Virtual Reality

What is the answer?

Second life is an endless garden of creativity. We are walking into a work of art created by the people who live there. We have the ability to communicate in a way that is very liberating. There’s a freedom that comes from being in the …………….

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1Xxay54fYA

Watch a video and tell the answer

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1Xxay54fYA
• What is the topic of the lesson?

Lesson objectives

• Being familiarized with a new topic
• Learn new vocabulary
• Find out more about the topic through reading

What is Virtual World/Reality? It is…

• an environment where computers create an effect of the world that seems almost completely real to people in it.

Let’s find out more

• You'll probably never go to Mars,  swim  with dolphins, run an Olympic 100 meters, or sing onstage with the Rolling Stones. But if  virtual reality  ever lives up to its promise , you might be able to do all these things—and many more—without even leaving your home. Unlike  real  reality (the actual world in which we live), virtual reality means simulating bits of our world (or completely imaginary worlds) using high-performance computers and sensory equipment, like headsets and gloves. Apart from games and entertainment, it's long been used for training airline pilots and surgeons and for helping scientists to figure out complex problems such as the structure of protein molecules. How does it work? Let's take a closer look!

So then again, what is virtual reality?

• Virtual reality (VR) means experiencing things through our  computers  that don't really exist. From that simple definition, the idea doesn't sound especially new. When you look at an amazing Canaletto painting, for example, you're experiencing the sites and sounds of Italy as it was about 250 years ago—so that's a kind of virtual reality. In the same way, if you listen to ambient instrumental or classical music with your eyes closed, and start dreaming about things, isn't that an example of virtual reality—an experience of a world that doesn't really exist? What about losing yourself in a book or a movie? Surely that's a kind of virtual reality?
• If we're going to understand why books, movies, paintings, and pieces of music aren't the same thing as virtual reality, we need to define VR fairly clearly. For the purposes of this simple, introductory article, I'm going to define it as:
• A believable, interactive 3D computer-created world that you can explore so you feel you really are there, both mentally and physically.

Expanding lexical resource

• Believable : You really need to feel like you're in your virtual world (on Mars, or wherever) and to keep believing that, or the  illusion  of virtual reality will disappear.
• Interactive : As you move around, the VR world needs to move with you. You can watch a 3D movie and be transported up to the Moon or down to the seabed.
• Computer-generated : Why is that important? Because only powerful machines, with realistic 3D  computer graphics , are fast enough to make believable, interactive, alternative worlds that change in real-time as we move around them.
• Explorable : A VR world needs to be big and detailed enough for you to explore.
• Immersive : To be both believable and interactive, VR needs to engage both your body and your mind. Paintings by war artists can give us glimpses of conflict, but they can never fully convey the sight, sound, smell, taste, and feel of battle. You can play a flight simulator game on your home PC and be lost in a very realistic, interactive experience for hours

Answer the questions

• Why reading a book, looking at a painting, listening to a classical symphony, or watching a movie don't qualify as virtual reality?
• Why will the illusion disappear when you do the things above? Why it is passive?
• Why is VR quite different?

Vocabulary / match: convey, glimpse immersive, live up to smth, ambient, simulate

• a  type  of  music , often without a  tune  or  beat , that is  intended  to make  people   relax  or  create  a  particular   mood
• to do or make something that  looks   real  but is not  real
• to  achieve  what is  expected ,  esp . high  standards
• seeming  to  surround  the  audience ,  player , etc. so that they  feel   completely   involved  in something
• to take or  carry  someone or something to a  particular   place / transport
• a  quick   idea  or  understanding  of what something is like

Practice

• Complete the sentences

• This  biography   offers  a few ___________ of  his  life  before he  became   famous .
• Water  flows  into the  channels  and those  channels  __________ it to the  fields .
• We  expected  a lot of her, and her  performance  __________  our   expectations .
• Researchers are  developing  new  techniques  to _______________ crashes .
• The new  game  is more ____________.

Practice

• Make up your own sentences using the words you learnt