A whole new world that is only a touch away
VIRTUAL REALITY
1 () Not long ago computers were considered an amazing invention.
Today they form part of our everyday lives. The latest thing today is Virtual Reality. A virtual Reality (VR) system can transport the user to exotic locations such as the cockpit of a space module, a beach in Hawaii or the inside of the human body.
2 () The word which comes closest to describing Virtual Reality is “simulator”. VR technology resembles the flight simulators that are used to train pilots. With flight simulation, an airplane cockpit is mounted onto a platform which moves with the motions of a simulated airplane. VR is also a simulator, but instead of looking at a flat, two-dimensional screen and operating a lever, the person who experiences VR is surrounded by a 3-D (three-dimensional) computer-generated representation, and is able to move around in a simulated world, seeing it from different angles.
3 () The VR system is still in the early stages of its development. At the moment it is necessary to put a large, clumsy-looking high-tech helmet on you head to see the simulated world, and you have to wear a special glove on your hand in order to manipulate the objects you see there. Lenses and two miniature display screens inside the helmet create the illusion that the screen surrounds you on every side. You can “look behind” computer-generated objects, pick them up and examine them, walk around and see things from different angle. This complex visual model changes every time you move according to a programme in a powerful computer, to which the helmet and glove are linked by cables.
4 () Already today VR is used in medicine to improve X-rays by allowing radiographers to see a three-dimensional view of the body. It is also used in police training schools. By using VR, Scottish police can train police drivers in emergency response driving: high speed driver-training is done safely in a simulated car. Developers of VR say its potential is powerful. In schools, pupils could explore the Great Pyramid, or an Aztec temple or study molecules from the inside; in hospitals, surgeons could plan operations by first “traveling” through the brain, heart or lungs without damaging the body.
5 () But, of course, there are dangers as well as benefits. In the wrong hands VR can be used for power fantasies and pornography. Fortunately, perhaps, it will be some time before the “virtual world” can truly mimic the real one.
1.1 Знайдіть у тексті слова або вирази з наступним значенням. Вивчіть нові слова або словосполучення:
1 strange or unusual
2 looks like
3 simulated
4 control
5 improve
6 possibility for development
7 doing harm to
8 copy the behavior