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3 Survey results: Virtual Reality activity in the U.K.
In this section we present an analysis of information received from respondents. We have included the equivalent information from the 1994 survey for comparison, and in each section we draw attention to any specific changes or interpretations we feel are notable.
Our analysis, based on equipment being used, shows that 37 (63%) of our respondents are working with desktop VR and 21 (37%) with immersive VR. These figures are quite close to those reported by the UK VR SIG, of whose 259 members (versus 178 in 1994) 66% were working with desktop VR, and 34% with immersive VR.
1995 survey 1994 survey
University 35(47%) 30(59%)
Vendor/manufacturer 14(12%) 6(12%)
Company research group 4(12%) 6(12%)
Government agency 2(7%) 1(2%)
Other 2(3%) 0(0%)
End user 1(2%) 0(0%)
Individual researcher 0(5%) 1(2%)
The overall balance between sectors has not changed significantly. University groups still predominate in the response to the survey, but there has been a small drop in these and an increase in the number of companies responding.
1995 survey 1994 survey
1-5: 39 (62%) 38 (75%)
6-10: 17 (28%) 12(24%)
11+: 7 (9%) 2 (1%)
A notable feature is the increase in the number of larger groups, but in some cases students have been counted in the figures reported, so some caution is necessary in interpreting the responses. Unfortunately, and almost certainly because they had seen last year's report, several respondents did not state the actual number of people engaged in their VR work, but instead gave the range (e.g. 5 - 10). This is adequate for the table below, but does not allow us to compute correctly the total number of workers involved. If we use the median figures for ambiguous cases we get a total of 468, which is probably a reasonable estimate. However, it should be pointed out that 110 of these work for a single company, and a further 35 for a second, leaving 323 distributed over the remaining respondents.
(These are raw numbers, not percentages)
1995 survey 1994 survey
Computer Science 49 41
Engineering 34 23
Psychology 18 11
Mathematics 10 6
Physics 8 6
Electrical/Electronic Engineering 9 11
Human factors/Ergonomics 9 4
Graphic design/Fine art 5 9
Vision science/Opthalmology 5 1
Artificial Intelligence 4 1
Sales/Marketing 4 3
Image science 3 0
Simulation 3 1
Geography/GIS 2 1
Acoustic/Audio engineering 2 2
Architecture 2 2
Computer-based learning 2 1
Control engineering 2 0
Military 2 1
Philosophy 2 2
Systems Design 2 1
Aerospace 1 0
Animation 1 0
Chemistry 1 0
Communication studies 1 1
History 1 1
Linguistics 1 2
Medicine 1 1
Medical physics 1 1
Operational research 1 0
Sociology 1 1
Theatre 1 1
Other 0 2
There has been a modest increase in the reported backgrounds of workers in VR which reflects an overall increase in the number of people. Computer Science, Engineering and Psychology are still easily the largest groupings.
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