Virtual reality is already a popular medium for people to explore new places, but for those looking to be more involved, it can also be a powerful tool to learn.
A recent study by Microsoft and Google, for instance, revealed that virtual reality can help people with autism learn, by reducing anxiety and reducing the need for repetitive tasks.
“It’s an amazing technology and it’s going to change how we work in the world,” said James Smith, a professor of computer science at Stanford University.
“But it’s not going to eliminate all the repetitive things people have to do.
That’s going get harder and harder as technology improves.”
Virtual reality can also help people learn to understand and respond to people, by understanding what they’re saying and what they want to hear.
“We all have this ability to hear people talk, but we have a different ability to understand them,” said Smith.
“Virtual reality opens up a new window of perception for how people relate to each other, how they relate to their environments.”
Virtual Reality Can Help With Autism The research also found that people who had virtual reality headsets equipped with sensors and microphones experienced significantly lower anxiety, a key indicator of the condition.
“If we can get people to experience VR as a tool that helps with autism, then it could have a profound impact,” Smith said.
Virtual reality also helps people learn, and learning can be a challenging task in some cases, Smith said, noting that a lot of people with learning disabilities don’t have a lot to teach others.
“A lot of them are very much a child, a toddler, a young child, but the brain is just not designed to be able to deal with that kind of stimulation,” he said.
The research also showed that virtual environment can improve people’s cognitive skills, and that VR was a useful tool for those with autism.
“There’s a whole host of cognitive functions that require a certain level of mental effort, but VR allows you to do it much more efficiently and quickly,” Smith added.
“You can have a chat with someone who’s in a classroom, but they can see what you’re doing on your screen and know exactly what you want to say to them.”
While it’s unclear how VR might improve autism, Smith thinks it could be useful in some situations.
“I don’t know that it’s just going to be for gaming,” he added.
“There’s some people with ASD who use it as a therapy.
There are a lot more people with a disability that might benefit from it.”
