Virtual reality as applied to the fields of education, transportation and exploration

This paper examines information on potential applications of virtual reality toward three grand challenges: education, transportation and exploration. Virtual reality's unique ability to immerse users in artificial environments has several potential uses. The paper briefly examines virtual reality's current state and limitations, before delving into possible applications by examining existing literature. In education, virtual reality may improve understanding of academic material or provide realistic training for high-risk fields. In transportation, virtual reality is a valuable method of data collection to study behaviours of transportation systems, which can lead to optimisations. Virtual reality technology also offers potential in the exploration field. Detailed simulations may facilitate exploration of historic or archaeological sites in environments that are otherwise unrealistic to visit; recreations of experiences that are normally unsafe, unattainable, or costly to visit are perfect use cases for virtual reality. More applications for virtual reality will be discovered once technological drawbacks are resolved.