The gaming industry is the field where VR has been the most present up until now. VR takes video games to a completely new world where it is much easier to neglect the real world. We will see a lot of development within VR gaming in the future. Within gaming, VR has definitely come to stay. Though VR within the gaming industry generate the most money, the use of VR has increased in many other fields.
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Entertainment, excluding gaming, is one of the major industries that will be affected by VR in the future. VR headsets will be taking the concept of 3D glasses to a whole new level. Just imagine watching a football match from your couch with a VR headset - it will give you the experience that you are at the stadium, and you don’t even have to leave your home! The possibilities in the field of education are endless. Within the area of physics there are projects for the visualization of fluid particles. There are engineering projects in remote manipulation, such as handling robots or assembly processes. There are also areas dedicated to the development of virtual prototypes. In psychology, virtual reality is used to overcome phobias, psychological trauma or anxiety disorders. In medicine, can be used to simulate surgical procedures from a distance, where the surgeon operates a robot.
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Developments in architectural visualization have been spectacular. By merging 3D images into a 3D environment, VR can be used to view the inside of a building or other environments. This can be used in real estate, for possible buyers to see the real estate they are interested in. Then they can see it from their homes, whenever they have time for it, instead of making an appointment with the real estate agent - easier for both parts! [5]
Virginia VR Tour Photography is one of the agencies that have implemented this. A photographic example is shown in the figure below. [6]
Applications
360-degree photo that is part of a real estate tour
There are many tourist agencies investing in virtual reality. VR gives you the opportunity to perform virtual tours, live experiences or move to other places without leaving your home. The agencies want to provide these tours and experiences as commercial and temptation towards the products they are selling. Hotels are beginning to create virtual tours of their facilities in order to get more guests. It is also possible to see tourist attractions just for pleasure, without it having to be commercial. In the survey, 31.3% of the people answered that they believe they will use VR for tourism in the future.
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Human interaction is one of the applications of VR. It can be used to meet with other people in a virtual environment, either you are meeting your friends at a virtual cafe or you are going on a virtual date. VR have the possibility to change how relationships will be in the future. It can take porn to a whole new level, where people get a much more realistic experience than watching content on a TV or PC screen. In the internal survey, 44.6% of the people believed that the porn industry would be one of the industries that would benefit the most from VR.
At last, it is worth to mention shopping. VR could make it possible to shop for clothes, furniture, cars or other items in somewhat the same way as with real estate. You could be able to see a 360 degree view of the item you are interested in, in a better way than you can today online. You could be able to watch furniture and walk around in showrooms at IKEA from your home, just by wearing a VR headset.
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The possibilities within VR are endless, and we probably cannot yet even imagine all the areas where is can be used. The ones mentioned in this section are just a few of the many areas where it can be used. In the video below, you can see how VR could be used to change human behavior.
[5] goo.gl/nWs9wM, accessed 28.11.2016 [6] goo.gl/uqVwoL, accessed 27.11.2016