VIRTUAL REALITY- The

Endless Possibilities
What is real? How do you define real? If you're talking about what
you can hear, what you can smell, taste and feel, then real is
simply electrical signals interpreted by your brain.
- Morpheus (The Matrix)
As Morpheus rightly said how can we convincingly tell the
difference between what is real and what is not ? The Matrix
introduced us to an idea which most of us had hitherto been
unaware of. A world which is not so real and exists only in our
mind. As awe-inspiring and amazing this virtual world might
seem, it is not at all a concept of mere fiction. Virtual Reality holds
the possibility of walking into the constructs of our imagination.
Virtual Reality has been around for more than 3 decades though it
has not been getting its due spotlight. Virtual Reality can be
broadly understood as a simple extrapolation of a humans senses.
It is one of those things that is literally going to shape the near
future. You might ask what would such a future look like ?
Imagine waking up one morning in your regular room. A normal
person would want to read the newspaper. But instead of getting
up you would just pick up a seemingly plain sheet of glass which
would display the headlines and would also be continually
updated. Say you are having guests over and you had just been
on a wonderful holiday. You want to describe your experience but
you know that mere words will not convey the beauty of the
landscape. It would be fantastic if you could show your guests the
exact same scenery you had experienced.

In such a future, you would just input a voice command and the
room would magically transform itself into a perfect rendition of
your holiday destination. Virtual Reality offers many more
interesting applications. At the center of it all is gaming. Games
would become realistic and the immersion aspect would be outworldly to say the least. In game, you would be able to move akin
to your real world self and even interact with your fellow gamers
in pure 3D. It would be like living a dream with the catch being
that in this particular dream you have absolute control over your
actions. Lets digress from the entertainment aspect a little bit.
Architects would benefit from virtual models of buildings. There
can also be concept models of new vehicles. But perhaps the most
useful aspect of Virtual Reality would be its applications for
military and medical purpose. Training programs would become
more realistic and help in better shaping the new trainees. Medical
surgery training would become more effective. Even psychological
therapy will benefit from Virtual Reality.
All of these ideas might seem a bit far-fetched but it is not quite
the case. Research on Virtual Reality has been going on for a long
while and today some systems have been built which can create a
simulated world. Researches prefer the term Virtual
Environment . A true experience ideally should include 3-D
images that appear to be life sized from the users perspective.
There is a concept of the users immersion and the users
interaction. Together, these two thoughts give rise to a combined
concept of telepresence. The system should be able to track the
users motions particularly the head & eye movement and adjust
the image to reflect the change of perspective. Head Mount
Displays(HMDs) are available these days that use Cathode Ray
Tubes(CRT) or a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD). The University Of
Illinois is famous for its Cave Automatic Virtual Environment
(CAVE) in which a room can render a prefect replication of a
lanscape.

Facebook recently acquired Oculus VR, the current leader in

Virtual Reality technology. The Oculus Rift is a headset which
allows one to enter a completely immersive computer generated
environment, like a game or a movie scene or even a far away
palace.
Now, the question is where exactly or rather how exactly do we
proceed from this point on ?What kind of technology would make
proper virtual reality a definite possibility. Unfortunately, even
though we can boast of great technologies achievements and are
thriving in the illustrious information age, the technology at
present is just not cut out for the task. After all, any sufficiently
advanced technology seems indistinguishable from magic.
Two terminologies can answer the above question :
Nanotechnology & Quantum Computing. Both of these areas have
seen solid research undertaking and are certainly the technologies
that will shape our world in the near future. Nanobots each fitted
with a quantum computer can accomplish the impossible feat.
Utility Fog or UFog in short is a hypothetical collection of microscale robots that will work in harmony to achieve certain
functions. Microscopic nanomites, called foglets would have twelve
arms apiece - each with four degrees of freedom that would link
together mechanically with other foglets to produce a rendition of
a continuous substance. Billions of foglets would co-ordinate their
actions to form an intelligent cloud like mist, capable of changing
its macroscopic structure as well as its optical properties over a
wide range, enabling the construction of temporary objects in
three-dimensional space. Each individual foglet would have an onboard quantum computer. These foglets would function as
intelligent matter, working together in vast numbers to create
virtual objects in actual 3D space. They would float like tiny dust

particles present in air but would only occupy about 2-3% of the
volume they fill.
Such devices like foglets could be constructed using a device
called a molecular assembler which was proposed by K.Eric
Drexler, the man who popularized the term nanotechnology. The
molecular assembler would be able to guide chemical reacions by
positioning reactive molecules with atomic precision. Foglets would
form a stable material by joining arms in twelve different
directions in order to form a kind of robotic, isotropic crystal
lattice. Each arm would be capable of four Degrees Of Freedom
(DOF) - telescoping in and out as well as waving back and forth in
two directions. Each arm would have a three-finger gripper with
one additional DOF - rotation. The grippers would be designed for
the sole purpose of coupling with the gripper of another foglet.
Both information and energy could be shared between the
individual foglets when linked together.The material properties of a
mass of foglets would be determined by their programming.
Sensors in each arm of the foglets would allow them to sense the
forces involved and respond appropriately as a coherent whole.
Foglets are but one interesting idea which can make Virtual Reality
possible. Other exotic ideas might also come forward in the future.
The key is to imagine. Believe in the impossible and it will shape
itself. How far do YOU see yourself from this Virtual Reality ??