Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality

Subject: Science and Technology

In news: Indian Institute of Technology Madras has launched the country’s first consortium for Virtual Reality called ‘Consortium for VR/AR/MR Engineering Mission in India’ (CAVE).

About CAVE:

• It aims to become a resource for industry, academia, consumers, and policy makers interested in virtual, augmented, and mixed reality.
• The key outcomes envisaged from CAVE include developing indigenous VR/AR/MR and ‘haptics’ hardware and software; set up ‘VR Superhighway’ or ‘VR Corridor’ where many start-ups and industries work together for a bigger mission to make India the choice for future XR and ‘haptics’ needs.
• Centre of Excellence on Virtual Reality and Haptics at IIT Madras has been set up under the ‘Institute of Eminence’ Initiative.

Extended reality

• Extended Reality (XR) is an umbrella term encapsulating Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), mixed reality (MR), and everything in between.

Augmented Reality (AR)

• An enhanced version of reality where live direct or indirect views of physical real-world environments are augmented with superimposed computer-generated images over a user’s view of the real-world, thus enhancing one’s current perception of reality.
• Various filters on Snapchat and Instagram are an example of Augmented Reality.
• Gaming –Pokemon is one of the most famous games to hit a big chord with the public.

Virtual Reality (VR):

•  It can be referred to as immersive multimedia or computer-simulated reality which replicates an environment that simulates a physical presence in places in the real world or an imagined world, allowing the user to interact in that world.
• Images created by a computer that appear to surround the person looking at them and seem almost real are said to be virtual reality.
  • On the other hand Augmented reality is the real-time use of information in the form of text, graphics, audio, and other virtual enhancements integrated with real-world objects.

Mixed reality (MR):

• It can be referred to as hybrid reality that is the merging of real and virtual worlds to produce new environments and visualisations where physical and digital objects co-exist and interact in real time.
• Microsoft’s Hololens is a well-known example of an existing, commercially available Mixed Reality device.