Immersive Horizons: Exploring the Transformative Power of Virtual Reality Across Economic Sectors

The scholarly discourse surrounding the manifold advantages, applications, and limitations of implementing Virtual Reality (VR) in the contemporary milieu has burgeoned over time. VR holds immense potential, attracting fervent interest from governmental and private entities alike. Nevertheless, the existing body of literature pertaining to the expanding utilization of VR in diverse economic sectors remains scant. Therefore, the primary objective of this study is to furnish a comprehensive literature review encompassing VR applications across various economic domains while elucidating concerns surrounding its integration within engineering education. A total of 108 publications were extracted from prominent databases such as Scopus, Elsevier, Science Direct, and Google Scholar, with a subsequent review of 51 relevant works. These scrutinized journals were published between 2015 and 2022 and were predominantly authored in English. The reviewed publications encompassed VR applications in education, robotics, healthcare, transportation, sports, agriculture, governance, security, and media. The study’s findings unveiled significant advancements in VR implementation within engineering education, medical training, cognitive augmentation, aircraft assembly, governance, and diverse other spheres. Notwithstanding these achievements, impediments to VR deployment were identified, stemming from financial exigencies, cultural and conventional norms, with scant evidence of VR’s prevalence in underdeveloped nations, given that all the assessed research originated from developed economies. Additionally, the limitations of this review encompassed a small sample size and a narrowly focused demographic in the examined articles. Nevertheless, despite these constraints, the research highlights substantial progress in VR utilization over the preceding decade.