CHAPTER 5 - Introduction to VR

Introduction to VR
Introduction to VR and definitions and its components., Hardware components:
Display devices: LCD, OLED Audio: Speakers, Earphones, Bone conduction
Touch: Haptic Device GPU and CPU, Input devices like game controller, data
glows, Joysticks Tracking Hardware: Industrial measurement Unit-IMU,
Gyroscope, accelerometer Software component: Java3D, VRML

5.1 Introduction:
● The phrase ‘virtual reality’ sounds rather like an oxymoron. It was coined
first in the early 1990’s, and took up the media and market by storm.
● Simply put, VR is a technology that allows the user to virtually execute a
task while believing that they are executing it in the real world.
● VR offers the user a rich sensory experience that is totally immersive.
Today’s VR applications have branched out into numerous domains from
education and medicine to the fascinating world of entertainment.
● A VR experience involves three technical elements – tracking, rendering
and display. They need to be executed flawlessly in order to give a rich
VR sensation.
● Tracking is the process of measuring body movements of the user. If a
pilot looks to the left and right as he or she takes the airliner on the
runway, these movements are tracked. In general, the VR software tracks
the body movements of the user in the 3D space (X, Y and Z axis).
Experts state that of the three parameters that comprise a VR
experience, tracking is by far the most important. It is pertinent to note
that the tracking of eye movements is more
● Rendering is the process of taking a symbolic 3D model that consists of
mathematical information and instantiating appropriate sights, sounds,
touch and sometimes even smell for the new location. Since the user
may change his / her position rapidly, especially the head, it is necessary
to render this info real fast and almost in real time.
Display is the manner in which the physical senses are replaced with digital
information. Once the sights and sounds for the new location are processed
and rendered, they need to be delivered to the user
5.1.1 Definition:
VR is a computer based 3D technology that simulates visual, auditory and other
sensory aspects of a user to give feeling of real life situations. VR simulates
natural stereoscopic viewing processes by using computer technology to create
right-eye and left-eye images of a given 3D object or scene.
5.1.2. Components:

● A VR system is made up of 2 major subsystems, the hardware and

software. The hardware can be further divided into computer or VR
engine and I/O devices, while the software can be divided into application
software and database as illustrated below.
Virtual Reality System Hardware
● The major components of the hardware are the VR engine or computer
system, input devices and output devices.
Input Devices.
● The input devices are the means by which the user interacts with the
virtual world. They send signals to the system about the action of the
user, so as to provide appropriate reactions back to the user through the
output devices in real time. They can be classified into tracking device,
point input device, bio-controllers and voice device.
● VR Engine. In VR systems, the VR engine or computer system has to be
selected according to the requirement of the application. Graphic display
and image generation are some of the most important factors and time
consuming task in a VR system. The choice of the VE engine depends on
the application field, user, I/O devices, level of immersion and the graphic
output required, since it is responsible for calculating and generating
graphical models, object rendering, lighting, mapping, texturing,
simulation and display in real-time. The computer also handles the
interaction with users and serves as an interface with the I/O devices.
Output Devices.
● The output devices get feedback from the VR engine and pass it on to
the users through the corresponding output devices to stimulate the
senses. The possible classifications of output devices based on the
senses are: graphics (visual), audio (aural), haptic (contact or force),
smell and taste. Of these, the first 3 are frequently used in VR systems,
while smell and taste are still uncommon.
● Virtual Reality System Software and Tools
● Virtual reality system software is a colletion of tools and software for
designing, developing and maintaining virtual environments and the
database where the information is stored. The tools can be classified into
modeling tools and development tools.
● VR Modeling Tools. There are many modeling tools available for VR
designing, the most common ones are , 3ds Max, Maya and Creator.
Engineering specific applications might use software like CATIA, Pro/E,
Solidworks, UG, etc.
VR Development Tools.
● VR is a complex and integrative technology that borrows from many
other technologies, such as real time 3D computer graphics, tracking
technology, sound processing, and haptic technology, among others,
therefore software development flexibility and real time interaction is
needed. Starting the development of a VR system from the basic codes in
C/C++, Java, OpenGL, etc, requires a large amount of work and such
system reliability is usually low, therefore VR development tools are used.

5.2 Hardware Components

5.2.1 Display devices: LCD, OLED
1) LCD
LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) is a type of flat panel display which uses liquid crystals
in its primary form of operation.
How LCDs work?
A display is made up of millions of pixels. The quality of a display commonly refers
to the number of pixels; for example, a 4K display is made up of 3840 x2160 or
4096x2160 pixels. A pixel is made up of three subpixels; a red, blue and green
—commonly called RGB. When the subpixels in a pixel change color
combinations, a different color can be produced. With all the pixels on a display
working together, the display can make millions of different colors. When the
pixels are rapidly switched on and off, a picture is created.
The way a pixel is controlled is different in each type of display; CRT, LED, LCD and
newer types of displays all control pixels differently. In short, LCDs are lit by a
backlight, and pixels are switched on and off electronically while using liquid
crystals to rotate polarized light. A polarizing glass filter is placed in front and
behind all the pixels, the front filter is placed at 90 degrees. In between both
filters are the liquid crystals, which can be electronically switched on and off.
LCDs are made with either a passive matrix or an active matrix display grid. The
active matrix LCD is also known as a thin film transistor (TFT) display. The
passive matrix LCD has a grid of conductors with pixels located at each
intersection in the grid. A current is sent across two conductors on the grid to
control the light for any pixel. An active matrix has a transistor located at each
pixel intersection, requiring less current to control the luminance of a pixel. For
this reason, the current in an active matrix display can be switched on and off
more frequently, improving the screen refresh time.
Types of LCDs include:
● Twisted Nematic (TN)- which are inexpensive while having high
response times. However, TN displays have low contrast ratios, viewing
angles and color contrasts.
● In Panel Switching displays (IPS Panels)- which boast much better contrast
ratios, viewing angles and color contrast when compared to TN LCDs.
● Vertical Alignment Panels (VA Panels)- which are seen as a medium
quality between TN and IPS displays.
● Advanced Fringe Field Switching (AFFS)- which is a top performer
compared IPS displays in color reproduction range.
2) OLED
An organic light-emitting diode (OLED or organic LED), also known as organic
electroluminescent (organic EL) diode is a light-emitting diode (LED) in which
the emissive electroluminescent layer is a film of organic compound that emits
light in response to an electric current. This organic layer is situated between
two electrodes; typically, at least one of these electrodes is transparent. OLEDs
are used to create digital displays in devices such as television screens,
computer monitors, and portable systems such as smartphones and
handheld game consoles. A major area of research is the development of white
OLED devices for use in solid-state lighting applications
Types of OLEDs are
● Transparent OLEDs - use transparent or semi-transparent contacts on
both sides of the device to create displays that can be made to be both
top and bottom emitting (transparent). TOLEDs can greatly improve
contrast, making it much easier to view displays in bright sunlight. This
technology can be used in Head-up displays, smart windows or
augmented reality applications.
● Graded heterojunction - gradually decrease the ratio of electron holes
to electron transporting chemicals. This results in almost double the
quantum efficiency of existing OLEDs.
● Stacked OLEDs - Stacked OLEDs use a pixel architecture that stacks the
red, green, and blue subpixels on top of one another instead of next to
one another, leading to substantial increase in gamut and color depth,
and greatly reducing pixel gap. Other display technologies with RGB
(and RGBW) pixels mapped next to each other, tend to decrease
potential resolution.
● Inverted OLED - In contrast to a conventional OLED, in which the anode
is placed on the substrate, an Inverted OLED uses a bottom cathode that
can be connected to the drain end of an n-channel TFT especially for the
low cost amorphous silicon TFT backplane useful in the manufacturing of
AMOLED displays.
● All OLED displays (passive and active matrix) use a driver IC, often
mounted using Chip-on-glass (COG), using an Anisotropic conductive
film.
Working of OLED
A typical OLED is composed of a layer of organic materials situated between
two electrodes, the anode and cathode, all deposited on a substrate. The
organic molecules are electrically conductive as a result of delocalization of pi
electrons caused by conjugation over part or all of the molecule. These
materials have conductivity levels ranging from insulators to conductors, and
are therefore considered organic semiconductors. The highest occupied and
lowest unoccupied molecular orbitals (HOMO and LUMO) of organic
semiconductors are analogous to the valence and conduction bands of
inorganic semiconductors.
Originally, the most basic polymer OLEDs consisted of a single organic layer.
One example was the first light-emitting device synthesised by J. H. Burroughes
et al., which involved a single layer of poly(p-phenylene vinylene). However
multilayer OLEDs can be fabricated with two or more layers in order to improve
device efficiency. As well as conductive properties, different materials may be
chosen to aid charge injection at electrodes by providing a more gradual
electronic profile, or block a charge from reaching the opposite electrode and
being wasted. Many modern OLEDs incorporate a simple bilayer structure,
consisting of a conductive layer and an emissive layer. Developments in OLED
architecture in 2011 improved quantum efficiency (up to 19%) by using a
graded heterojunction. In the graded heterojunction architecture, the
composition of hole and electron-transport materials varies continuously within
the emissive layer with a dopant emitter. The graded heterojunction
architecture combines the benefits of both conventional architectures by
improving charge injection while simultaneously balancing charge transport
within the emissive region.
During operation, a voltage is applied across the OLED such that the anode is
positive with respect to the cathode. Anodes are picked based upon the quality
of their optical transparency, electrical conductivity, and chemical stability.[47]
A current of electrons flows through the device from cathode to anode, as
electrons are injected into the LUMO of the organic layer at the cathode and
withdrawn from the HOMO at the anode. This latter process may also be
described as the injection of electron holes into the HOMO. Electrostatic forces
bring the electrons and the holes towards each other and they recombine
forming an exciton, a bound state of the electron and hole. This happens closer
to the electron-transport layer part of the emissive layer, because in organic
semiconductors holes are generally more mobile than electrons. The decay of
this excited state results in a relaxation of the energy levels of the electron,
accompanied by emission of radiation whose frequency is in the visible region.
The frequency of this radiation depends on the band gap of the material, in this
case the difference in energy between the HOMO and LUMO.
As electrons and holes are fermions with half integer spin, an exciton may
either be in a singlet state or a triplet state depending on how the spins of the
electron and hole have been combined. Statistically three triplet excitons will be
formed for each singlet exciton. Decay from triplet states (phosphorescence) is
spin forbidden, increasing the timescale of the transition and limiting the
internal efficiency of fluorescent devices. Phosphorescent organic light-emitting
diodes make use of spin–orbit interactions to facilitate intersystem crossing
between singlet and triplet states, thus obtaining emission from both singlet
and triplet states and improving the internal efficiency.
5.2.2 Audio : Speakers , Earphone , Bone Conduction
a) Speakers
● A speaker driver is the raw electroacoustic component that makes a
loudspeaker work. As a transducer, its function is to transform energy
from one form to another. Specifically, this transducer transforms the
amplified electrical waves from your playback device, be that your
phone or the cartridge of your turntable, into sound pressure waves in
the air for your ears to detect.
● An amplifier feeds a signal to two terminals on the back of a speaker.
These terminals pass the current into a cylindrical coil of wire, which is
suspended in the circular gap between the poles of a permanent magnet.
This coil moves back and forth inside the magnetic field as the current
passing through it alternates in direction with the signal applied, per
Faraday’s law. The center of the speaker cone is attached to one end,
which gets driven back and forth by the moving coil. This cone is held at
 its edges by an airtight suspension or surround. As the cone moves, it
pushes and pulls the surrounding air; by doing so it creates pressure
waves in the air, called sound.
b) Earphones
Earphones are very small headphones that are fitted directly in the outer ear,
facing but not inserted in the ear canal. Earphones are portable and convenient,
but many people consider them uncomfortable. They provide hardly any
acoustic isolation and leave room for ambient noise to seep in; users may turn
up the volume dangerously high to compensate, at the risk of causing hearing
loss. On the other hand, they let the user be better aware of their surroundings.
Since the early days of the transistor radio, earphones have commonly been
bundled with personal music devices. They are sold at times with foam or
rubber pads for comfort. (The use of the term earbuds, which has been around
since at least 1984, did not hit its peak until after 2001, with the success of
Apple's MP3 player.

c) Bone-conduction
● Bone-conduction headphones use an acoustic approach to provide an
innovative way to enjoy music while simultaneously still being aware
of one’s surroundings.
● Although most sounds are transmitted through the air to our eardrums,
bone-conduction headphones rely on sound being transmitted through
vibrations on the bones of the head and jaw.
● The sounds from these headphones bypass the eardrum and relays
sound directly to the inner ear.
● Bone anchored hearing aids (BAHA) have been using this style
of sound transmission for years to help people who have
hearing difficulty.
● Unlike traditional headphones, bone conduction headphones sit on the
outside of the ear. This leaves the ear canal open to ambient sound while
also transmitting music from a portable device
● This makes bone-conduction a wise choice for avid cyclists, runners, or
walkers who would like to enjoy music while staying alert and aware of
their surroundings.
5.2.3 Touch: Haptic Device GPU and CPU, Input devices like game controller,
data glows, Joysticks Tracking
a) Touch: Haptic Devices
● Haptic technology refers to any system that recreates the feeling of
touch when interacting in a virtual environment. When we type on our
iPhone keyboards and the smartphone vibrates gently to show that it
recognizes the input, it is a form of haptic technology used for feedback.
● Haptic technology uses a combination of vibrations and motions to
confirm user inputs in VR and has major implications for virtual reality
(VR), as VR interactions do not use the familiar physical input systems
like a keyboard, a mouse, a joystick, or a touchscreen
● When you lift an object in VR, you need to know that you have placed
your hands in the right position, performed the right gesture, and applied
the necessary amount of force.
b) Input Devices Like game controller :
● Virtual reality (VR) is an emergent technology.
● Its visual quality has advanced rapidly in recent years. There are now
many types of headsets with high resolution displays on the market.
 ● In contrast, development of input devices to allow users to manipulate
VR content still lags behind.
● Navigation or moving around within a VR environment is one of
most common activities users do.
● This can be typically seen in games that simulate 3D environments.
The default input device for VR headsets is still based on controllers
for game consoles.
● Other commercial products, such as the HTC Vive and Oculus RIFT, have
their own concept input device designed from groundup aimed
specifically at VR technologies.
c) Data gloves
● A wired glove (also called a dataglove or cyberglove) is an input
device for human–computer interaction worn like a glove.
● Various sensor technologies are used to capture physical data such as
bending of fingers. Often a motion tracker, such as a magnetic tracking
device or inertial tracking device, is attached to capture the global
position/rotation data of the glove.
● These movements are then interpreted by the software that
accompanies the glove, so any one movement can mean any number of
things. Gestures can then be categorized into useful information, such
as to recognize sign language or other symbolic functions.
● Real world applications Gesture recognition, Hand-over,
Motion capture, Open-source robotics, Project Digits, Robotic
arm.
● Wired gloves are often used in virtual reality environments and to mimic
human hand movement by robots.
d) Joysticks
● A joystick is an input device that can be used for controlling the
movement of the cursor or a pointer in a computer device.
● The pointer/cursor movement is controlled by maneuvering a lever on the
joystick.
● The input device is mostly used for gaming applications and, sometimes,
in graphics applications.
● A joystick also can be helpful as an input device for people with
movement disabilities.
● The joystick is mostly used when there is a need to perform a direct
pointing or when a precise function is needed.
● There are different types of joysticks such as displacement joysticks,
hand-operated joysticks, finger-operated joysticks, thumb/fingertip-
operated joysticks, hand-operated isometric joysticks, etc.
● One of the noticeable advantages of the joystick is its ability to
provide fast interactions, which are much needed in gaming
applications

5.2.4 Hardware: Industrial measurement Unit-IMU, Gyroscope, accelerometer

a) Inertial measurements unit-IMU
● The term IMU stands for “Inertial Measurement Unit,” and we use it to
describe a collection of measurement tools. When installed in a device,
these tools can capture data about the device’s movement. IMUs
 contain sensor such as
● Gyroscope and magnetometers
 ● IMUs can measure a variety of factors, including speed, direction,
acceleration, specific force, angular rate, and (in the presence of a
magnetometer), magnetic fields surrounding the device.
● Each tool in an IMU is used to capture different data types:
- Accelerometer: measures velocity and acceleration
- Gyroscope: measures rotation and rotational rate
- Magnetometer: establishes cardinal direction (directional heading)

● IMUs combine input from several different sensor types in order to

accurately output movement commonly see IMUs used in navigational
devices or as components of navigational equipment, such as:
● Manned and unmanned aircraft. A connected (or onboard) computer
can use an IMU’s measurements to calculate altitude and relative
position to a reference frame, making them exceedingly useful in
aircraft applications.
● GPS positioning systems IMUs serve as a supplement to GPS positioning
systems, allowing the navigational device to continue with an estimated
position and heading if it loses satellite connection.
● Beyond their obvious applications in navigation, you can apply an IMU in
nearly any field where motion detection comes into play:
● -Most smartphones, tablets and fitness tracking devices contain a low-cost IMU
● IMUs are involved in sports training applications that need to measure,
for example, the precise angle and force of a swing in golf or baseball.
● IMUs drive the self-balancing systems of personal transportation
devices like Segways and hoverboards.
The principal disadvantage of an IMU is that they are prone to error that
accumulates over time, also known as “drift.” Because the device is always
measuring changes relative to itself (not triangulating against an absolute or
known outside device), the IMU constantly rounds off small fractions in its
calculations, which accumulate over time. Left uncorrected, these tiny
imprecisions can add up to significant errors.
b) Gyroscope :
- A gyroscope is a device with a spinning disc or wheel mechanism that
harnesses the principle of conservation of angular momentum: the tendency for
the spin of a system to remain constant unless subjected to external torque.
- Gyroscopes are used in many inventions both old and new to stabilize, guide
or measure rotational movement. Wheels on a bicycle, for example, act as
gyroscopes as they spin up to speed, making it easier to stay upright and
harder to upset momentum. Guided missiles use gyroscopes to track and guide
their courses.
- Parts of Gyroscope, A gyroscope consists of the
following parts: Spin axis
Gimbal Rotor
Gyroscope frame

Design of Gyroscope
- A gyroscope can be considered a massive rotor fixed on the supporting rings
known as the gimbals. The central rotor is isolated from the external torques
with the help of frictionless bearings that are present in the gimbals. The spin
axis is defined by the axle of the spinning wheel.
- The rotor has exceptional stability at high speeds as it maintains the high-
speed rotation axis at the central rotor. The rotor has three degrees of
rotational freedom.

Gyroscope Working Principle

- The working principle of a gyroscope is based on gravity. It is explained as the

product of angular momentum which is experienced by the torque on a disc to
produce a gyroscopic precession in the spinning wheel.
- This process is termed gyroscopic motion or gyroscopic force and is defined as
a rotating object’s tendency to maintain its orientation.
- We know that the rotating object possesses angular momentum, which needs
to be conserved. This is done because when there is any change in the axis of
rotation, there will be a change in the orientation, which changes the angular
momentum. Therefore, it can be told the working principle of the gyroscope is
based on the conservation of angular momentum.
c) Accelerometer :
An accelerometer is a device that measures the vibration, or acceleration of
motion of a structure. The force caused by vibration or a change in motion
(acceleration) causes the mass to "squeeze" the piezoelectric material which
produces an electrical charge that is proportional to the force exerted upon it.
Since the charge is proportional to the force, and the mass is a constant, then
the charge is also proportional to the acceleration.
These sensors are used in a variety of ways from space stations to handheld
devices, and there's a good chance you already own a device with an
accelerometer in it. For example, almost all smartphones today house an
accelerometer.
They help the phone know whether it undergoes acceleration in any direction,
and it’s the reason why your phone’s display switches on when you flip it. In an
industry setting, accelerometers help engineers understand a machine's
stability and enable them to monitor for any unwanted forces/vibrations
How does an accelerometer work?
An accelerometer works using an electromechanical sensor that is designed to
measure either static or dynamic acceleration. Static acceleration is the
constant force acting on a body, like gravity or friction. These forces are
predictable and uniform to a large extend. For example, the acceleration due to
gravity is constant at 9.8m/s, and the gravitation force is almost the same at
every point on earth.
Dynamic acceleration forces are non-uniform, and the best example is vibration
or shock. A car crash is an excellent example of dynamic acceleration. Here, the
acceleration change is sudden when compared to its previous state. The theory
behind accelerometers is that they can detect acceleration and convert it into
measurable quantities like electrical signals.

5.3. Software components: java3d, VRML

JAVA 3D:
Java 3D API is an application programming interface used for writing three-
dimensional graphics applications and applets. It gives developers high-level
constructs for creating and manipulating 3D geometry and for constructing the
structures used in rendering that geometry. Application developers can
describe very large virtual worlds using these constructs, which provide Java 3D
with enough information to render these worlds efficiently. Java 3D delivers
Java's "write once, run anywhere" benefit to developers of 3D graphics
applications. Java 3D is part of the JavaMedia suite of APIs, making it available
on a wide range of platforms. It also integrates well with the Internet because
applications and applets written using the Java 3D API have access to the entire
set of Java classes.
The Java 3D API draws its ideas from existing graphics APIs and from new
technologies. Java 3D's low-level graphics constructs synthesize the best ideas
found in low-level APIs such as Direct3D, OpenGL, QuickDraw3D, and XGL.
Similarly, its higher-level constructs synthesize the best ideas found in several
scene graph-based systems. Java 3D introduces some concepts not commonly
considered part of the graphics environment, such as 3D spatial sound. Java
3D's sound capabilities help to provide a more immersive experience for the
user.

Important Java 3D goals are to

● Provide a rich set of features for creating interesting 3D worlds,
tempered by the need to avoid nonessential or obscure features.
Features that could be layered on top of Java 3D were not included.
● Provide a high-level object-oriented programming paradigm that enables
developers to deploy sophisticated applications and applets rapidly.
 ● Provide support for runtime loaders. This allows Java 3D to
accommodate a wide variety of file formats, such as vendor-specific
CAD formats, interchange formats, VRML 1.0, and VRML 2.0.
VRML :
VRML stands for Virtual Reality Modeling Language. IT is an open-standard
programming language created to design three-dimensional (3-D) and Web-
based models, textures and illusion. It is used to illustrate 3-D objects,
buildings, landscapes or other items requiring 3-D structure and is very similar
to Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). VRML also uses textual representation
to define 3-D illusion presentation methods. VRML is also known as Virtual
Reality Markup Language. Three versions of VRML are VRML or VRML 1, VRML
2.0, and VRML 97. At the time when VRML was introduced, most of the
businesses as well as other users were accessing internet through slow dial-up
connections. The lack of bandwidth proved to be a major hindrance in
increasing the popularity of VRML. VRML was used as a data-exchange format
for 3D models, particularly in CAD (Computer Aided Drafting) programs. In
2001, X3D was introduced as an XML encoding of VRML.
Example, #VRML
V2.0 utf8
Shape {
geometry IndexedFaceSet {
coordIndex [ 0, 1, 2 ]
coord Coordinate {
point [ 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 0.5, 1, 0 ]
}
}
}
Difference between HTML and VRML
References:
1. [Link]
2. [Link]
html/#:~:text=VR ML%20and%20HTML%20are%20similar,whereas%20VRML
%20worlds%20are%203D.

Important questions:.
1. Discuss in detail VRML
2. Explain classic component of VR System.