Book - Virtual Reality: From Hype to Reality (C. Boel, J. Demanet)

VR, AR, MR and XR… they capture everyone's imagination. Fancy, futuristic gaming applications? Certainly. But these technologies are increasingly claiming their place in the here and now. More and more companies and organisations in Belgium and the Netherlands are already using VR and extended reality in the workplace today: in industry, healthcare, product design or entertainment, within education and culture.

Carl Boel and Jelle Demanet guide you through this exciting world using Belgian and Dutch examples and conversations with pioneers who have successfully applied VR in their field. Whether you run a business or are simply curious about the practical applications of virtual reality, this book compiles examples from all these sectors and interviews with early adopters about their stumbling blocks, current applications and – most importantly – their future expectations. Thus, this book is not only a showcase of the possibilities of VR, but above all an invitation to get started with it yourself.

About the authors

Carl Boel is an educationalist with a passion for learning technology and, more specifically, how to responsibly implement it based on scientific research. He leads various research projects at Thomas More, is co-chair at XR Valley and works with Dexr on an innovative XR-oplossing.

Jelle Demanet is a cognitive psychologist with a particular interest in XR, measurement technology and data science. At Howest University of Applied Sciences, he founded the Human Interface Technology lab (HITlab) in 2019. In 2021, Jelle co-founded XRvalley, which aims to bring together the various stakeholders of XR in Belgium.