Virtual Reality: Real VR- Beyond the Hype

John P. Sullins Ph.D. 2002, Ph.D in Philosophy, Computers and Cognitive Science, Binghamton University Sonoma State University Philosophy Department. 2003- GARTNER HYPE CYCLE SIMULATIONS AND VR USE IN THE MILITARY EARLY MILITARY SIMULATIONS

• ABAX (SAND TABLE) USED FOR PRACTICING WRITING, DOING CALCULATIONS, PLAYING GAMES, PLANNING MILITARY ATTACKS, ETC. • ("The word abax, or abacus, is used both for the reckoning-board with its counters and the play- board with its pieces, ...") • The Still used today THE FIRST : “WAR CHESS”

• Prussia in 1780 by Johann Christian Ludwig Hellwig. Hellwig's wargame was the first true wargame because it attempted to be realistic enough to teach useful lessons in military strategy to future army officers. Hellwig was a college professor and many of his students were aristocrats destined for military service. But Hellwig also wanted to sell his wargame commercially as a recreational item. Hellwig chose to base his game on chess so as to make it attractive and accessible to chess players.[18] Hellwig published a second edition of his rulebook in 1803. KRIEGSPEIL, 1824

• In 1824, a Prussian army officer named Georg Heinrich Rudolf Johann von Reisswitz presented to the Prussian General Staff a highly realistic wargame that he and his father had developed over the years. Instead of a chess-like grid, this game was played on accurate paper maps of the kind the Prussian army used. This allowed the game to model terrain naturally and simulate battles in real locations. The pieces could be moved across the map in a free-form manner, subject to terrain obstacles. The pieces, each of which represented some kind of army unit (an infantry battalion, a cavalry squadron, etc.), were little rectangular blocks made of lead. The pieces were painted either red or blue to indicate the faction it belonged to. KRIEGSPEIL, 1824

• The umpire uses dice to determine how much damage that attacking units inflict upon the enemy. The dice designed by Reisswitz are of unique design, with each face displaying a multitude of numbers and symbols that denoted different damage scores, measured in points, for different situations. There are five dice: • Die I is used to determine ranged damage inflicted by line infantry and skirmishers fighting in the open, hand-to-hand combat results when both sides were even, and whether a howitzer attack sets a village on fire. • Die II is used to determine ranged damage by skirmishers firing from cover, and hand-to-hand combat results when the odds are 3:2. • Die III is used to determine damage inflicted by artillery under good conditions. • Die IV is to determine hand-to-hand combat results when the odds are 3:1. • Die V is used to determine damage inflicted by artillery under bad conditions, and hand-to-hand combat results when the odds are 4:1. MINIATURES

• Popularized in England by H. G. Wells • Little Wars (1913). This is widely remembered as the first rulebook for (for terrestrial armies, at least). Little Wars had very simple rules to make it fun and accessible to anyone. • brings Military miniatures to the US in the 1950s • The Soldier factory opens in Cambria in 1973 • was another early American miniatures player who helped develop a medieval wargame called Chainmail in 1971 and that famously evolved into Dungeons & Dragons in 1974 MILITARY SIMULATORS

• 1929 analog flight simulator • 1942 the “Blue Box” widely used during WWII to train pilots

The Link Trainer “The Blue Box” SIMNET

• Interesting networked simulation for semi real time planning • First virtual batlefield

• William Gibson Didn't Invent Cyberspace, Air Force Captain Jack Thorpe Did. • Wired 04.01.97 • Lead to Arpanet, the precursor to the Internet 1983 WHAT TO MODEL?

• How realistic does the virtual model have to be? • Thorpe realized that just a few bits of data needed to be kept on each entity • "... advances which are seen on the horizon are not simple improvements in teaching techniques or higher fidelity simulators, but rather bold concepts which tightly align training systems with real combat readiness and make them indistinguishable.“ • SIMNET and Insider’s perspective

• "Group interactions are the most complicated combat operations," says the tall, soft-spoken Thorpe. "They also tend to be the ones in which the costs of screwing up are the highest. Yet because it is so difficult and expensive to organize groups, pilots get very little training in collective skills. They have to learn these skills on the job, during combat, which makes casualties disproportionately high during the first few missions.“ • Wired 04.01.97 • Lead to Arpanet, the precursor to the Internet 1983

https://youtu.be/-1F7vaNP9w0 MILITARY SIMULATION AS REALITY

• Set at an unspecified date in Earth's future, the novel presents an imperiled humankind after two conflicts with the Formics, an insectoid alien species they dub the "buggers". In preparation for an anticipated third invasion, children, including the novel's protagonist, Andrew "Ender" Wiggin, are trained from a very young age by putting them through increasingly difficult games, including some in zero gravity, where Ender's tactical genius is revealed. • https://youtu.be/FRhZoI-BbF0 SIMULATION INDISTINGUISHABLE FROM ACTUAL WAR

• UAV air crews • https://youtu.be/_w5NGKt71k4 • Training, modeling, simulation • How close to something like Ender’s game are we? • Certainly with some Air and sea operations • But ground troops? MARINE DOOM

• 1996 modification of the first-person shooter Doom II for the United States Marine Corps, which was later made available for download to the public. GROWING MARKET

• Worth Billions of dollars

Military Simulation and Virtual Training Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Platform Type (Flight, Vehicle, Battlefield, Virtual Boot Camp), By Application (Ground, Air, Naval), And Segment Forecasts, 2018 - 2025

VR TRAINING FOR WARFIGHTERS TODAY

• Marines • Navy • Army GROUND UAVS CYBERWAR https://www.with.in/watch/zero-days-vr BREAK SIMULATIONS AND VR USE IN SCIENCE VR AND SCIENCE EDUCATION

• BUILDING EXPERIENCES AND VOCABULARY IN SCIENCE • VIRTUAL FIELD TRIPS AND CONNECTING DATA WITH ENVIRONMENT • VISUALIZE ABSTRACT CONCEPTS • HTTPS://YOUTU.BE/ZSKTI1MEWXO • SPACE SCIENCE • HTTPS://WWW.SAMSUNG.COM/UK/SPACEDESC ENT/

VR & AR FOR CODING

• IMPROVE CODING CONCEPT RETENTION • ADD A PLAYFUL AND FUN ELEMENT TO THIS CURRICULUM • BUILDING MARKETABLE SKILLS EARLY

https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2019/02/k-12-teachers-use-virtual-and-augmented-reality-platforms-teach-coding-perfcon VR LAB SPACE

• GOOGLE AND LABSTER ARE CREATING A VR LAB SPACE FOR EDUCATORS • Students with access to Daydream View or Lenovo Mirage Solo with Daydream headsets will be able to do things like sequence DNA or look at organisms under a microscope. The companies have made more than 40 of these virtual labs so far https://www.cnet.com/news/google-opens-doors-to-vr-labs-for-science-students/ VR AS MEDICINE

• HELP DOCTORS AND PATIENTS PLAN FOR SURGERY • VR could be more effective in detecting early Alzheimer’s disease than traditional cognitive tests • VR THERAPY FOR PARKINSON'S DISEASE • HTTPS://YOUTU.BE/ZAYG-FUILD4

https://www.docwirenews.com/docwire-pick/top-4-virtual-reality-vr-breakthroughs-in-medicine/ VR AND MEDICAL EDUCATION

• STUDY ANATOMY • VISUALIZE ORGANS AT ANY SCALE AND IN MOTION • VIRTUALLY PRACTICE SURGERY VR AND THE HUMANITIES

• ART HISTORY • COMMUNICATIONS • ENGLISH • PHILOSOPHY • ETHNIC STUDIES • THEATER ARTS • TO NAME A FEW HITS AND MISSES

HITS MISSES • Immersive and engaging • Costs +$500 (downward trend) • Empowering if students also create VR experiences • Loan equipment during COVID • Sanitize after every use • Sanitize after every use • Illustrate their writing • Tech support (need for grant funding) • Connect through VR Chat • Education is more than a gadget, technohype • STEM Monopoly on lab space and equipment • https://www.schoolbag.edu.sg/story/first-person-real- issues-virtual-classroom • Teacher training SAFETY

• Oculus safety video • "In a virtual environment, the way we look and https://youtu.be/NB3Fqmwx_E8 interact is changed because we may be • Eyesight projecting onto the eyes something that looks • "There are a variety of potential far away, but in reality, it's only a few issues," said University of centimeters from the eye," said Walter California, Berkeley optometry Greenleaf, a behavioral neuroscientist who has Professor Martin Banks, who studied VR in medical settings for over 30 studies visual perception in years. Science calls that the "vergence- virtual environments. "One is how accommodation conflict" and isn't quite sure how we affect the growth of the eye, serious it might be. "We're tricking the brain," which can lead to myopia or said Greenleaf, who works with Stanford nearsightedness." University's Virtual Human Interaction Lab, "and we don't know the long-term effect of this.“ • Worsens health conditions • Do not use if "intoxicated, overly tired, or are suffering from a cold, headache, upset stomach, or other sickness" https://www.cnn.com/2017/12/13/health/virtual-reality-vr-dangers-safety/index.html SIMULATIONS AND VR USE IN INDUSTRY VR AND RENEWABLE ENERGY

• Letting Shareholders virtually tour sites • Augmented reality Turbine lab • Fife College Immersive Hybrid Reality lab opened in Scotland in 2017 and introduced a virtual reality system that teaches students to troubleshoot on the nacelle of a seven-megawatt offshore wind turbine by simply wearing a specialized goggles.

• Because the use of VR and AR are more cost efficient and safer as compared to actually sending trainees on site, the renewable energy sector is now joining the ranks of oil and gas, aerospace, nuclear, and construction industries as primary users of the VR technology for training. • Video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdPsTsDtcBw&feature=emb_logo •

https://gineersnow.com/magazines/virtual-reality-renewable-energy-industry VR AND NUCLEAR ENERGY

• Visualize reactors in action • Training in otherwise restricted or secure sites

• Virtual reality is becoming more common in gaming, but industry is also jumping on the VR bandwagon. GE has been experimenting with using VR for applications as varied as factory design and medical scans. At GE Healthcare’s Global Center of Excellence in Medical Imaging Software in Buc, France, engineers used detailed 3D information from CT and MRI body scans to build a virtual experience that enables doctors to “enter” a specific part of the body and closely examine it for anomalies like polyps, tumors and lesions.

https://www.ge.com/news/reports/thats-powerful-ge-using-virtual-reality-train-nuclear-engineers VR AND CONSTRUCTION

• Visualize construction process • Training for large equipment • Remote site visits • Architecture • Help clients visualize the completed project • https://youtu.be/jwe0j8mul4c

•

https://jasoren.com/virtual-reality-in-construction/ VR AND AEROSPACE

• Visualize designs • Training simulators for pilots • AR and maintenance • https://youtu.be/vRBlAaztdVQ • Passenger entertainment

https://industrytoday.com/virtual-reality-usage-in-aerospace-industry/ HEALTH AND WELLBEING OF WORKERS

• Depersonalization / Derealization Disorder (DPDR) • Long periods in VR can cause • Chronic feelings of the unreality of experiences • Difficulty in mentally distinguishing virtual and real environments causing problems for the patient • Anxiety and alienation • Post VR Sadness (VR Hangover)

https://www.matrise.no/2020/10/virtual-reality-depersonalization-derealization/ BYSTANDER

• https://filmfreeway.com/Bystander500 • Director - Chang Liu