The audience got a crash course in virtual reality during Iowa State University's Presidential University Lecture on Monday. ISU Professor Carolina Cruz-Neira presented an overview of the leaps and bounds of the field made over the course of a decade.
      In a lecture dubbed, "The Wonders of Virtual Reality: A Research Extravaganza," Cruz-Neira explained that virtual reality has passed the realm of just being a "wow" science and an aesthetically appealing technology to now becoming a useful application for researchers.
      "We went from 'what could it be' to 'Here it is, use it,'" said the ISU professor of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering.
      To move virtual reality from beyond engineering, art and design, Cruz-Neira has sought collaboration from disciplines across the ISU campus, from atmospheric sciences to dancing to religion.
      "We are in new territory, finally, after all these years of working with this technology," she said.
      And numerous possibilities are yet to be tapped, she said.
      "You can drive a car before you buy it ...You can look at a drug for a disease before it gets to producers," she said. "We have the base, now let's do it."
      To give the audience a taste of where the technology is headed, Cruz-Neira turned the floor over to her colleagues and students working at the Virtual Reality Application Center. The research center on the ISU campus is the home of the "Cave," the world's first totally immersive virtual reality environment.
      Mandy Connors, a Ph.D. student working with Cruz-Neira, explained her work using virtual reality as an occupational stress reliever.
      "My hypothesis is that if you were to come experience a virtual reality world, you could get through the four to eight hour work day," Connors said.
      Chris Harding, an ISU assistant professor of geosciences, said he is working to add touch and sound to the realistic worlds of virtual reality.
      But researchers at ISU's Virtual Reality Application Center are not working in a vacuum, Cruz-Neira explained. It is a global collaboration, Cruz-Neira said, fueled much by ISU and other researchers publicly releasing their advancements in the technology.
      "We really need literally the world to help us figure out these things," she said.
      The Presidential University Lecture was created in 2003 to highlight the work of ISU faculty.

William Dillon can be reached at 232-2161, Ext. 361, or William.Dillon@amestrib.com.