VIRTUAL REALITY AND MOTION TRACKING—WAY BEYOND GAMING
If you work in the VR (Virtual Reality) space, you likely already know that it’s exploding and entering into new markets every day. If you don’t work in VR, tech, or anything remotely close, gaming may come to mind when VR is mentioned. Or you may fall somewhere in the middle. It’s safe to say the days of VR being limited to people playing video games in the basement are long gone.

WHERE DO I BEGIN?
Motion tracking is being used and integrated with VR (Virtual Reality) and AR (Augmented Reality) in various ways through applications across many different industries. Via AR and VR, motion tracking is impacting how we train and interact, and it’s altering the way we think about our work and play. There was a time when VR was widely associated more with gaming; it’s now increased its impact substantially—touching everything from healthcare in both training and clinical settings, to aiding important research to shaping training for the military and defense industry.

VR has quickly gained traction, and it's expanded into new markets most people had never considered. It’s changed the way companies are training, creating content and interacting, and it’s getting adopted at a much faster rate than industry leaders observed just a few years ago.

HOW IS VR GETTING BUY-IN?
It’s getting buy-in not because it’s trendy, but because VR is now proving it’s worth in industry through achieved cost savings, human resource efficiencies, and new ways of thinking and collaborating. Trying to sell a client on a concept? Seeing is believing, and in some industries, a VR experience has become the ultimate deal closer. Yeah…VR can do all that.

SO HOW IS MOTION TRACKING IMPACTING THE AR/VR MOVEMENT?
Quite simply, motion tracking is putting the REAL in Virtual Reality. The right motion tracking technology can make or break a simulation experience. High-fidelity motion tracking can be the difference between a truly realistic simulated experience and one that feels like pretending. The right concept, solving the right problem, with the right kind of motion tracking technology is where the lines of reality start to get blurred—and that’s proving to be very powerful. But who needs such real, simulated high-fidelity experiences? And when is it practical?

EXAMPLES OF HOW VR IS BEING USED
 • When a surgeon is using a surgical simulator to practice a new procedure before he performs the surgery on you, motion tracking is being used to track his steady hands.
 • When you board a plane for your next trip, it’s quite possible the pilot was trained at some point with a flight simulator. Motion tracking is used in flight simulation for both head and hand tracking.
 • If you go to the ER with sharp stomach pains, they may order an ultrasound. It’s quite possible that the technician was trained with a medical device simulator to hone their technique, level of pressure, and timing. Trust me—your stomach will thank you.

The above are just a few examples, but there are many more. I assure you VR and motion tracking are touching areas of your life you didn’t even realize—far beyond “gaming.” VR is fueling innovations in healthcare, architecture, transportation, robotics, design, and so much more. VR is all around us, and its solving major problems in industry, some we didn’t even know we had.

WHAT'S YOUR VR PROJECT? CONTACT THE MOTION TRACKING EXPERTS™ TODAY: SALES@POLHEMUS.COM