Virtual reality (VR) is a technology that uses headsets to create immersive, interactive experiences. It’s been a hit in gaming, but it’s becoming increasingly used in education and healthcare as well. With the introduction of high-resolution displays and motion tracking sensors, VR has become more affordable and more realistic. It’s allowing us to experience live music and travel without leaving the comfort of our own homes, as well as to shop online and see how things look in person before making a purchase.

A headset places a small screen, usually a high-resolution LCD or OLED display, within just a few inches of your eyes. Using stereoscopic lenses, it manipulates the images to make them appear 3D. It also tracks your head movements and moves in response to your physical actions. Wearing a data glove with force-feedback, you can even touch and pick up objects in the VR environment.

Educators are now using VR to take students on virtual field trips. The experience can help students visualize and understand complex concepts that might otherwise be difficult to understand. It’s a great way to engage learners and spark curiosity and excitement. For example, when Texas teachers partnered with ClassVR, students were eager to move forward in the digital recreation of real-world locations.

VR is also being used to train medical professionals, especially in areas where physical access would be difficult or impossible. Some hospitals are experimenting with simulated cadaver labs and recreated clinical environments to train doctors on everything from new surgery techniques to hospital protocols. This helps reduce the risk of errors and ensures doctors are prepared before they work on actual patients.

Another use of VR is to help doctors empathize with their patients. For example, a simulation of macular degeneration allows doctors to walk in the shoes of a patient with this condition. This helps them better understand and treat the patient’s pain and discomfort. In fact, a recent study by Cedars-Sinai found that VR-based soft skills training increased empathy and emotional connection with the training content by 2.3x.

It’s also being used in sales and marketing to showcase products to customers remotely. Unlike traditional video, which can be distracting, VR provides a fully immersive experience that’s more likely to capture attention and interest. This is especially important when it comes to demonstrating how products work and fit. VR can be used to show a product’s features, as well as provide an interactive demo that allows a customer to try it on for size and compare different styles. With the right design, VR can also increase product conversions by letting users test out their own style preferences.