CAN IMMERSIVE VIRTUAL REALITY TRAVEL EXPERIENCE REPLACE REAL TRAVEL?

2019 ◽  
Vol 52 ◽  
pp. 9-28
Author(s):  
Jacek Polechoński ◽  
Rajmund Tomik

Purpose. The study attempts to define virtual reality in tourism as well as to characterise and present chosen applications created for the purposes of virtual sightseeing. Based on the survey conducted among tourism and recreation students of the Jerzy Kukuczka Academy of Physical Education in Katowice, the study attempts to answer the provocative question: “can virtual tourism replace real-world travel?”, and to analyse participants’ opinions on the topic of virtual trips. Methods. Analysis of scientific studies as well as information and data on the possibility of using immersive virtual reality in human life with particular consideration given to tourism. An overview of applications enabling taking trips through immersive exploration of virtual environments. The survey was conducted among AWF students. Participants expressed their opinions about virtual sightseeing. Findings. Virtual reality is increasingly used in various fields of human life. It is entering the world of tourism, in which it is used to create presentations of hotels and resorts, and to promote towns and tourist facilities. Appropriate software and IT equipment allow to take deliberate, planned and very realistic virtual trips. The authors of the work defined such tourism as all activities carried out by persons who immerse themselves in virtual reality for learning and entertainment purposes in order to experience the illusion of change of their everyday, real surroundings in time and space. Tourism understood in such a way allows us not only to go to almost any place without the necessity of leaving home. It also allows for visiting areas and objects which cannot be explored in real life. It enables a visitor, among others, to travel in space and visit historical sites which no longer exist in their original form, but have been recreated in computer applications. Virtual tourism also allows for exploring fictional locations created by designers of photorealistic graphics as well as valuable and sensitive monuments, and taking trips to places which are dangerous or prohibited. In the conducted survey, it has been concluded that even though tourism and recreation students found experience with virtual reality to be positive, the majority is not convinced that this form of tourism can replace real-world travel. Research and conclusions limitations. There are only a few publications concerning immersive virtual reality travel experience. Access to the software was quite early. Practical implications. Understanding and reorganisation of issues related to immersive virtual reality travel experience. The study may constitute an original introduction and encouragement to carry out qualitative and quantitative research on newly created virtual tourism. Originality. An original concept of understanding virtual tourism was presented. Type of paper. Empirical research and review.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Madis Vasser ◽  
Jaan Aru

Virtual reality (VR) holds immense promise as a research tool to deliver results that are generalizable to the real world. However, the methodology used in different VR studies varies substantially. While many of these approaches claim to use “immersive VR”, the different hardware and software choices lead to issues regarding reliability and validity of psychological VR research. Questions arise about quantifying presence, the optimal level of graphical realism, the problem of being in dual-realities and reproducibility of VR research. We discuss how VR research paradigms could be evaluated and offer a list of practical recommendations to have common guidelines for psychological VR research.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paola Araiza-Alba ◽  
Therese Keane ◽  
Jennifer L Beaudry ◽  
Jordy Kaufman

In recent years, immersive virtual reality technology (IVR) has seen a substantial improvement in its quality, affordability, and ability to simulate the real world. Virtual reality in psychology can be used for three basic purposes: immersion, simulation, and a combination of both. While the psychological implementations of IVR have been predominately used with adults, this review seeks to update our knowledge about the uses and effectiveness of IVR with children. Specifically, its use as a tool for pain distraction, neuropsychological assessment, and skills training. Results showed that IVR is a useful tool when it is used either for immersive or simulative purposes (e.g., pain distraction, neuropsychological assessment), but when its use requires both simulation (of the real world) and immersion (e.g., a vivid environment), it is trickier to implement effectively.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara Arlati ◽  
Noël Keijsers ◽  
Gabriele Paolini ◽  
Giancarlo Ferrigno ◽  
Marco Sacco

Languages ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Legault ◽  
Jiayan Zhao ◽  
Ying-An Chi ◽  
Weitao Chen ◽  
Alexander Klippel ◽  
...  

Learning a second language (L2) presents a significant challenge to many people in adulthood. Platforms for effective L2 instruction have been developed in both academia and the industry. While real-life (RL) immersion is often lauded as a particularly effective L2 learning platform, little is known about the features of immersive contexts that contribute to the L2 learning process. Immersive virtual reality (iVR) offers a flexible platform to simulate an RL immersive learning situation, while allowing the researcher to have tight experimental control for stimulus delivery and learner interaction with the environment. Using a mixed counterbalanced design, the current study examines individual differences in L2 performance during learning of 60 Mandarin Chinese words across two learning sessions, with each participant learning 30 words in iVR and 30 words via word–word (WW) paired association. Behavioral performance was collected immediately after L2 learning via an alternative forced-choice recognition task. Our results indicate a main effect of L2 learning context, such that accuracy on trials learned via iVR was significantly higher as compared to trials learned in the WW condition. These effects are reflected especially in the differential effects of learning contexts, in that less successful learners show a significant benefit of iVR instruction as compared to WW, whereas successful learners do not show a significant benefit of either learning condition. Our findings have broad implications for L2 education, particularly for those who struggle in learning an L2.


2017 ◽  
Vol 30 (2) ◽  
pp. 79-89 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Melissa Clare Davison ◽  
Catherine Deeprose ◽  
Sylvia Terbeck

ObjectiveThis study investigated immersive virtual reality (IVR), as a novel technique to test executive function of healthy younger and older adults. We predicted IVR tasks to have greater predictive power than traditional measures when assessing age-related cognitive functioning due to the real-world validity of the tasks.MethodsParticipants (n=40) completed the Stroop colour–word test and the trail-making test (TMT) as traditional and commonly used assessments of executive functioning. Participants then completed three IVR tasks; a seating arrangement task, an item location task (both set in a virtual chemistry lab), and a virtual parking simulator.ResultsYounger adults completed significantly more parking simulator levels (p<0.001), placed significantly more objects (p<0.001), and located significantly more items than older adults (p<0.01), demonstrating higher levels of performance. Significant correlations were found between performance on traditional neuropsychological measures and IVR measures. For example, Stroop CW performance significantly correlated with the number of parking simulator levels completed (τ=0.43, p<0.01). This suggests that IVR measures assess the same underlying cognitive constructs as traditional tasks. In addition, IVR measures contributed a significant percentage of the explained variance in age.ConclusionIVR measures (i.e. number of parking simulator levels completed and number of objects placed in the seating arrangement task) were found to be stronger contributors than existing traditional neuropsychological tasks in predicting age-related cognitive decline. Future research should investigate the implementation of these real-world-based tasks in clinical groups given this promising initial work.


Author(s):  
Kevin Lesniak ◽  
Conrad S. Tucker ◽  
Sven Bilen ◽  
Janis Terpenny ◽  
Chimay Anumba

Immersive virtual reality systems have the potential to transform the manner in which designers create prototypes and collaborate in teams. Using technologies such as the Oculus Rift or the HTC Vive, a designer can attain a sense of “presence” and “immersion” typically not experienced by traditional CAD-based platforms. However, one of the fundamental challenges of creating a high quality immersive virtual reality experience is actually creating the immersive virtual reality environment itself. Typically, designers spend a considerable amount of time manually designing virtual models that replicate physical, real world artifacts. While there exists the ability to import standard 3D models into these immersive virtual reality environments, these models are typically generic in nature and do not represent the designer’s intent. To mitigate these challenges, the authors of this work propose the real time translation of physical objects into an immersive virtual reality environment using readily available RGB-D sensing systems and standard networking connections. The emergence of commercial, off-the shelf RGB-D sensing systems such as the Microsoft Kinect, have enabled the rapid 3D reconstruction of physical environments. The authors present a methodology that employs 3D mesh reconstruction algorithms and real time rendering techniques to capture physical objects in the real world and represent their 3D reconstruction in an immersive virtual realilty environment with which the user can then interact. A case study involving a commodity RGB-D sensor and multiple computers connected through standard TCP internet connections is presented to demonstrate the viability of the proposed methodology.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 21-45
Author(s):  
Reginaldo Schiavini ◽  
Heli Meurer

The objective of this study was to use virtual reality as a validation method of a new multimodal warning for use in situations of risk and danger. This warning is intended to be more efficient than the static warnings as regards their ability to convey clear, objective information and securely. The virtual environment used was developed with immersive virtual reality simulating a risk and danger to the user. This virtual environment allows situations are simulated in real life would be impossible for putting at risk the lives of people. For the warning efficiency were evaluated, we used two warnings, static and multimodal, which consisted of harmonization between the ISO and ANSI standards. As innovation factor used was the explanation of the consequences of non-compliance. Multimodal elements used in the notice were a file with a recorded human voice and a flashing red light. These results demonstrated that the virtual environment used, and the multimodal warning were efficient in their goals. The results of the variables used were positive and the hypotheses was validated with the use of statistical tests.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paola Araiza ◽  
Therese Keane ◽  
Jennifer L. Beaudry ◽  
Jordy Kaufman

In recent years, immersive virtual reality technology (IVR) has seen a substantial improvement in its quality, affordability, and ability to simulate the real world. Virtual reality in psychology can be used for three basic purposes: immersion, simulation, and a combination of both. While the psychological implementations of IVR have been predominately used with adults, this review seeks to update our knowledge about the uses and effectiveness of IVR with children. Specifically, its use as a tool for pain distraction, neuropsychological assessment, and skills training. Results showed that IVR is a useful tool when it is used either for immersive or simulative purposes (e.g., pain distraction, neuropsychological assessment), but when its use requires both simulation (of the real world) and immersion (e.g., a vivid environment), it is trickier to implement effectively.


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