Now we can travel, treat patients, practice immersive journalism, study in virtual classrooms, play a video game, or envisage a space virtually through VR 360!
Virtual reality (VR) environment has scenes and objects that look original and makes users feel they are immersed in their surroundings. Such an environment is perceived through a device known as a virtual reality headset or helmet. To understand it further, virtual reality (VR) is essentially a graphical user interface that presents a computer-generated immersive, three-dimensional, interactive environment that is accessed and manipulated using stereo headphones, television goggles, head-mounted stereo, and data gloves. Virtual reality is primarily of three types – Non-immersive, semi-immersive, and fully-immersive simulations.
What is 360 Degrees?
A 360-degree angle covers the complete circumference of the circle, a complete rotation around the central axis of your body. So as you rotate toward your left, you cover up a circle and come back to the same position from where you started. 360 videos are just so immersive while virtual reality videos are interactive.
What is a VR camera?
VR also stands for vibration reduction. It is an image stabilization technology that minimizes the blur caused due to shaking of the camera. A VR NIKKOR lens helps in taking sharp images in low light, taking images in windy conditions, in dim light, clear images in night mode, and at up to four stops slower with a VR lens than a non-VR lens.
Is VR and 360 the same?
While Virtual Reality (VR) lets users travel beyond time, across space, against gravity, and fragment their imagination only to rebuild it into something unimaginable; 360 videos are live action, which film reality as seen at the moment. Such 360 videos are shot via 360-degree cameras but can be viewed on any 360-compatible device including applications, smartphones, computers and more.
What is a VR 360?
VR video and 360 VR are one and the same thing. These terms are interchangeably used by app development companies to refer to videos that are captured using specialist omnidirectional cameras that allow filming or recording videos of an entire 360 degrees in the same shot. Users can look at the panorama in the finished video.
How does VR 360 camera work?
It is essentially a VR camera that offers to capture a 360-degree view of photos and videos. It goes like this, move your head or pointer up, down, left, and right and the video moves with you. Such 360 cameras are eyeball shaped with two wide-angle lenses working together. The camera then automatically stitches two shots together to bring one spherical image.
Example VR Software
- Wander
- Brink Traveller
- When We Stayed Home
- Rebuilding Notre Dame
- VZFit
- National Geographic Explore VR
- Ecosphere
- Tokyo Origami
- BluePlanet VR Explore
- Puzzling Places
- Anne Frank House VR
- VR lively virtual reality
- VR Thrills Roller Coaster 360
- 360 VUZ
- Google Daydream
- Google Earth
- Gizmo VR Video Player
Best Virtual Reality Software
These apps are popular amongst top mobile app developers:
- 3D Modelling
- Game Developers
- VR Visualization
- VR Content Management Systems
- VR SDK
- VR Game Engine
- VR Social Platforms
- VR Training Simulator
- 360-degree video
Popular Virtual Reality Software Categories
- Virtual Reality (VR) Collaboration Platforms – Party.Space, the Wild, Yulio, Facebook Horizon, Arthur, Bramble
- VR Content Management Systems – Contentful, Agility CMS, Kontent.ai, Contentstack, ArborXR, Firefox Reality
- Virtual Reality (VR) Development Software – Virtual Reality on Steam, Forge, Google Scale, 360 Degree Media, Cardboard, Leap Motion
- Virtual Reality (VR) Game Engines – Unity, Unreal Engine, 3ds Max Design, Nuke, Maya, Autodesk Architecture
VR in Tourism, and Hospitality
We have understood the applications, functionality, and features of VR that project us into the future. The sector like medicine, tourism, hospitality, culture, and education are already taking advantage of this technology. VR-enabled guided museum tours, and hotel e-visits ahead of booking help keep tourists abreast of the latest digital trends.
Famous examples of virtual reality hotel tours are (1) Atlantis Dubai Virtual Tour, (2) Pullman Brisbane King George Square Hotel VR Tour, (3) Grand Oasis Hotel 360 degree Hotel VR Tour, (4) Le Franschhoek Hotel and Spa 360 VR Tour, (5) Valamar Dubrovnik President Hotel VR and 360° Video Experience, (6) Holiday Inn Express Adelaide VR Hotel Tour, (7) Vythiri Resort of Wyanad in VR and 360 Video Presentations, (8) Bora Bora’s Overwater Bungalows In 360 Video VR, (9) Maldives 360 VR, Scuba Spa 360 VR Experience, (10) Cape Dara in Pattaya, Thailand | 360° VR Presentation. Also, you get (11) A Virtual Honeymoon to London and Hawaii, (12) a Visit to Hamilton Island in 360˚ Virtual Reality with Qantas, and (13) Maldives VR 360 – 4K Video.
Virtual Reality in the Travel industry has been helping to shift the way people engage with travel companies. It makes you believe that you can see the world while staying at home. With the help of powerful hardware, predefined with little control, you get a short but relaxing experience that gives an impressive experience.
VR as a part of information and communication technology (ICT) has greatly impacted the tourism industry with unbound potential for mass virtual visitations to actual tourism destinations. Such virtual tourists can fulfill their travelling needs easily fulfilled under the following conditions: (1) Considering emotional experiences, and (2) Enhancing visitor’s perceptions. VR in the marketing of tourism destinations can be associated with stimulation, evaluation, decision making and experience.
Why is VR a valuable tool in the tourism and hospitality industry?
VR often helps tourism planners to consider possible developments in the hospitality sector in realistic and navigable virtual environments. VR technology contains unique testing abilities that help in understanding visitors’ patterns of space, time and place within tourism planning and management.
3D visualizations can be an excellent tool to arouse positive effects on the behavioral intentions of tourists. Hotels exclaim that the VR trend helps in the destination marketing area and room booking process, helping prospective guests to virtually visit rooms and consider their offers. They can form an image in mind and take appropriate action. This immediately satisfies their need after a particular interest, identify trends.
Conclusive: Let’s Create 360 VR App for Tourism
VR is now a part of smart tourism to provide information about destinations in advance. This trend is proving to be useful in giving tourists a preview of the destinations in an interactive, realistic and easy way. But the adoption is slow due to the unavailability of resources, and ignorance of people. Hotels and museums adopt this method to promote their services, engage audiences and achieve more by commixing augmented reality (AR) and 360-degree videos. Airlines like Skylight offer in-flight and in-lounge VR experiences where passengers can escape reality and enjoy a movie theatre experience accessing over 250 hours of content from early window blockbusters to documentaries in HD, 2D, 3D and forward facing 360 degrees. Simplest VR tool like Google Earth VR by donning a VR headset and travelling to any location in the world. Hydrous also allows a 360-degree tour of the world’s oceans.
Overall VR improves customer experience, saves their cost, and chances of cancellations after booking. A 360-degree travel experience includes some gadgets to improve the overall experience (1) A 360-degree camera, (2) Video editing software, (3) a VR set. Examples of applications of VR in tourism are Dolphin dive, Flight of the kingfisher, Rome Reborn: the Pantheon, Virtual reality and Implications for Destination Marketing, Exploring the Persuasive Power of Virtual Reality Imagery for Destination Marketing, and more research that highlights the presence of this next level technology in the tech world.
