Virtual Reality: It’s Uses in Different Industries

Virtual reality means a realistic experience, a three-dimensional (3D) environment where objects and scenarios appear so real that users feel as if they are immersed in their environment, based on sensory information and the processes the brain uses to categorize information. This can be acoustic (sound), visual (sight) or a mixture of both. VR devices allow you to experience a different reality with a device known as a virtual reality headset or helmet. If you are faced with a form of reality that doesn’t match your current reality, your brain will still recognize that environment as a kind of existence.

VR Compared to Other Immersion Technologies

Immersive technology is a technology that tries to create a physical environment through a simulated digital world. Immersive technologies include augmented, mixed, extended and virtual reality.

Augmented Reality (AR) uses live video or the user’s current environment using digital information to create semi-altered virtual reality objects that are imposed on the real environment. This can be seen in some popular mobile games such as Pokemon Go, which allows users to interact with characters on their smartphones in real-world settings. To experience AR, you need an AR phone or headphones.

Mixed Reality (MR) combines the virtual and real worlds to create new environments, visualizations and other digital objects where users can coexist and interact with objects in this world in real-time. Unlike AR overlays, virtual objects are anchored in the real world.

At first glance, virtual reality (VR) is a real digital environment that can be interacted with the help of special equipment such as a helmet or virtual reality headphones.

Current VR Usage in Different Industries

Virtual reality technology is finding its way into all industries. Finances Online conducted a survey to determine which industries use VR more. With this technology, the way people have fun, treat, travel, learn, communicate, buy things, and work will never be the same in the future of virtual reality.

The amount of VR users in the US is $57.4 million (eMarketer, 2020)

VR and AR investments were estimated to be $915 million in 2020 (Superdata, 2020)

91% of businesses are already leveraging or planning to adopt VR or AR technology (TechRepublic, 2020)

Future of VR — market growth

VR in Education and Training

The main goal of virtual reality technology in education and training is to make it as effective as it is attractive and to change the way people learn. We see a variety of start-ups and established education companies offering experiential packages and services for schools.

Virtual education is already popular with 12-year-old students, colleges, vocational training and will be more broadly used in the future of virtual reality. Higher education, which is expected to receive a larger share of sales, has important uses for VR, such as student recruitment, immersion training, and fundraising.

According to a Harvard business study, medical students who had the opportunity to be trained in VR were able to perform certain procedures faster and more accurately than their counterparts trained in traditional methods.

Virtual reality applications that simulate the process of driving in heavy city traffic, for example, prepare people for real roads and provide basic knowledge and experience for safe driving.

VR in Real Estate

As you can imagine, in times of pandemic, the ability to display virtual real estate has improved significantly. By wearing virtual reality headphones, you can simultaneously monitor your existing property and see what your future property will look like once it’s done. The property may be in a different country, but you can still tour without leaving your own apartment. What could be easier than putting on VR headphones and walking around the apartment?

Secondly, customers are given a unique opportunity to explore the area to see if the area is large enough and comfortable to invest in. It is also much easier for brokers to turn clients into buyers when there is an emotional attachment. With 360° coverage of the home space in VR, customers can see in their living room what their future home might look like, which may be 1000 km away from them. Or the client can use a prototype to see what an apartment or house will look like at the end rather than an existing blank wall.

VR in Manufacturing

The use of virtual technology in manufacturing brings significant improvements in price, time and quality. Designers and product engineers can explore options that might have been too expensive or time-consuming in the past.

Since 2014, Ford has employed virtual reality specialists to guide engineers in designing and constructing all vehicles, including autonomous vehicles, in virtual environments. Ford today has a mandatory multifunction VR review for all vehicles that go into production.

Imagine machinery equipment training, conducted with the help of virtual reality technology. The main objective of the training is to improve the skills of machine operators. In many countries you can only start working as an operator after passing the official exam and obtaining the required license; however, the license is not always the best indicator of manual skill. With new technology, companies can offer a safe, easy, and relatively inexpensive way to train employees in an environment where even the smallest mistakes are very costly.

VR in Healthcare

Likewise, medicine, and especially emergency medicine, is not an environment where errors can occur. Once introduced to realistic VR scenarios, medical staff can master all the necessary skills and practice each procedure with realistic simulations of every emergency from CPR to lumbar puncture. In addition to realistic graphics, this training can be complemented by a program that evaluates the success of the training, notes errors, and provides tips to avoid them in the future.

Medical education is not the only place where virtual reality technology is at a high level. Mental care and disease awareness are also important aspects of VR in healthcare.

VR’s ability to place a person in any environment using controlled simulations creates an excellent physical, psychological, and pain management tool. Therapists are already using VR in their practice to treating PTSD, anxiety, and phobias. VR is concerned with the rehabilitation of patients who have suffered a stroke, brain injury, or another injury. Process integration comes into play here, allowing the patient to stay focused and bring him into a familiar environment by recreating routine activities such as driving, cooking or other activities and thereby restoring motor function quickly.

VR in Gaming

There’s no point in hiding the fact that gaming is probably the first thing the average person associates with the future of virtual reality. And that’s not surprising as the market size for the VR gaming industry is growing rapidly.

On the other hand, the state of virtual reality technology in games is currently being affected by COVID-19, which is keeping potential users at home and therefore more inclined to participate in games, which is a boon for the market.

Sometimes the ideas embodied in Virtual Reality Gaming are much more interesting than those in other areas because of imagination and development. Therefore, experts probably saw the potential of VR in the gaming industry from the start.

Challenges with VR Uses in Business

When it is not possible to find a competent provider, major obstacles such as poor quality of available content and poor user experience arise. Finding a viable provider that delivers good content to ensure that users are happy with their VR experience and become regular customers can be a challenge in the present and future of virtual reality.
You have to remember that VR, like any other software, requires data protection and privacy. In addition, you should consider the nature of the solution as it may require additional precautions, such as social networking in VR.