If you ask people about what they like the most about
Second Life, they will certainly have a variety of answers; however, they all
share one thing in common: Second Life allows us to do amazing things and often
what is impossible for most of us in real life. We can be astronauts, visit an
alien world or travel back in time, or visit a place of the past. Or we can,
for example, fly on a plane, dive in the ocean, go bungee jumping or even dance
ballet.
The fact is that virtual reality enhances people’s lives
and their possibilities. More and more advantages are being gradually discovered,
and are showing great promise. Virtual reality can put pilots in training as if
they were in heaven and can also provide people, including those with some
forms of disability, experiences that they cannot have in the real world.
The
great advantage of virtual reality is its ability to create full immersion
situations, carrying people to a fully virtualized world. In practice, what this means is that the
virtual content sends stimulation so that the user perceives them through their
senses. Virtual reality enables the creation of scenarios where the brain
understands that mind and body are in the same sensory plane.
With virtual reality, you can go anywhere without even
having to leave your bed. Many disabled people have to stay long term at home,
idle. Having to go through life without being able to experience all that life
has to offer. In Second Life virtual world, a person is able to, for example,
experience (virtually speaking) the outdoors, cycling, surfing or walking on
the beach. The fact that the brain perceives and processes the stimulus as
"real" enables numerous applications. Researchers are increasingly
seeing the therapeutic potential of interaction "Brain - virtual
world".
Burn victims, for example, that suffer from excruciating
and constant pain that intensifies during the treatment of wounds or during
physical therapy. To help them relieve this pain, a virtual game where the
player must throw snowballs at penguins, congesting pathways responsible for
the sense of pain was created. In some cases this therapy has had better
results than that of morphine.
Many other experiments have been done with the application
of virtual reality. In this virtual
world we can forget our pain and give freedom to our imagination and fantasies.
In this world, people with disabilities can
also have wings and fly, which can contribute to fun moments of relaxation and leisure.
Virtual
Ability region provides a customized resident orientation center targeted at
people with RL disabilities, helping bring people with a wide range of
disabilities into Second Life, and provides them with a supporting environment:
Taxi
to Virtual Ability region: