EsRealidadVirtual highlights the potential of virtual reality

Those attending the conference organized by U-tad were able to enjoy various experiences thanks to the latest and main Virtual Reality devices on the market: HTC Vive, Google Day Dreams, Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR and FOVE, the only glasses equipped with an eye tracking system.

The U-tad University Center for Technology and Digital Art held this week at Campus Madrid the second edition of EsRealidadVirtual, a unique event in Spain where experts and professionals from various sectors shared their knowledge about virtual reality and its multiple uses, a technology that took off in 2016 and which still has a lot to offer.

"Virtual Reality is not a bubble, it is moving forward. It is something that brands and major media outlets are taking very seriously," declared Edgar Martín-Blas, CEO of New Horizons VR and director of the Certificate of Specialization in Production for Virtual and Augmented Reality at U-tad, during his presentation 'Virtual Reality invades everything'. VR is not only for purely recreational use, but also a technology that offers new ways of educating and telling stories and which encompasses “all types of sectors, clients and projects.” “We are only at the beginning,” concluded Martín-Blas.

Laura Raya, expert in Virtual Reality and responsible for this discipline at the U-tad University Center, presented in her presentation CicerOn: VR Speech Coach, a project that helps students with Asperger Syndrome to overcome, thanks to training, the difficulties they have when presenting in public or working in groups. "VR has a very good capacity to be adapted to multiple environments, such as accessibility, medicine, architecture...", highlighted Laura Raya. “The immersive capacity of VR makes us feel present in a different world and move through it as if it were the real world.”

Laura Raya invited attendees who are working in Virtual Reality to, like U-tad, commit to social projects, since it is “the best way to change and improve the world.” “Orienting VR projects towards accessibility, equality, or disability has a very great reward for oneself and for society,” said Raya.

Psychologist Luis Miguel Samperio assured that “virtual reality is going to play a fundamental role in the design of happiness.” Human beings tend to quickly forget positive experiences and torment themselves with negative ones. “VR can help us change that perception,” Samperio explained. “This technology has the ability to induce the state of flow, the most addictive, pleasurable and well-being state that exists.” Luis Miguel Samperio also talked about where this technology can go. There are trends that indicate that, within twenty or thirty years, virtual reality with glasses will become within our own nervous system.

In her presentation, sexologist Ángela Aznárez Gámez explained the relationship between Virtual Reality and sexuality. “VR has a lot to do in helping victims of sexual abuse who have post-traumatic stress disorder.” Platforms have been created such as EMMA's World, aimed at psychologists and mental health professionals, which uses scenarios that represent the event experienced by the person in the most realistic way possible so that they can cope with the situation in a controlled environment. The sexologist also presented projects that use virtual reality for education and sexual self-knowledge such as OMG Yes or Virtual Sexology.

In the demonstration area, thanks to HTC Vive, Day Dreams by Google, Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR and FOVE, attendees became a drop of water that filters down to a secret spring, they stepped into the skin of a Syrian child suffering the consequences of war (Ashes), they entered a human body with type A and B diabetes to learn more about this disease, they toured the painting 'The Garden of Earthly Delights' by Hieronymus Bosch, as if you were part of it and thus discover every detail (ImmersArte), among many other experiences. You could also play Farpoint, the PS VR game that uses the new Aim Controller.

Currently U-tad offers a Master's Degree in Computer Graphics and Simulation and a program Development Expert for Virtual and Augmented Reality, the only postgraduate degree that exists in Spain dedicated, exclusively and totally specialized, to training in Virtual Reality.