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Chapter written by Nadia BARVILLE-DEROMAS and Marc-Eric BOBILLIER CHAUMON.
3
Virtual Reality: Definitions, Characteristics and Applications in the Workplace
In the context of the Factory of the Future, industries are implementing a number of technologies to improve their production, and to be more innovative and competitive. Virtual reality is one of these technologies. The objective of this chapter is to introduce this technology and explain how it can be used, both generally and in industries. We propose to use definitions of virtual reality that are commonly accepted by the scientific community. In this chapter, therefore, we define virtual reality from three angles: its purpose, its potential functionalities and its technical characteristics. We then present the various devices that constitute a virtual reality system: visual presentation devices, motion and position capture devices, proprioceptive and cutaneous feedback devices, and sound input and presentation devices. The final parts of the chapter are devoted to the applications of virtual reality. We begin with general applications (video games, art, tourism, education, vocational training, design, therapy, research). The last part of the chapter deals with applications of virtual reality in industry, giving examples of use for design and training.
3.1. Introduction
Industries are now entering a new industrial era, referred to as the Industry of the Future or the Factory of the Future. In this context, French companies are seeking, by increasing their level of dematerialization and implementing new technologies, to be more innovative, flexible and competitive. Virtual reality is one of these technologies. The Technologies Clés report (2016) by the Direction Générale des Entreprises identifies it as a technology of the future, alongside 46 other technologies, such as robotics, artificial intelligence or the Internet of Things.
In view of its technical developments, virtual reality now seems easier to implement in companies, especially since head-mounted displays (HMD) are now accessible to the general public, their price has dropped sharply and many virtual reality applications are offered for sale.
The aim of this chapter is to better understand what virtual reality is, to present the type of devices it mobilizes, as well as to illustrate how it is used, particularly in professional contexts.
3.2. Some elements of definition
3.2.1. The term “virtual reality”
The first use of the term is attributed to Jaron Lanier, in 1989, who was then CEO of VLP Research Inc., a company providing computer equipment for virtual reality (gloves, glasses, etc.) (Steuer 1992). In English, the adjective “virtual” can be translated as “quasi, almost”. The expression virtual reality therefore refers to an idea of quasi-reality.
The image given by the media tends to create a shortcut between the use of certain devices and virtual reality. Moreover, we imagine that virtual reality is limited to the use of a head-mounted display and a joystick. We will present definitions of virtual reality commonly accepted by the scientific community.
3.2.2. The purpose of virtual reality
The purpose of virtual reality may allow us to give a definition of it. For Fuchs et al. (2006), its purpose is “to enable one person (or several) to engage in sensory-motor and cognitive activity in an artificial, digitally created world that may be imaginary, symbolic or a simulation of some aspect of the real world” (p. 5).
User activity is described as sensory-motor and cognitive activity. We speak of sensory-motor activity because, on one hand, the user, in his/her interaction with virtual reality, perceives the virtual world and virtual entities through different senses (sight, hearing, proprioception, etc.) and, on the other hand, he/she acts physically within the world in which he/she is immersed. His/her activity is also cognitive, since he/she processes the information he/she perceives, memorizes it, makes decisions and undertakes actions. Note that there are perception–cognition feedback loops: a stimulus given by the computer part of virtual reality can lead to a motor action by the user, which in turn leads to new sensory stimuli that modify the user’s intentions.
The second part of the definition mentions different types of virtual environments; they can be imaginary, symbolic or they can be simulations of certain aspects of the real world. Imaginary virtual environments are common in video games, where the aim is to immerse the player in a world different from their own. Other virtual environments represent symbolic worlds, in the sense that they materialize elements of the real world that are not always perceptible to humans. For example, they offer the possibility of manipulating DNA (Lamb et al. 2018). Finally, virtual reality is misrepresented as a pale copy of the real world, which it seeks to reproduce as closely as possible. However, the purpose of virtual reality, when it represents the physical world, is to exploit aspects of it for different purposes. For this reason, some virtual environments are considered to be “simulations of some aspects of the real world”. For example, in a project review, a virtual environment can accurately represent the product you wish to evaluate, such as a machine. It is not necessarily interesting to represent the noises of the workshop, the routes of the parts supply trolleys or the neighboring stations in detail.