Virtual reality for business, education, training
Notes:
Image left: �More and more farmers are turning to technology to revolutionize an industry desperate to find new ways to increase yields and profits�.New models of [Caterpillar] vehicles are designed and tested in a virtual reality room at the Univ. of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, where the soil is digital, and that black edge on the horizon isn�t an approaching storm, it�s where the screen ends�.Before switching its testing program to the virtual reality center, Caterpillar built full prototypes of all vehicles in development -- a costly and time-consuming process. Now, because the company can find problems and correct them before actually building a vehicle, the time to bring a new machine to market has been halved from seven years to three and a half.�**
Image right: �Seconds away from disaster, the young captain at the helm tries to steer a container ship away from a collision course with an oil tanker off its starboard bow�.Just as the two ships are inches away from collision, the scene in front of the captain fades out and he finds himself staring at a dark blue wall. Today, at the Marine Safety Center, navigation simulators similar to those used to train airline pilots use giant screens to provide hands-on practice for learning to navigate the world�s major ports. Instructors use the computer-generated displays to subject their budding captains to a variety of ...conditions�.U.S. Navy officers receive training at similar centers in Rhode Island and Calif.�
Images and background from One Digital Day by Rick Smolan. Image left: Illinois, pp. 100-102, by Joel Sartore. Image right: Rotterdam, Netherlands, p. 99, by Rudi Meisel.