Dr. Grigore (Greg) Burdea is the author of Virtual Reality Technology and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rutgers University. He was Valedictorian at the Technical University of Bucharest (Romania) and subsequently graduated with a PhD from New York University (USA). Dr. Burdea is recognized internationally for his pioneering work on Haptics (the sense of touch) for Virtual Reality, and subsequently for transformative research on Virtual Reality use in Medicine. He is author of several other books on virtual reality, as well as an inventor and entrepreneur. Dr. Burdea is the recipient of the prestigious IEEE Virtual Reality Career Award (the highest in the field), Fellow of the IEEE Virtual Reality Academy, and Founder of the International Society on Virtual Rehabilitation.
What is your background?
I was a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rutgers University for more than three decades. There I created the first Virtual Reality course in New Jersey universities and the first force-feedback glove. Later my research group did the first remote therapy experiment using virtual reality games. Currently I direct research and development at a medical company I started, utilizing Virtual Reality for rehabilitation and therapy. I am also the Founder of the International Society on Virtual Rehabilitation and recipient of the prestigious IEEE Virtual Reality Career Award.
What are the most profound changes you have seen in your field across your career?
Many believe Virtual Reality is new, while in fact it started commercially in the late 1980s. The gaming industry caused a tremendous acceleration in hardware development, resulting in gaming PCs, powerful Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and now “all-in-one” Head Mounted Displays (HMDs). While touch and scent feedback were once esoteric, they have seen increased use. I foresee the next Virtual Reality evolution as neural interfaces connected to cloud servers. In fact I put my rendering of Elon Musk’s neural interface on my book cover.
What motivated you to write Virtual Reality Technology?
My primary motivation was the need to update and expand the contents of the previous edition, in a fast-evolving field. I wrote the first edition in 1993 with my co-author, the late Professor Philippe Coiffet. It was his 21st book and my first. We wrote the second edition in 2003, and the book was used at over 120 universities worldwide. Now the third edition is almost twice the size of the previous one, a testament to the fast-growing field of Virtual Reality.
Who is the primary audience for Virtual Reality Technology?
This textbook is primarily for technologists, engineers, computer scientists, and game developers. At the same time, I saw a need to expand this space with bridges to the psychology and medical fields. The very beneficial applications of Virtual Reality in these clinical fields will not happen until there is appropriate Virtual Reality know-how for therapists, surgeons and scientists alike. These professionals need coverage that is detailed, relevant, unbiased and easy to comprehend.
What are the key challenges this audience faces?
The challenge for the student and professional alike is the time it takes to gather and synthesize information from a large number of resources, presented at varied levels of detail, and possible hard to understand. In technical writing it is not sufficient to be accurate in what you cover if the writing is difficult to comprehend. Another challenge is the sheer volume of (needed) knowledge and its fast-changing nature. The young professional needs a single source to learn the field, and a way to understand the art of real-time programming specific to Virtual Reality. Clinicians typically have little if any exposure to virtual reality systems in their graduate education, which leads to unreasonable expectations or technophobia.
How does your book solve these needs/challenges?
Virtual Reality Technology addresses the above challenges in multiple ways. The style is easy to understand, so not to distract from its content. The field is treated in a structured and logical way, such that knowledge is organized, and presented in sufficient detail, using many diagrams and tables. These shape the reader’s critical thinking needed to synthesize knowledge and compare alternative solutions. To help the student and researcher become proficient in the art of real-time graphics programming, we developed a Laboratory Manual. The chosen language is Unity 3D, as it is the programming language of choice for mobile and gaming applications. This Laboratory Manual, and sample Lecture Slides are available on the book’s Companion Site for Instructors.
What have been the biggest rewards?
This book is our “passing the baton” to the next generation of professionals. There is so much need to understand the benefits and challenges of Virtual Reality and use it to benefit Society. Our rewards will come from the textbook worldwide adoption, helping train a new generation of VR specialists.
What unique features do you think make the book stand out in the market?
Unlike other texts on the subject, this book has a chapter dedicated to “human factors” and an expanded treatment of medical application of the technology. As shown throughout the book, one needs to design around the user, an integral part of the simulation system, so to minimize negative effects of cybersickness. For clinicians, the book goes as far as giving guidelines on how therapeutic games should be designed, while for the artist it presents olfactory feedback as a tool for virtual heritage. For the imaginative reader, the book delves into neural interfaces, both external and implanted and how they will use edge computing.
Can you provide a brief summary of your book?
Virtual Reality Technology starts by extensively treating Input Interfaces (such as sensing gloves and trackers), followed by chapters dedicated to graphics feedback, 3D sound, haptics and olfactory feedback. Three subsequent chapters cover computing hardware, modeling the synthetic world, and related programming. The last two chapters are dedicated to human factors and applications of Virtual Reality in Medicine, Arts/Entertainment and the Military.
Where can we find you online?
Readers may find my profile on LinkedIn or email me at burdea [at] Rutgers.edu. I’d love to hear from them!