Reality in education’, Themes in Science & Technology Education, vol. 10, no. 2, pp. 85-119.

Justin Munafo, Meg Diedrick, and Thomas A Stoffregen, 2016, ‘The virtual reality head-mounted display Oculus Rift induces motion sickness and is sexist in its effects,’ Experimental Brain Research, 1–13.