III.

Development and Uses

Researchers have been working on virtual-reality devices for many years. In the 1960s Raymond Goertz at Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Illinois, and Ivan Sutherland at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, demonstrated early versions of HMDs. Goertz, and later Michael Noll of Bell Laboratories, also developed prototype force-feedback devices. In recent years, virtual-reality devices have improved dramatically as the result of various technological advances. Computers now are more powerful, have a higher memory capacity, are smaller, and cost less than in the past. These developments, along with the advent of small liquid-crystal displays (LCDs) that can be used in HMDs, have made it possible for scientists to develop virtual-reality simulations.

Virtual reality is currently used to explore and manipulate experimental data in ways that were not possible before. Therapists use VR to treat sufferers of child abuse and people who are afraid of heights. Muscular dystrophy patients can learn to use a wheelchair through virtual reality.

In the future, surgeons may use VR to plan and practice an operation on a virtual patient rather than a real person. Architects could take clients on a virtual tour of a new house before it was built. VR could be used to train the operators of aircraft and other complicated machinery. Network VR simulations could enable people in many different locations to participate together in teleconferences, virtual surgical operations, or simulated military training exercises.