Research Proposal

Running head: VIRTUAL REALITY AND ITS CONNECTION TO HUMAN PERCEPTION1

VIRTUAL REALITY AND ITS CONNECTION TO HUMAN PERCEPTION 2

Virtual Reality and Its Connection to Human Perception

Harsha Vardhan Gunduboina

Table of Contents Introduction 3 Solution Approach to Human Perception and Virtual Reality 4 Conclusion 5 References 7

Introduction

Technology has made significant advancements over the past decades. One area of interest is virtual reality (VR) which is the simulation generated by a computer. The simulation may be of an environment or a three-dimensional image which people can interact with in a seemingly real or physical manner. Models exist in the mind and are expressed through visualizations to provide physical expressions of cognitive thought. Virtual reality has been a common technological trend for quite some time now. It is an area which has been researched on by many people and finds its applications in various fields like medicine, military, aerospace, entertainment, and industrial training for hazardous substances to mention but a few (Angie, 2009). In order to design the best equipment for VR, designers have to understand well how it connects to the real world. Vision is not something easily understood, but scientists have been working on the area with hope of making the experience of using VR more realistic (Guenard, 2017). VR has been used to enhance industrial communication, although it faces some challenges which include high costs and the fact that many people are aware of the usefulness of the technological development (Angie, 2009).

Human perception can be described as to what the mind infers beyond the provided data and information to the extent of seeing the most uncomplicated scenarios as being complex and multifaceted. Factors which contribute to perception include interpretation of the perceived object or event, limitations associated with cognition, and the interplays and attention between an individual's past experiences including their culture. Thus, creation of perfect visualizations is a challenge because it is not possible to produce an effective framework for communication and collaboration. Visual perception provides the individuals with a satisfaction that the world they see with the help of VR is not the real or exact image but a constructed version because of cognitive constraints. A person awareness is not determined by the simulation entering their senses, but by whatever they choose to attend (Agnes, 2009). The human eye receives electromagnetic radiation signals continuously from which it should filter the most essential information like color, contrast, and depth. Photoreceptors found in the flat retina change the light they receive into electrical signals which the brain filters and influences into our perception of a three-dimensional world. (Guenard, 2017). VR does not always gel with human perception because the construction of an interactive system is not constrained to hardware and software, and that's why there is a great need to include the human factor for perfect VR (Finnegan, 2018).

Solution Approach to Human Perception and Virtual Reality

The main challenge faced by VR is the ability to transport humans to new worlds and still make them have a feeling of sensible presence. Also, with the continued improvement of VR which makes it more complex, it is becoming difficult to isolate each element and classify them according to the exact effect they have on human perception. One approach towards solving the problem of perception and VR is by considering the maximum likelihood perception which expounds on how our senses receive every detail of information from our surrounding and use them to clearly understand the environment. In other words, each sense contributes an estimate of the explanation of the environment but it is noisy (Finnegan, 2018). For instance, a person walking down on dimly lit alley may see a shadow approaching and footsteps. Due to the nature of the dark, they decide to listen keenly to the sound of the footsteps to estimate how far the person is away from them. The first signal of light cannot be depended upon because of the noise which is darkness. However, the sound of the footsteps is very reliable in this scenario but it does mean that they stop looking at the shadow. This scenario explains how two senses how used to understand the environment in a vivid way.

Many people find it a challenge to estimate distances when using VR technology. A driving simulator which has been designed to help people in their driving experience can easily compress distances which then would void the training especially in scenarios which would involve risks in real life setting. Combination of information from all senses helps improve perception lot. Maximum likelihood estimation helps the VR to consider all the senses available in order to use the information they provide to create a space where human perception is utilized well, and at the end of the day, it will create a more immersive VR experience. In simpler terms, maximum likelihood estimation is not about separating signals from the noises, but taking all the signals together with the noise to make a more effective VR which is expands its applications from the entertainment industry to other practical applications (Finnegan, 2018).

The other challenge faced by VR technology is trying to assign coordinates in a perceptual space. For instance, having a real room in the world whereby people can be able to observe something like the space. It is difficult to make sense of people's responses from their experience in the room because, back in their mind, they know that they are already in a stable which is not moving or changing. It is very difficult to suggest that the perception of stability by a person in the room comes from them having an unchanging three-dimensional model of the environment in their head. Trying to pick up coordinates of the objects in the simulation poses a great challenge because it is difficult to tell whether an object is in front or behind another one. Thus, the solution is to give up trying to give coordinates of each of the objects (Laloup, 2012).

Conclusion

Virtual reality is one technology which has been very helpful in various fields like aerospace, military, and medicine, to mention but a few. It is an experience which immerses the user in a virtual world which imitates the events in the real world. The main problem which encounters VR is the integration of human perception in the field. To find a solution to this, an effective method which is can be used is maximum likelihood estimation which does not separate signals with the noise and takes the signals with the noise to make sense of the information. The other solution is to try not to give the objects in a perceptual environment their coordinates.

References

Angie, J. (2009). Visualization techniques, human perception and the built environment. Northumbria Working Paper Series: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Built and Virtual Environment, 2 (2): 93-103. Retrieved from http://nrl.northumbria.ac.uk/1270/

Finnegan, D.J. (March 5, 2018). How to solve virtual reality's human perception problem. Retrieved July 2, 2020 from, https://www.google.com/amp/s/theconversation.com/amp/how-to-solve-virtual-realitys-human-perception-problem-92128

Guenard, R. (July 13, 2017). Perception is reality - and virtual reality. Retrieved July 2, 2020 from, https://omnia.sas.upenn.edu/story/perception-reality%E2%80%94and-virtual-reality

Laloup, J. (April 3, 2012). Using virtual reality to understand human perception. Retrieved July 2, 2020 from, https://everyone.plos.org/2012/04/03/using-virtual-reality-to-understand-human-perception-an-author-spotlight-on-andrew-glennerster/