The simulated exercises do more than save cleanup time. Hundreds of animals will be spared, and, more importantly for the military, the medics will have received more realistic training. Medical training, both within and outside the government, is one of a growing number of areas in which virtual reality technology has moved from research laboratories into the real world. These are usually models of real-world scenes, but can also represent abstract data, such as budget figures. When virtual reality users move their heads, their views shift and sounds may be adjusted.
Users can move around and sometimes through the objects they see.
With the proper equipment, they can also pick things up, manipulate them and actually get the sensation of feeling the object in their hands. Not all virtual reality applications completely immerse users in artificial environments, nor is absolute realism necessary for a virtual reality application to be effective. Immersive applications rely on head-mounted displays with tracking sensors, gloves or other sensing devices. Popular in the entertainment sector, immersive virtual reality is used to design expensive equipment such as aircraft engines. Jackie Fenn, a research director at the Gartner Group, a Stamford, Conn.-based information technology advisory firm, expects the technique to become more important in applications that focus on exploring models of physical or abstract spaces.