Overview about Virtual Reality especially in Architecture field Marta SkorupkoArchitecturefor Society of Knowledge, Faculty ofArchitecture Warsaw University of Technology, [email protected] Abstract:Virtual reality is really nowadays topic in humanlive. Today Virtual reality is developing really fast and it is interestingfuture of architecture, design, games, and education. In this paper i am goingto describe the past, present and conceivable future of creating realisticenvironment like images, sounds and other factors that are supposed to looknatural.
In last few years, there have been notices of rapid develop of theinterest of virtual reality filed. World’s dominant companies in the technologyand design department develop this VR technology with incredible speed and withinvest of huge sums of money. Virtual reality gives to the user manypossibilities of using it starting from science, work or entertainment but alsoconsidered in architectural, desing, technological and social aspects. Andthere is every year new directions of research about this technology andpotential applications. Those applications may be useful in the future topresent architecture in entirely new and innovative way or could even replacetraditional drawings altogether. It gives designer possibilty to go into hisproject and walk arond, nowadays there are even tested softwares which allowsfor design and change desing in reall time when we are inside project using URglasses and special controllers.
Virtual reality is relatively new compare tomany other technologies so for now it is nearly impossible to predict thepositive and negative influences on the life of average people. This can be thekey to a new world, more exciting and enabling more opportunities. However,also virtual reality maybe can be dangerous and it can replace the realreality. Keywords: Virtual Reality; Virtual Environment; simulation; architecture; graphics I. Introduction Computer graphics has been in used inpeople’s lives already for decades. In the present, it is almost impossible toimagine an architect, engineer, or interior designer who could work without agraphics workstation. During the last few years, there has been a rapid and momentousdevelopment of technology that requires faster and better computer equipment. Virtualreality gives possible for every user to move into the artificial world.
Virtual Realitydefinition Virtual reality can be named as anartificial environment. VR is typically related to computer technologies thatuse software to generate the realistic images, sounds and other sensations thatreplicate a real environment. There is possibility for use virtual reality withcomputer or for example with smartphone and basically experienced through twoof the five senses – sight and sound. But if we will use special movingplatforms, some additional windmill, smell and similar, then we can experiencevirtual reality with our five senses. How we can use Virtual Reality in our normal life? Virtual Realitygives us a lot of possibilities. It not only to helps us to explore completelydifferent worlds from which we currently live, as for example in games where wecan feel even more like we are part of this artificial world. Virtual Realityis also use for training new skills and also can helps us enhance and plan foroperations. The good example for using virtual reality is Air Force trainingfor new pilots.
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It gives possibility to save money and is safer. There is a lot of things which wecan do with Virtual Reality. In upcoming years, we can expect a significantgrowth in the popularity of Virtual Reality, as well as the rapid developmentof this technology.
The prognoses says that Virtual Reality will bring up to2.300 Million US Dollar with even the doubled sales in the years 2017 (“VirtualReality – Prognose zum Umsatz weltweit bis 2018 | Statistik,” n.d.). OculusRift selled 60.000 DevKid1s (Vrland, n.
d.) and 45.000 DevKids2 until July 1st2014 (cybereality, 2014), which indicates that the market is growing and more peopleare becoming interested in and aware of the technology. II.
History of VR Technology of Virtual Environment has itsorigins in the 50’s. Military forces were the driving force for most of the high-techinventions. The need to exceed the opponent, especially during The Cold War,produced many life changing ideas, including the Internet. Virtual reality wasalso influenced by the military. The great visionary who gave the worldinterfaces developments we use nowadays was Douglas Engelbar. He gave up his”steady job” in order to implement his new “guiding philosophy”. His goal was tomake the word better. He founded Augmentation Research Center, where he inventedNLS, or the “oN-Line System”.
Hyperlinks, the mouse, screen windowingand many others were used in practice for the first time in this system. It wasthe beginning of the modern Virtual Reality (Pimentel). Virtual Reality has a long historyof progression over the past 50 years. Listed below are the most importantfacts. The UltimateDisplay – early as it might seem, in 1965 Ivan Sutherland wrote his famouspaper “The Ultimate Display” predicting accurately the course of development ofVirtual Reality.
He wrote about head-mounted displays and even “a chairdisplayed (…)(that) would be good enough to sit in” in virtual room. Sensorama – itwas the first approach in order to create a system of virtual reality. For twoyears since 1960 Morton Heilig was working on creating a multi-sensorystimulator. Color and stereo video was combined with scent, wind andvibrations. AugmentedReality (AR) – first introduced in the 90s, is focused on “presenting a virtualworld that enriches, rather than replaces the real world” (S.
Bryson). Thetechnology has its origins in military – it was invented to provide pilots withadditional information during the fight. The digital picture is displayed on asee-through HMD and adapts to real life objects. UNC Walkthrough project – it was launchedat the University of North Carolina in the 80s.
The main goal was to create anarchitectural model that could be explored by user by stimulating a walkthrough it. During the project, several VR devices were created. III. VirtualReality used in architecture Virtual Reality is a big potential for architects and designers. VR can bereally great idea as a sell instrument better than any other opportunities toshow the projects.As mentioned above, one of the first attempts to use VR tools inarchitecture was UNC Walkthrough project. Since then, technology has developedin an extraordinary way. The finest example of achievements in this field is a VR NIE ROZUMIEM O CO CHODZIDALEJ.
IV. Virtualreality nowadays Nowadays we can buy firstcommercial version of Oculus Rift. The sale launched in early 2016, on the beginning sold was from the OculusVR website and gradually made its way to shops around the world.
Also other companies have introduced equipment VR Today we have to possibility to buy for example: Sony PlayStation VR, SamsungGear VR, HTC Vive and really cheap Google Cardboard and Daydream which is madeof actual cardboard V. Virtualreality technology For architecture- designing, planning and modeling Virtual reality offers a lot of thepossibilities in modeling for example we can observe what the modeled objectwill look like in reality. There are already several tools for interiordesigners and architects who need to visualize their sketches. They can changecolors, textures and positions of objects and it gives us possibility to checklike whole project will look like. Now the technology connected with VR is really common. Today we can finda lot of well developed softwares forcreating 3D models and virtual environment. These programs are easy for use because they are both user-friendly and intuitive.
“The 3D modellinked to a data base concerning the lighting system management characterizes acollaborative virtual environment. It means that it can be manipulated bypartners interested in creating, transforming and analyzing data in order toobtain results and to make decisions. The process of developing the prototypeinterface considers this proposes. Then, the model is easy to use and notrequire sophisticated computer skills by users, as many are not computerexperts. The human perceptual and cognitive capabilities were taken intoaccount when designing this visualization tool. It uses an interactive 3Dvisualization system based on the selection of element directly within thevirtual 3D world. Furthermore, associated with each component there areintegrated databases, allowing the consult of the require data in any point intime.
” (A. Z. Sampaio) The interactiveapplication allows the examination and visualization of the physical model foreach element modeled in 3D.”In the area ofarchitecture, VR models are generally applied to the visualization of staticphysical models in the definition of itineraries of walk-through, as a means oftransmitting the functional and geometric aspect of the building. This papercontemplates incorporation of the 4th dimension, the time, into theconcept of visualization. The focus of the work is on traveling through time:the ability to view a product or its components at different points in timeduring their life. It is envisaged that the incorporation of the time dimensioninto 3D visualization will enable the designer/user to make more objectivedecisions about the choice of the constituent components of the building.
” (A.Z. Sampaio) In the context ofarchitecture, VR can also be used to preserve historical buildings through virtualphysical renewal or renovation.”In the contextof architecture, historical buildings can be preserved through physicalrestoration or renovation; however, these procedures are costly and may not befeasible due to deterioration of materials over time.” (A. Rafi) Education and training We can consideras the pioneers of the virtual reality the use of flight simulators. It haslong history and there was first reported in late 1950s and it were constantlyimproved in many research institutes mainly for the military purposes. Presently, a lotof civil companies use VR as well, because it is offer lower operating coststhan the real aircraft flight training.
Another benefit is that they are muchsafer. They are also very helpful in situations where training is necessary.Thus, they were prosperously applied for determining the efficiency of virtualreality training of various groups. Some examples of this is how they were usedto test astronauts’ performance of hazardous tasks in space, as well as thetraining of medicine students in performing endo-surgery. Games Many people first associating Virtual Reality with games and the OculusRift That has created much hype currently. There has been so much improvementover the last few years That gamer will ever get excited when they think of thefuture. Head-mounteddisplays For example, Sonymade an approach in this directory.
The “Wearable HDTV, 2D/3D, Virtual 7.1Surround Sound” head-mounted display like glasses are allowing the user towatch a show in 3D or 2D with great sound anywhere the user wants. It isconnectable to many mobile devices and a PC. According to the homepage, one canalso use the glasses for gaming, similar to the Oculus Rift. The differencehere is that the Oculus Rift is still in developing while the Sony HMD canalready be bought for about $999. VI. FutureDevelopments and Conclusions In conclusion, we have many things thatare changing right now or will most likely change in the future. The problems wehad before with size and prices are solving themselves; companies are investingand people are experiencing the benefits of this.
Virtual realitywill become an essential tool for architects and every architect will soondesign using 3D goggles. Within a few years, virtual architecture can be asconvincing as the real thing. “Virtual realitytechnology has opened up possibilities of techniques and effective ways forresearch, especially in the field of design, architecture, interpretation andpreservation of cultural and natural heritage (Ch’ng and Stone, 2006) andeducation at least for the last 15 years.
According to them, virtual heritage(VH) sets out to designate the use of computer-based interactive technologiesto record, preserve, or recreate artifacts, sites and actors of historic,artistic, religious and cultural significance and to deliver the results openlyto a global audience in such a way as to provide formative educationalexperiences through electronic manipulations of time and space.” (A.Rafi) As we can see inthe news, more and more companies are finding ways to use Virtual Reality totheir benefit. With Facebook’sOculus Rift headset now available to pre-order, Sony’s PlayStation VR and HTC’sVive on their way, and millions of cheap Google Cardboard headsets out in thewild already, this year will see an abundance of experimentation around VR. Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg did not even spend $2billion buying OculusVR to release a functioning headset for high-end PC owners, even though that’spretty much what it is worth for its first commercial version, which retails for$599. “One day, we believe this kind of immersive, augmented reality willbecome a part of daily life for billions of people,” wrote Zuckerberg in March2014.
It might be aslow process, but Virtual Reality is winding its way into our lives and everyday we find new stories in the news where we use it now. As already said in theintroduction, the prognoses are there, the selling rates are going up and the technologygets better every day. How long is needed is still impossible to say, but wecan already see the first impacts in our lives.
