One problem that I have attempted to explore with my idea was the fear that I have of not knowing what I want to do with my life. I explained what my idea could do for exploring this fear, but a good point was brought to my attention. Couldn’t you just do this by finding someone who is doing what you might want to do for a living and shadow his or her life to get an idea if its something you want to really do? By doing it this way it would be a lot cheaper and its something that could be set up in a fairly short time. I’m not arguing against this fact but I feel that through my version of virtual reality this experience would be a lot more in depth, feel more real to the user and it would be much faster and efficient. This one small problem that I’m exploring is only a fraction of what could be done with this new way of playing games.
Now, I think to get a better understanding of what VR can do for us, I believe that you need to understand how it works. It’s very simple in concept but each piece would require lots of research to perfect. So the first thing that we need to do is understand how the human brain works and how it interacts with our body. We need to explore why when we want to lift our arm, our arm lifts. Next we need to use this brain signal of lifting our arm to perform and action outside of our body, whether its something physical, like a robot or something virtual, like a video game avatar. Once we have the output of the brain down, we can start working on the input. To do this we have to explore our senses, because this is how the brain registers what is around it. If we can understand how this works we could trick the brain into thinking certain things are going on when in fact nothing is really happening. If we could link the brain to a video game avatar then we could have something interact with the avatar and the brain would think that it is directly interacting with the object. After we solve both problems of input and output there is only one last thing to tackle.
We have to deal with our bodies, because it will get confusing when you want the avatar to walk and both you and the avatar walk. If you touch something in the real world and you interact with something in the virtual world, this could become confusing because you have two inputs for the same action. Now to fix this problem we would need to figure out how to intercept the brain signals so the never reach your body and only go to the avatar and your brain only receives input from the avatar. After these problems are addressed we can have a fully immersed virtual reality that feel exactly like the way we feel in the real world. Now that we have a basic idea of how this might work, we can now imagine what we could do with a world like this. I have one more thing to add, I believe that because we can trick the brain into believing that it is in the body of the avatar that we would also be able to alter the user’s perception of time. This means that the user will feel like they are in the virtual world a lot longer than they really are. For example you could have one minute of real time equals and hour of virtual time. Also I feel like it’s important for you to understand that this virtual world is not intended for one user. I plan on making it possible to link many users into the same world.
One thing that I thought of was exploring what one’s life would be like if they pursued some goal. For example lets say I thought I wanted to be a firefighter but I was not exactly sure that’s what I wanted to do with my life. I could go into this world and get a sense of what my life would be like, not only in the work place but at home as well. I would get a sense of the life style pay could support. I would also get a sense of the type of training I would go through and you would get to go on a few emergency calls. Because we can altar time in the virtual world I would be able to live my life as a firefighter for one day and only use up twenty-four minutes of the real world, in under an hour I could explore two careers. I could then pick a couple that I find the most interesting and invest a little more time into exploring these options.
Because you can link many users into the same world, just think of what this could do for our education system. Students and teachers could go into this world and the classroom could be whatever they wanted. If they wanted to go on a fieldtrip, they wouldn’t have to travel, they would just be were they wanted to be. Think how much extra time people would have. You could give the teacher a two hour-long class and only a couple minutes in the real world would have passed. Students could attend all their classes and have a full time job, to help pay for their education. The virtual machine could also be used for studying. Students would be able to put hours of studying in, in just a few minutes.
They virtual world could also be used in military training. It could save so much time and more to put the soldiers through boot camp in this virtual world. The only thing that they would have to do in the real world for their training would be physical workout. Soldiers could also be put into combat situations and get a first hand experience on the battlefield. This experience could save the lives of many soldiers. If we had the blueprints and photos of the layout of an area we were playing on infiltrating, then we could set up an environment in the virtual world and the soldiers could get a good sense of what the place would be like when they got there.
The final thing that I can think of that would be really cool about this virtual world would be for recreational use. People could pick any place they wanted to go on vacation. They could spend a couple days of in virtual time and spend only hours of real time. It would eventually be a lot cheaper they actually going on vacation because one you would have to worry about taking time off of work, you wouldn’t have to fly anywhere and you wouldn’t have to spend any real money during your vacation. You could also experience a different world and play video games and they would feel exactly like real life. If you’ve ever wanted to be able to fly or be incredible strong in the virtual world all this would be possible.
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