As a leading researcher in the field, Jeremy Bailenson crafts new worlds that feel real, to explore their beneficial uses. In Experience On Demand, he tours the myriad applications that he and others are developing. After a great deal of hype by science-fiction film writers and video-game designers in the 1990s, the technology now finally seems poised for widespread use. Eventually, as Bailenson details, it could transform work, schools, hospitals and more.
Virtual reality in use as part of physical therapy after a traumatic brain injury. Credit: J. M. Eddins Jr/US Air Force