Virtual reality (VR) is an experience in which computing technologies are used to surround the user with an interactive synthetic environment that responds to the user’s actions. The user’s sensory experience of the environment (such as vision, hearing, touch, etc.) is updated as the user moves and interacts with objects and entities in that environment.

Is VR only for entertainment?

No, virtual reality has been explored for many applications, from medicine to education/training, business, plant maintenance and engineering design. The goals in this case differ from the application of augmented reality.

How can augmented reality and virtual reality help improve diversity and inclusion?

VR can really aid in the training and simulation of different types of conflict resolution or dealing with varying cognitive loads. This allows us to learn how to view situations from everyone’s perspectives, ensure we react appropriately for similar situations and help us understand our own fears, misconceptions and biases.

What’s the difference between AR and VR?

Augmented reality is the overlay of digital images onto the physical world. Those images could be text used to tag objects or people, cartoons used in popular games. Virtual reality is an immersive experience that simulates a realistic environment. Virtual reality and augmented reality lie on a single spectrum of interactive experiences, with VR closer to one end of the spectrum where the surrounding environment is synthetic and virtual. At the other end is the real world, with augmented reality nearby, but more towards the middle.

David Krum IEEE Senior Member, IEEE Computer Society, IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society

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