When people think of virtual reality they think of 3-D images and wearing special goggles to see them. But, virtual reality is a simulation of life which enables you to do on screen what you can't do in real life. At this time it is still in its development stages, but creators believe it will become more popular in the future.

History

Images are formed through lenses. There are two typed of lenses, convex and concave and light bends when it passes through either one. A light ray passing through the center of a thin lens keeps its original direction. But a ray that strikes anywhere else is bent. How much the light ray bends increases with its distance from the center of lens. A real image and virtual image are two types of images formed. Virtual reality was produced years ago with glasses that looked similar to the pair in this picture. The lenses were made of clear cellophane each lens being a different color. These glasses produced a two dimension effect.

Now

Today, characters in 3-D games are starting to look and become more lifelike. The characters entice you to come inside the game's movies or chat rooms. When you are talking or playing with a character they simulate human conversation and also take on human form. What used to be strictly two dimensional has changed significantly. Sometimes you can wear a helmet to experience virtual reality such as this one shown .

In order to play games in 3D you usually need these items:

- a fast Windows 98 PC (Pentium2/3/4, Celeron, K6/Athlon)
- a normal monitor capable of at least 120 Hz vertical frequency (refresh rate);
LCD-displays won't work! - some shutterglasses
- a 3D-accelerator VGA-board (for example: Voodoo3, TNT2)
- driver software for the card and for the glasses

Many Web sites incorporate virtual reality tours on their web sites. You can visit a museum in another country, travel through space or take a tour of a historical landmark. More and more psychologists are using virtual reality to help people overcome certain phobias. People who have a fear of flying, for example, can take a virtual reality experience. They go inside a flight simulator, that helps them overcome their fear. Studies have shown that computer based therapy is an effective as traditional therapy.

Later

In the future it will become more difficult for players to distinguish whether characters are virtual or real. With the expansion of the Internet, video entertainment will produce better quality video and it will become more affordable and accessible to a larger group of people.

My personal prediction for the future of Virtual Reality is that it will become more popular and will go in many new and different research directions. I predict that new types of Virtual Reality will be introduced. I think that some of them will have different influences on people’s brains. This will make it become harder to come back to reality and harder to tell reality from unreality. I predict that the body pieces on the Virtual Reality set will become body activated making the person who is playing on the Virtual Reality set feel what is happening to them on the screen. I think that as more and more people play on the Virtual Reality set and as new Virtual reality sets are made, in will cause a virtual schizophrenia. I do not know if these things will happen because this is just my prediction.