The virtual reality (VR) market has grown by huge leaps and bounds globally and is expected to reach over $43 billion by 2028, with a steady increase of 27.5% each year. Meta’s Quest 2 headset is currently the best-selling VR headset, and as with most VR brands, specifically targets the gaming market. But the headset is increasingly being used for other purposes, such as facilitating collaborative work in academic life science research.
Of course, the use of VR for clinical research is not new, as the technology has already been used for years in human studies on PTSD, Alzheimer’s, and motor rehabilitation, among other things. A notable recent example is the use of VR by medical researchers at Yale University to reach young patients who are reluctant to attend or participate in support groups for coping with chronic disease.
The Growth of Virtual Reality in Post-pandemic Academia
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for incorporating safety measures within basic science laboratories has spawned a new wave of innovative uses for VR technology. A recent study found that, since the pandemic hit, there has been a significant increase in the use of VR for such research purposes.
Notably, cloud-based VR environments facilitate remote work from laboratory scientists and staff. Because the cost of VR hardware and software continues to drop as the technology matures, the use of VR in academic research is expected to grow even more in the post-COVID era. This is due in part to the increasing democratization of the available VR hardware and the progressively open-source culture of the VR medium.
The Benefits of VR for Emerging Academic Research
One area where VR is having a particularly novel and impactful use is in how people engage with biological data in an immersive virtual environment. Within U.S. military-affiliated research institutions, the realm of games, digital social spaces, and life science research have begun to converge within the VR environment.
And, interestingly, there is something novel about the VR digital interaction that dissipates the anxiety of working in fast-paced, highly productive research environments. The VR workspace can help those with general or social anxiety endure the unique challenges of drawn-out research efforts and to feel more invested in the work being done.
It isn’t surprising that VR immersion has led to innovations in how we visualize and understand complex systems in a 3D space. Conventional 2D monitors are increasingly being replaced by large-format 4K TVs and 5K/8K computer monitors in lab-office settings.
However, many scientists and researchers find these screens still don’t provide the level of engagement that is required to deeply understand data. VR allows users to intuitively interact with three-dimensional biological data in a way that 2D screens cannot. This is due to the fact that in VR, users can choose to study biological tissue sample data from any angle and vantage point, as well as interact with it using various tools and gestures.
This ability to interact in the VR 3D native has already emerged as a tool at the Center for Neuroscience and Regeneration Research (CNRR) at Yale University and the Department of Veterans Affairs. Here, the use of VR may facilitate the study of a wide variety of pathological issues resulting from trauma, such as the mechanisms of chronic pain after spinal cord injury (SCI), or other chronic complications, such as spasticity.
The Future Use of VR
The future of academic research in the post-pandemic world will likely involve more use of VR and other novel digital technologies to maintain high levels of productivity in a safer way. Remote work continues to be a major driver of this change, as does the need to engage with complex data in more intuitive ways.
For many applications, VR provides an advantage over conventional workflows when it comes to engagement and understanding of complex data. As the cost of VR hardware and software continues to drop, e.g., with open-source development, we can expect to see even more VR utility in academic research in the years to come.
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