The idea of virtual realities has a long and complex historical trajectory, spanning from Plato's concept of the cave and the simulacrum, to artistic styles such as Trompe L'oeil, and more recently developments in 3D film, television and gaming. However, this book will pay particular attention to the time between the 1980s to the 1990s when virtual reality and cyberspace were represented, particularly in fiction, as a wondrous technology that enabled transcendence from the limitations of physical embodiment. The purpose of this critical historical analysis of representations of virtual reality is to examine how they might deny, repress or overlook embodied experience. Specifically, the author will contend that embodiment is a fundamental aspect of immersion in virtual reality, rather than something which is to be transcended. In this way, the book aims to challenge distorted ideas about transcendence and productively contribute to debates about embodiment and technology.

The 2-volume set LNCS 10850 and 10851 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Computer Graphics, AVR 2018, held in Otranto, Italy, in June 2018. The 67 full papers and 26 short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: virtual reality; augmented and mixed reality; computer graphics; human-computer interaction; applications of VR/AR in medicine; and applications of VR/AR in cultural heritage; and applications of VR/AR in industry.

The 2-volume set LNCS 10850 and 10851 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Computer Graphics, AVR 2018, held in Otranto, Italy, in June 2018. The 67 full papers and 26 short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from numerous submissions. The papers are organized in the following topical sections: virtual reality; augmented and mixed reality; computer graphics; human-computer interaction; applications of VR/AR in medicine; and applications of VR/AR in cultural heritage; and applications of VR/AR in industry.

This volume presents the results of a joint National Science Foundation and European Commission Workshop which was set up to identify the future key strategic research directions in the areas of human-centred interaction, online communities and virtual environments. A research agenda is proposed for each area. There is an urgent need to make interaction more centred around human needs and capabilities, and to consider the human environment in virtual environments and in other contextual information-processing activities. The overall goal is to make users more effective in their information or communication tasks by reducing learning times, speeding up performance, lowering error rates, facilitating retention, and increasing subjective satisfaction. Online communities is an area of rapid and dynamic growth with new kinds of interaction, behaviours, communication, and relationship to the world of users and information. Guidelines for basic user interface design need to be extended to accommodate these new technologies and interfaces to users. Fruitful lines of research investigation in all these areas are set out in this book.

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 14th International Conference on Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, EuroVR 2017, held in Laval, France, in December 2017. The 10 full papers and 2 short papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from 36 submissions. The papers are organized in four topical sections: interaction models and user studies, visual and haptic real-time rendering, perception and cognition, and rehabilitation and safety.

Emergent technologies, including ambient intelligence and pervasive computing, promise a considerable advance in the way people use virtual communities, and new, innovative applications are making virtual communities more dynamic and usable than ever. Virtual Community Building and the Information Society: Current and Future Directions offers a holistic approach to virtual communities, providing relevant theoretical frameworks and presenting the latest empirical research on virtual technology, infrastructures, content modeling, knowledge modeling, content management, context awareness, mobility, security and trust. It also explores the social impact and applications of virtual communities, providing valuable insights for professionals, researchers, and managers in fields including information systems, computer science, knowledge management, software engineering, healthcare, business, information and communication sciences, education, and sociology who want to improve their understanding of the strategic role of virtual communities in the information society.

Digital role-playing games such as Rift, Diablo III, and Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning help players develop skills in critical thinking, problem solving, digital literacy and engagement. The author examines both the benefits and the drawbacks of role-playing games and their application to real-world teaching techniques. Readers will learn how to incorporate games-based instruction into their own classes and workplace training, as well as approaches to redesigning curriculum and programs.

This collection of essays is devoted to the philosophical examination of the aesthetics of videogames. Videogames represent one of the most significant developments in the modern popular arts, and it is a topic that is attracting much attention among philosophers of art and aestheticians. As a burgeoning medium of artistic expression, videogames raise entirely new aesthetic concerns, particularly concerning their ontology, interactivity, and aesthetic value. The essays in this volume address a number of pressing theoretical issues related to these areas, including but not limited to: the nature of performance and identity in videogames; their status as an interactive form of art; the ethical problems raised by violence in videogames; and the representation of women in videogames and the gaming community. The Aesthetics of Videogames is an important contribution to analytic aesthetics that deals with an important and growing art form.

This book explores video games as important cultural artifacts and as sources of powerful, compelling storytelling. It begins by considering the fundamental structures of video games-including immersion and player agency-and deepens the exploration of such elements by considering how each plays a role in storytelling. The book moves from the theoretical to the practical by considering numerous modern games and the stories they tell through careful, considered analysis of each title's story. Games considered at length include the Mass Effect series, BioShock, The Last of Us and many more. The book also explores genres like the visual novel, which are less frequently considered in video game study. What emerges from this book, which appeals to academics, game enthusiasts, and the general public, is the importance of considering video games as serious and important sources of storytelling exploring complex thematic subjects like identity, morality, and the impact of player choice.

Create web-based VR applications and deploy them to GitHub pages with this short, practical tutorial crammed with hands-on examples. This book covers topics such as VR, the WebVR API, and A-Frame. In Learning Web-based Virtual Reality, you will build a number of 3D VR-based applications. In these apps, you will be able to test the VR environments, walk through the virtual world, interact with the objects, and perceive these virtual realities with the help of Google Cardboard. By the end of the book, you will have a complete understanding of what WebVR is, knowledge of what VR devices are available, and the requirements to start working on WebVR. You will also be comfortable in using A-Frame and its various components to build your own VR projects. What You Will Learn Experience WebVR, the WebVR API, and WebVR libraries Make use of various pieces of VR hardware See popular WebVR projects Use A-Frame to build your own WebVR projects Who This Book Is For Developers who want to build and deploy web-based virtual reality technology. Understanding of HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS is required.

This is the first book to describe the Microsoft HoloLens wearable augmented reality device and provide step-by-step instructions on how developers can use the HoloLens SDK to create Windows 10 applications that merge holographic virtual reality with the wearer's actual environment. Best-selling author Allen G. Taylor explains how to develop and deliver HoloLens applications via Microsoft's ecosystem for third party apps. Readers will also learn how HoloLens differs from other virtual and augmented reality devices and how to create compelling applications to fully utilize its capabilities. What You Will Learn: The features and capabilities of HoloLens How to build a simple Windows 10 app optimized for HoloLens The tools and resources contained in the HoloLens SDK How to build several HoloLens apps, using the SDK tools

In his classic work Anarchy, State and Utopia, Robert Nozick asked his readers to imagine being permanently plugged into a 'machine that would give you any experience you desired'. He speculated that, in spite of the many obvious attractions of such a prospect, most people would choose against passing the rest of their lives under the influence of this type of invention. Nozick thought (and many have since agreed) that this simple thought experiment had profound implications for how we think about ethics, political justice, and the significance of technology in our everyday lives. Nozick's argument was made in 1974, about a decade before the personal computer revolution in Europe and North America. Since then, opportunities for the citizens of industrialized societies to experience virtual worlds and simulated environments have multiplied to an extent that no philosopher could have predicted. The authors in this volume re-evaluate the merits of Nozick's argument, and use it as a jumping-off point for the philosophical examination of subsequent developments in culture and technology, including a variety of experience-altering cybernetic technologies such as computer games, social media networks, HCI devices, and neuro-prostheses.

Growing more quickly than we can study or come to fully understand it, social computing is much more than the next thing. Whether it is due more to technology-driven convenience or to the basic human need to find kindred connection, online communication and communities are changing the way we live. Social Computing and Virtual Communities compiles contributions from international experts to offer the sort of multidisciplinary study that is required in any investigation of communities. Delving fully into theories and methods, application areas, and types of online social environments, this book - Introduces several theories regarding online social interaction Provides a general overview of methodologies, qualitative and quantitative, for analyzing and evaluating virtual communities Makes an in-depth investigation into e-learning communities and the formation of social networks of learners Examines healthcare communities motivated by physical pain, illness, and burdensome symptoms Discusses intellectual property (IP) issues, including those involving user-generated content Delves into the topic of online trust Introduces virtual communities, in which users immerse themselves in a 3D virtual environment, including MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing games) Presents an unusual community of older people of Chinese culture who perceive virtual communities as a place where old beliefs and traditional norms can be preserved Explores the rapid rise of social networking sites (SNS) Books of this kind are uncommon. This work not only provides case studies of different domains of virtual communities and different types of social technologies but also emphasizes theoretical and methodological aspects required to research and analyze such communities.

Slated as 'the next big thing in tech', augmented reality promises to take the screen out of our hands and wrap it around the world via 'smart spectacles'. As a pervasive, invisible interface between the world and our senses, AR offers unparalleled capacity to reveal hidden digital depths, but it also comes at a cost to our privacy, our property, and our reality. In this crucial and provocative book, Mark Pesce draws on over thirty years' experience to offer the first mainstream exploration of augmented reality. He discusses the exciting and beneficial features of AR as well as the issues and risks raised by this still-emerging technology - a technology that moulds us by shaping what we see and hear. Augmented Reality is essential reading for anyone interested in the growing influence of this impressive but deeply concerning technology. As the book reveals, reality - once augmented - will never be the same.

Virtual Politics is a critical overview of the new - digital - body politic, with new technologies framing the discussion of key themes in social theory. This book shows how these new technologies are altering the nature of identity and agency, the relation of self to other, and the structure of community and political representation.

Texture accounts for an important part of the realism of simulated experiences, and it is most certainly true during tactile interaction. We usually experience roughness by running our fingers onto the explored surface. The perception of this fine texture is mediated by the vibrations generated by the encounters of the skin and the asperities of the surfaces. Reproduction of Tactual Textures presents factors that contribute to the mechanics of the interaction between a bare finger and a surface with a view to their artificial reproduction. It discusses the recording and reproduction of tactual textures, and analyses a case study of the development of a device able to record the vibratory signal from a fingertip sliding over a textured surface. The same device is then used in a reverse way to render those previously measured signals to the user's fingertip. These developments open new questions about the biomechanical properties of the skin and their relation to perception. The second half of Reproduction of Tactual Textures focuses on the implication of the dynamic parameters of the skin onto rendering performance, and it concludes with a study on the important features that are present in the vibratory signal and their relation to texture perception. This state-of-the-art volume highlights the importance of the mechanics and biomechanics during the haptic exploration of surfaces and their possible contribution to perception. Collectively, the findings reported are pertinent to many applications, including robotic perception and the design of effective virtual reality systems.

Millions of people around the world today spend portions of their lives in online virtual worlds. Second Life is one of the largest of these virtual worlds. The residents of Second Life create communities, buy property and build homes, go to concerts, meet in bars, attend weddings and religious services, buy and sell virtual goods and services, find friendship, fall in love--the possibilities are endless, and all encountered through a computer screen. At the time of its initial publication in 2008, Coming of Age in Second Life was the first book of anthropology to examine this thriving alternate universe. Tom Boellstorff conducted more than two years of fieldwork in Second Life, living among and observing its residents in exactly the same way anthropologists traditionally have done to learn about cultures and social groups in the so-called real world. He conducted his research as the avatar "Tom Bukowski," and applied the rigorous methods of anthropology to study many facets of this new frontier of human life, including issues of gender, race, sex, money, conflict and antisocial behavior, the construction of place and time, and the interplay of self and group. Coming of Age in Second Life shows how virtual worlds can change ideas about identity and society. Bringing anthropology into territory never before studied, this book demonstrates that in some ways humans have always been virtual, and that virtual worlds in all their rich complexity build upon a human capacity for culture that is as old as humanity itself. Now with a new preface in which the author places his book in light of the most recent transformations in online culture, Coming of Age in Second Life remains the classic ethnography of virtual worlds.

As this comprehensive and multidisciplinary book makes clear, virtuality has a pedigree that pre-dates the computer age and modern virtual worlds, a pedigree that can be traced back to classical mythology and beyond. Equally, the concept of virtuality is not the province of one field of study alone but is the foundation and driving force of many, both theoretical and applied. Our conceptualizations and applications of virtuality are multiple, as contributors demonstrate across the nine sections of the book that move from philosophy to technologies and applications before returning to philosophy again for a discussion of the utopias and dystopias of virtuality. The almost 50 essays contained within range freely across subjects that include the potential of virtuality, ethics, virtuality and self, presence and immersion, virtual emotions, image, sound and literature, computer games, AI and A-Life, Augmented Reality and Real Virtuality, law and economics, medical and military applications, religion, and cybersex. Throughout, contributors discuss differences between virtuality, reality, and actuality, in debates filtered through the lenses of the disciplines represented here, and speculate on future directions. It is not at all clear that there are differences and, if such distinctions are to be found, the boundaries between virtuality, reality, and actuality continually shift as ideas, modes of organization, and behaviors constantly flow from one to the other regardless of direction. The Handbook presents no unified definition of virtuality to comfort the reader, rather a multiplicity of questions and approaches underpinned by provocative statements that should further fuel the debates surrounding our notions of virtuality.

This book covers all topics relevant for the design of haptic interfaces and teleoperation systems. The book provides the basic knowledge required for understanding more complex approaches and more importantly it introduces all issues that must be considered for designing efficient and safe haptic interfaces. Topics covered in this book provide insight into all relevant components of a haptic system. The reader is guided from understanding the virtual reality concept to the final goal of being able to design haptic interfaces for specific tasks such as nanomanipulation. The introduction chapter positions the haptic interfaces within the virtual reality context. In order to design haptic interfaces that will comply with human capabilities at least basic understanding of human sensors-motor system is required. An overview of this topic is provided in the chapter related to human haptics. The book does not try to introduce the state-of-the-art haptic interface solutions because these tend to change quickly. Only a careful selection of different kinematic configurations is shown to introduce the reader into this field. Mathematical models of virtual environment, collision detection and force rendering topics are strongly interrelated and are described in the next two chapters. The interaction with the virtual environment is simulated with a haptic interface. Impedance and admittance based approaches to haptic robot control are presented. Stability issues of haptic interaction are analyzed in details and solutions are proposed for guaranteeing stable and safe operation. Finally, haptic interaction is extended to teleoperation systems. Virtual fixtures which improve the teleoperation and human-robot cooperation in complex environments are covered next and the last chapter presents nanomanipulation as one specific example of teleoperation.

The proposed book explores the theme of identity, specifically as applied to its role and development in virtual worlds. Following the introduction, it is divided into four sections: identities, avatars and the relationship between them; factors that support the development of identity in virtual worlds; managing multiple identities across different environments and creating an online identity for a physical world purpose.

The focus from most Virtual Reality (VR) systems lies mainly on the visual immersion of the user. But the emphasis only on the visual perception is insufficient for some applications as the user is limited in his interactions within the VR. Therefore the textbook presents the principles and theoretical background to develop a VR system that is able to create a link between physical simulations and haptic rendering which requires update rates of 1\, kHz for the force feedback. Special attention is given to the modeling and computation of contact forces in a two-finger grasp of textiles. Addressing further the perception of small scale surface properties like roughness, novel algorithms are presented that are not only able to consider the highly dynamic behaviour of textiles but also capable of computing the small forces needed for the tactile rendering at the contact point. Final analysis of the entire VR system is being made showing the problems and the solutions found in the work

This reference book is for anyone involved in generating surgical training scenarios, as well as in VR-based training in general. It examines the main components required to define a scenario, in the context of surgical scene generation: Generation of the scene geometry; modelling of organ appearance; definition of biomechanical parameters. The book is the ideal reference for any reader involved in generating training scenarios, as well as in VR-based training in general.

Virtual reality (VR) techniques are becoming increasingly popular. The use of computer modeling and visualization is no longer uncommon in the area of ergonomics and occupational health and safety. This book explains how studies conducted in a simulated virtual world are making it possible to test new solutions for designed workstations, offering a high degree of ease for introducing modifications and eliminating risk and work-related accidents. Virtual reality techniques offer a wide range of possibilities including increasing the cognitive abilities of the elderly, adapting workstations for people with disabilities and special needs, and remote control of machines using collaborative robots. Detailed discussions include: Testing protective devices, safety systems, and the numerical reconstruction of work accidents Using computer simulation in generic virtual environments On the one hand, it is a self-study book made so by well-crafted and numerous examples. On the other hand, through a detailed analysis of the virtual reality from a point of view of work safety and ergonomics and health improvement. Ewa Grabska, Jagiellonian University, Krakow, Poland Noteworthy is the broad scope and diversity of the addressed problems, ranging from training employees using VR environments with different degrees of perceived reality; training and rehabilitation of the elderly; to designing, testing, modifying, and adapting workplaces to various needs including those of disabled workers; to simulation and investigation of the cause of accidents at a workplace. Andrzej Krawiecki, Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland

Containing the edited research papers resulting from an ambitious, cross-disciplinary research project, this volume examines the spatiality of virtual inhabited 3D worlds - virtual reality and cyberspace. (Three other volumes look at Interaction, Staging and Methodology.) It is about the communication spaces emerging at the Internet and supported by special 3D interfaces. It is also about the virtual spaces created by virtual reality hardware (CAVEs, panoramic screens, head mounted display systems etc.) and software. Virtual Space: Spatiality in Virtual Inhabited 3D Worlds is interdisciplinary. It deals with philosophical, psychological, communicational, technological and aesthetic aspects of space. While philosophy raises the question concerning the ontology of space - what is space - psychology deals with our perception of space. Communication theory looks at the way in which space supports communication (i.e. that space is a medium for communication), and finally aesthetic analyses exemplify the use of virtual space in virtual cities, in museums and in art.

William Bainbridge takes an in-depth look at the fantasy religions that exist in 34 different massively multiplayer online roleplaying games. He categorizes the religions, noting similarities across the games. He points, for instance, to the prevalence of polytheism: a system which, Bainbridge argues, can function as an effective map of reality in which each deity personifies a concept. Religions are as much about conceptualizing the self as conceptualizing the sacred. Most games allow the players to have multiple avatars, an idea Bainbridge likens to contemporary scientific ideas about personality. He also focuses on sacred spaces; the prevalence of magic and its relationship to the computer program and programmer; the fostering of a tribal morality by both religion and rules programmed into the game; the rise of cults and belief systems within the game worlds (and how this relates to social science theories of cult formation in the real world); and, of course, how the gameworld religions depict death. As avatars are immortal, death is merely a minor setback in most games. At the same time, much of the action in some gameworlds centers on the issue of mortality and the problematic nature of resurrection. Bainbridge contends that gameworlds are giving us a new perspective on the human quest, one that combines the arts and simulates most aspects of real life. The quests in gameworlds also provide meaning for human action, in terms of narratives about achieving goals by overcoming obstacles. Perhaps meaning does not naturally exist in our universe, but must be created by us, both in our fantasies and in day-to-day life. Like the games analyzed in this book, he says, traditional religions are fantasies that should be respected as works of art in a future civilization of disbelief.