Virtual reality is becoming increasingly present in our everyday lives, from online tours of homes for sale to high-tech headsets that immerse gamers in hyper-realistic digital worlds. While its entertainment value is well-established, virtual reality also has vast potential for practical uses that are just beginning to be explored.
Virtual reality software used by scientists at the University of California, Davis, to study everything from earthquakes to molecular biology in a 3-D “cave” can now run on some off-the-shelf gaming VR headsets. Instructions and downloads are available online.
How often do you find a university laboratory filled with humanities majors? Every day at the UC Davis ModLab, where student interns work on gaming, virtual reality and other digital humanities projects.
Since it launched 10 years ago, the KeckCAVES, an immersive 3-D environment located in the Earth and Physical Sciences building, has revealed surprising patterns in data from Earth and other planets.
