MODERN ENGINEERING MARVELS VIRTUAL REALITY HEADSETS Valerie Bodden Checkerboard Library An Imprint of Abdo Publishing abdopublishing com
1 virtual field trip Your teacher says it is time for a field trip But you and your classmates don’t pile onto a bus Instead you strap on big dark goggles Instantly your classroom disappears You are standing at the edge of a huge crater Below you lava boils and splashes Smoke and gases billow around you A low rumble fills the air Your teacher throws you a rope You are going down into a volcano But you are really sitting safely at your desk This is the power of virtual reality Virtual reality or VR is the use of technology to create a fake world that feels real Virtual reality’s goal is to create telepresence This is the feeling that you have actually been to another world To achieve this goal virtual reality uses immersion Immersion means that you feel like a virtual world is all around you Another part of telepresence is interaction Interaction means you can engage with the virtual world and the world responds 4
It is estimated that 200 million virtual-reality headsets will be sold by 2020 People have been working on virtual reality for a long time And some of the VR devices available today are amazing While a virtual field trip into a volcano isn’t quite possible yet it may be closer than you think 5
