Imagine meeting your beloved ones once again after their death. Their eyes, nose, hands, and even fingers will look just as they did before, taking you back in time and helping you say goodbye for the last time. Now in 2020, such a dream has been developed into a vivid reality through virtual reality (VR) technology. Will such trends in VR technology open new doors for the industry? Or will it last as just a momentary movement that is bound to bring on controversy?
On February 6, Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) aired a special human documentary called “I Met You” on a surprising application of virtual reality (VR) technology. The documentary showed a mother having a saddening encounter with a virtual version of her daughter Na-yeon, whom she had lost to blood cancer, made using VR technology and visual effects. Responding to a YouTube upload of the documentary, viewers “shed tears” and commented that their “hearts ached so much that it was almost uncomfortable to watch.”
In regard to the trend, Professor Kim Jounghyun (Department of Computer Science) shared, “Utilizing computer technology to remember our loved ones has long been perceived as an attractive application of VR and computer graphics for some time.” According to Professor Kim, VR technology had slowly emerged from the growing computer graphics community around the mid-1990s. VR was able to provide more of an interactive experience compared to traditional computer graphics and had thus seemed more attractive to users who were now able to “draw up a much higher level of empathy”—just like “I Met You” did for Na-yeon’s mother and the viewers of the documentary.
VR Technology in South Korea
As for South Korea, it is surely a well- known leader in the industry of gaming technology and is now stepping into the world of VR as well. In fact, South Korea is excelling in the field of VR gaming, combining the nation’s conventional expertise with up and coming interactive technology for all generations to enjoy. “There are now quite a few VR gaming theme parks or pavilions throughout the country,” Professor Kim commented, highlighting the bright future of the Korean VR industry.
Indeed, most of the popular streets in cities have VR gaming sites or even theme parks and VR cafés ready for customers to enjoy. According to Seoul Economy, the VR industry of South Korea is projected to be worth a total of 5.7 trillion South Korean won this year. This is less than the expected value of the global VR industry, but surely a great increase since its official introduction and commercial success in the late 2010s. Citizens, especially the younger generation, are now more than used to the term virtual reality, as even schools and afterschool programs are making use of the new technology to better the students’ learning experience.
Computers and VR Technology
Even so, many have a hard time distinguishing VR from traditional computer graphics. “Virtual reality seeks to achieve a total experience, while computer graphics is more about reality,” explains Professor Kim. “Reality is surely important in VR, but it is not everything.” While it may seem odd that virtual reality focuses less on creating realistic graphics, it simply means that VR relates to a more multidimensional, sensual experience for users. “To provide a complete experience, multimodal interaction is important—that is, providing believable feedback in our multiple senses: visual, aural, tactile, haptic, and even olfactory or taste.”
Simulating and delivering such experience to human users are challenging tasks that VR technology tackles. The technology “emulates how humans communicate and interact in the real world, such as talking, applying, and feeling for forces, gestures, and emotions,” Professor Kim says. “Artificial intelligence (AI) will play even more important roles in the future in the sense of enabling technology for understanding the intentions of the human user and translating them into a believable form.”
More Trends in VR Technology
Professor Lee Jongtak (Department of VR Media Contents, Korea Polytechnics University) shared his insight that most commercial VR services being developed in the current state are related to video games or educational material. “Commercial entertainment such as VR game rooms are experiencing quite a success these days. As a result, companies such as SONY are releasing a lot of VR games suitable for household play.”
“The application areas for VR are very wide,” explained Professor Lee. “In addition to gaming and entertainment, as technology that allows one to experience something that cannot be attained in the real world, it can be used in training, education, medical treatments, and tele-presence and communication. We are currently experiencing another revival of VR due to some recent advancements in various key technologies, such as computer graphics hardware, inexpensive display headsets, and stable sensors.”
Obstacles to Overcome
While highlighting the importance and the potential of the VR industry, Professor Kim and Professor Lee also shared their concerns about the obstacles that might hinder its growth. “I feel that we still need to overcome several obstacles to truly bring VR into our lives,” said Professor Kim. “Headsets need to become lighter and more usable, sickness to be lessened, the interactions more natural, and the platforms more standardized. Once improvements are made in these aspects, it would kick-start the echo- system of more content and wider user base.”
Professor Lee elaborated that the technology’s narrow focus on games and education needs to expand further into more diverse applications. “A diverse development of VR technology could help the stagnant technology in military, firefighting, disaster prevention, and the medical and industrial fields.”
In a similar manner, the most important progress to be made in general would be in the hardware. “We have already experienced such an issue before during the launch of 3D televisions,” said Professor Lee. “There was a massive investment into this new TV-technology, but not enough hardware, or television models themselves, that were compatible with the technology.” Professor Lee suggests that more research and development in hardware should be made in order to prevent such mistakes from happening within the VR industry.
Virtual reality technology is surely a promising and futuristic field, providing groundbreaking entertainment and even added efficiency to our daily lives. In order to overcome the limitations facing the industry, there is great hope that the computer mega minds of our generation will turn these dreams into an easy reality.