Landscapes and Emerging Trends of Virtual Reality in Recent 30 Years: A Bibliometric Analysis

摘要

Virtual Reality (VR) is a technology to utilize a computer to create a simulated three-dimensional world which has many applications in a variety of fields. In order to quantitatively demonstrate the landscapes and emerging trends of VR in the past 30 years, this paper conducts a comprehensive assessment of the VR technology by using the related literatures in the web of science Database from 1987 to 2018. Result indicates that Virtual Reality technology is at the growth stage with a maturity of 62.56%, the total of 10208 articles cover 94 countries/territories and the top 5 most productive countries are USA, CHINA, England, Germany and Canada. There are 5643 research institutes engaged in the field of VR and the top 5 most productive institutes are University of Washington, University of Barcelona, Istituto Auxologico Italiano, University College London and University of Southern California. Research hotspots such as Simulation, Stroke, Rehabilitation, Virtual Environment, Education, Visualization, Augmented Reality and Laparoscopy are shown in the proposed keywords three-dimensional map. In addition, keywords with strongest citation burst, such as VRML, Randomized Controlled Trial, Oculus Rift Kinect, Virtual Reality Therapy, Stroke Rehabilitation, Head Mounted Display, Eye Tracking and Mixed Reality demonstrate the trends of this field. The result provides a dynamic view of the evolution of "Virtual Reality" research landscapes and trends from various perspectives which may serve as a potential guide for future research.