A Brave New Virtual World

by Omri Nachmani

Seeing is believing. But in the case of school textbooks and PowerPoint presentations, seeing becomes much more passive and disengaging. If you’re lucky enough to  possess a powerful imagination, you could make any lecture - whether it’s about the powerhouse of the cell or the American Civil War -  just as realistic as  if you were seeing it for yourself. For the rest of us, a little push would be well appreciated.. That’s why, when I received a piece of cardboard as a Christmas gift, I was soon unable to put it down. This Google Cardboard “device”, paired with your run-of-the-mill smartphone, turns into a fully immersive virtual reality headset. Thus began my year-long obsession with this up and coming technological revolution.

If you are unfamiliar with virtual reality (VR), it involves wearing a headset, similar to your chemistry lab goggles. These goggles possess a screen (either from attaching your smartphone or built-into the goggles themselves) and an accelerometer to submerge you in a virtual world. In my case, I was suddenly dropped into the middle of the jungle, under the sea, through space, and then back to my living room, all from folding a piece of cardboard into oddly shaped spectacles. Far from staring at a huge video that simply stretches your visual field, you can actually look around and change your point of view, exploring the world  behind or above you. Words don’t do it justice; first-hand experience is needed.

It’s easy to imagine the potential of this technology in entertainment, education, and even healthcare. Just today, I entered a small robotic vehicle that began shrinking to the size of a molecule, and then proceeded to enter a white blood cell through a protein channel where I could see microtubules assembling, the rough endoplasmic reticulum synthesizing proteins, and mitochondria floating in the distance. Call it The Magic School Bus on steroids. It’s one thing to stare at a picture of a cell, and another to watch a well-made YouTube video. Being able to enter the cell, with the ability to see and experience everything around you, used to be the stuff of science fiction – until now.

Imagine the educational possibilities: Students would no longer be restricted  to the two-dimensional pages of a textbook. They could be placed directly in the center of what they are learning: historical battles, natural history museums, or operating rooms - with the ease of putting on goggles and pressing a button. Imagine the medical student trying to understand the intricacies of the human body, being able to zoom in and out of body systems with the blink of an eye.
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Virtual reality also has the potential to revolutionize healthcare. Currently, there are millions of bedridden patients restricted to a greyish hospital window view of the outdoors. With VR, they could suddenly be liberated by something as ubiquitous as a smartphone. These patients could hike up Machu Picchu, fly across the solar system, or sit in their old living room and flip through a photo album. Imagine the possibilities for the healthcare providers who prescribes 30 minutes of natural scenery every day to elevate their patient’s spirit and improve their outcome. Already, this technology has been integrated into the treatment of phobias, ADHD, Alzheimer’s, stroke, and phantom limb pain.

While still in it’s infancy, VR promises to revolutionize the way in which we interact with our world. No longer will we be restricted to boring and monotonous lectures, draining the life out of what  was once an interesting topic. No longer will we have to travel ten hours by plane, much less 30 minutes by car to an IMAX theatre, to see and experience natural wonders, Jurassic parks, or magical boarding schools. Seeing is believing - and I’m excited for what’s in store.

Note 1: Want to see what I’m on about?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5ImkDpqDGU  (Anatomy)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tcc0h_W2Sa4 (Medicine)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITNh7WBOFYI (Sports)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TckqNdrdbgk (Art)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2U9lXEnHns&t=260s (Social)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xXy7lbs-D48 (Augmented Reality, a bit different but on the same line of thought)

Note 2: Want to experience what I’m on about, for cheap?
https://www.amazon.ca/CARDBOARD®-Google-Cardboard-Instructions-Numbered/dp/3056517311/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1479004793&sr=8-3&keywords=google+cardboard