This comprehensive resource examines the rapidly-growing esports phenomenon in higher education, bringing the perspectives of players, administrators, and scholars together in one volume to discuss the basics of esports, how to start and maintain successful esports programs, and issues and trends in the field. Esports are a global phenomenon with an estimated audience of 400 million people in 2018. Given their already strong base and rising popularity on college campuses, esports have been referred to as the new college football. This book offers practical insights into how to develop and maintain an esports program that is consistent with institutional purposes and values. The book is helpful to all types of institutions (small to large, public and private, 2-year or 4-year). It draws on current scholarship and the professional experience of the authors, focused heavily on practical advice for higher education professionals. Among the challenges of esports in higher education the book addresses are competition structure, competition climate, child protection, cheating, gambling, lack of reliable relevant data to inform decisions, and the advent of an esports arms race. Some of the opportunities described in the book include student recruitment and success networks with high schools, and partnerships with the esports industry. Done correctly, esports can provide a structured way for all students (on campus, off campus, and online) to engage in both curricular and cocurricular programming that can provide measurable learning outcomes and have a positive impact on retention rates.

Augmented reality (AR) is transforming how we work, learn, play and connect with the world, and is now being introduced to the field of medicine, where it is revolutionising healthcare as pioneering virtual elements are being added to real images to provide a more compelling and intuitive view during procedures. This book, which had its beginnings at the AE-CAI: Augmented Environments for Computer-Assisted Interventions MICCAI Workshop in Munich in 2015, is the first to review the area of mixed and augmented reality in medicine. Covering a range of examples of the use of AR in medicine, it explores its relevance to minimally-invasive interventions, how it can improve the accuracy of a procedure and reduce procedure time, and how it may be employed to reduce radiation risks. It also discusses how AR can be an effective tool in the education of physicians, medical students, nurses and other health professionals. Features: An ideal practical guide for medical professionals and students looking to understand the implementation, applications, and future of AR Contains the latest developments and technologies in this innovative field Edited by highly respected pioneers in the field, who have been immersed in AR as well as virtual reality and image-guided surgery since their inception, with chapter contributions from subject area specialists working with AR

Despite a common heritage dating back centuries and mutual national interests, such as their joint fear of Soviet influence across the Mediterranean, it took 38 years after the establishment of the State of Israel (1948) and a decade after Francos death (1975) for relations to be established between Jerusalem and Madrid (1986). The absence of ties between both countries prior to 1986 was an anomaly that requires explanation. There was no apparent reason why both countries should not have established full diplomatic ties prior. Indeed, during the first years of Israeli statehood until 1952, Spain sought unsuccessfully to establish official ties with Israel as a means to overcome international isolation. But adhering to a moral foreign policy standard, Israel refused formal ties with the former Axis supporter. By 1953, however, Israel began adopting a more pragmatic view. Five centuries after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain bilateral ties were formalised after Spains successful transition from Francos dictatorship to democracy and Madrids ascension to the EEC in 1986. Once in the Community, Madrid had to align its foreign policy with Brussels which necessitated diplomatic relations with Israel. Without this systematic pressure on Madrid, the anomaly of Israeli-Spanish relations would have likely continued. Post 1986 the ties between the two countries were overshadowed by strong international political forces -- the Arab-Israeli conflict and the Israeli-Palestinian struggle -- which delayed bilateral progress. Explaining the impact of these forces is key to understanding the relationship. Although many positive milestones have been reached there are substantive issues of concern for both sides, and a feeling that much work remains if the relationship, and indeed friendship, is to become worthy and rewarding.

Building Virtual Reality with Unity and Steam VR takes a hands-on approach to getting up and running with virtual reality using the Unity game engine. By utilizing the free SteamVR 2.x libraries, this book and its example code are compatible with the main virtual reality (VR) head-mounted displays currently available. This book also looks at some of the main issues surrounding virtual reality, such as motion sickness and performance issues, providing practical ways to reduce their impact to make better VR experiences. Key Features: Discusses some of the key issues facing virtual reality and provides helpful tips for making better VR experiences Practical examples geared to work with any headset compatible with SteamVR, including Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Valve Index Uses the SteamVR Interaction system for interactions such as picking up and throwing objects, operating user interfaces and capturing input events for your own scripts Explore advanced spatialized audio with Steam Audio. Discover how to build user interfaces for virtual reality, as well as discussing some best practices for VR-based user interface design Written by a games industry veteran with a proven track record, having worked for IBM Research in educational VR research projects and having made and launched VR experiences.

This book examines the cutting-edge concept of gamification in tourism. It provides a theoretical foundation for tourism gamification and discusses the concepts of gaming and gamification and their application in the tourism and hospitality industry. The chapters offer valuable insights by showcasing examples of best practice from different countries and addressing key issues of game mechanism and game design principles. They focus on areas such as game design elements, game player types and their motivation, location-based games, augmented reality and virtual reality games. The volume will be useful for students and researchers in tourism marketing, digital tourism, smart tourism and tourism futures. It also serves as a helpful tool for tourism industry practitioners looking to increase customer engagement, enhance loyalty and raise brand awareness.

Understanding Virtual Reality: Interface, Application, and Design, Second Edition arrives at a time when the technologies behind virtual reality have advanced dramatically. The book helps users take advantage of the ways they can identify and prepare for the applications of VR in their field. By approaching VR as a communications medium, the authors have created a resource that will remain relevant even as underlying technologies evolve. Included are a history of VR, systems currently in use, the application of VR, and the many issues that arise in application design and implementation, including hardware requirements, system integration, interaction techniques and usability.

Most events and activities in today's world are ordinarily captured using photos, videos and other multimedia content. Such content has some limitation of storing data and fetching them effectively. Three-dimensional continuous PC animation is the most proper media to simulate these occasions and activities. This book focuses on futuristic trends and innovations in multimedia systems using big data, IoT and cloud technologies. The authors present recent advancements in multimedia systems as they relate to various application areas such as healthcare services and agriculture-related industries. The authors also discuss human-machine interface design, graphics modelling, rendering/animation, image/graphics techniques/systems and visualization. They then go on to explore multimedia content adaptation for interoperable delivery. Finally, the book covers cultural heritage, philosophical/ethical/societal/international issues, standards-related virtual technology and multimedia uses. This book is intended for computer engineers and computer scientists developing applications for multimedia and virtual reality and professionals working in object design and visualization, transformation, modelling and animation of the real world. Features: Focuses on futuristic trends and innovations in multimedia systems using big data, IoT and cloud technologies Offers opportunity for state-of-the-art approaches, methodologies and systems, and innovative use of multimedia-based emerging technology services in different application areas Discusses human-machine interface design, graphics modelling, rendering/animation, image/graphics techniques/systems and visualization Covers cultural heritage, philosophical/ethical/societal/international issues, standards-related virtual technology and multimedia uses Explores multimedia content adaptation for interoperable delivery and recent advancements in multimedia systems in context to various application areas such as healthcare services and agriculture-related fields Rajeev Tiwari is a Senior Associate Professor in the School of Computer Science at the University of Petroleum and Energy Studies, Dehradun, India. Neelam Duhan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Engineering at J. C. Bose University of Science and Technology, YMCA, Faridabad, India. Mamta Mittal has 18 years of teaching experience, and her research areas include data mining, big data, machine learning, soft computing and data structure. Abhineet Anand is a Professor in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at Chitkara University, Punjab, India. Muhammad Attique Khan is a lecturer of the Computer Science Department at HITEC University, Taxila, Pakistan.

'Butler and West are fast becoming my favourite detective partnership... Addictive reading!' Alison Belsham, author of The Tattoo Thief Nothing is as it seems, for Butler and West.One spring evening, a mother and her children are brutally attacked in their home. The unprovoked and violent assault leaves DS Robin Butler and DC Freya West in the dark - the luxury items were left untouched and there is no apparent motive. The investigation's only lead is Andrew Grace, the husband who was not home at the time. He and his business partner have created unique virtual reality software which is valuable and extremely dangerous in the wrong hands. Robin and Freya are stonewalled by uncooperative witnesses at every turn but when a woman linked to the work of Andrew and his co-founder is kidnapped, the need for progress becomes critical. Failure to solve the case will result in murder. Meanwhile, Robin and Freya's unresolved feelings have come to the surface and they must finally face facts. But is it too late? In a case where nothing is as it seems, are Robin and Freya doomed to never find the truth? A tense and thrilling instalment of the Butler & West series that fans of Cara Hunter, Jane Casey and Susie Steiner will love. Praise for Louisa Scarr'Scarr delivers an immensely satisfying mystery, both timely and timeless, but her real magic lies in Butler and West themselves... This one will break your heart a little bit.' Dominic Nolan, author of Vine Street 'Compelling, fraught...I tore through it! Loved it.' Rachel Blok, author of The Fall 'Before you know it, you're chapters in and can't stop.' Fliss Chester, author of A Dangerous Goodbye 'A punchy and pacy police procedural with heart.' Jo Furniss, author of All The Little Children 'One of the best detective series there is. Smooth, thrilling and full of emotion... a must-read!' James Delargy, author of Vanished 'The latest Butler & West is a tense mystery packed with all of the 'will they, won't they' chemistry that I so love about this series. A triumph.' Heather Critchlow, author of Unsolved 'Excellent mystery... Reminiscent of Elly Griffith's Ruth Galloway series... will leave you wanting more.' Reader review 'This is one of the best police procedural books I've read of late. The partnership Freya and Robin have is so well done... I'm going to have to read more so I know what happens.' Reader review 'Another absolutely unputdownable case for detectives Robin Butler and Freya West. The plot is incredibly clever and twisty and kept me reading until the early hours. Can't wait for the next instalment, highly recommended!' Reader review 'Excellent. It had plenty of twists and turns and kept me guessing. I wholeheartedly recommend this series.' Reader review 'Wow, another brilliant book by this author. I stayed up well into the night last night to finish it... a great series and I can't wait for the next instalment.' Reader review 'Enthralling... This murder mystery was a thrill from beginning to end. The characters are strong and are vividly drawn. So cleverly written and the pacing was on point.' Reader review 'Love the Butler and West novels. Great writing and premise. Amazing characters. Page turner. Plenty of suspense to keep me guessing.' Reader review

Working with Video Gamers and Games in Therapy moves beyond stereotypes about video game addiction and violence to consider the role that games play in psychological experiences and mental health. Chapters examine the factors that compel individual gamers to select and identify with particular games and characters, as well as the different play styles, genres, and archetypes common in video games. For clinicians looking to understand their clients' relationships with video games or to use games as a therapeutic resource in their own practice, this is a thoughtful, comprehensive, and timely resource.

Today's Comprehensive and Authoritative Guide to Augmented Reality By overlaying computer-generated information on the real world, augmented reality (AR) amplifies human perception and cognition in remarkable ways. Working in this fast-growing field requires knowledge of multiple disciplines, including computer vision, computer graphics, and human-computer interaction. Augmented Reality: Principles and Practice integrates all this knowledge into a single-source reference, presenting today's most significant work with scrupulous accuracy. Pioneering researchers Dieter Schmalstieg and Tobias Hoellerer carefully balance principles and practice, illuminating AR from technical, methodological, and user perspectives. Coverage includes Displays: head-mounted, handheld, projective, auditory, and haptic Tracking/sensing, including physical principles, sensor fusion, and real-time computer vision Calibration/registration, ensuring repeatable, accurate, coherent behavior Seamless blending of real and virtual objects Visualization to enhance intuitive understanding Interaction-from situated browsing to full 3D interaction Modeling new geometric content Authoring AR presentations and databases Architecting AR systems with real-time, multimedia, and distributed elements This guide is indispensable for anyone interested in AR, including developers, engineers, students, instructors, researchers, and serious hobbyists.

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.

Building Virtual Reality with Unity and Steam VR takes a hands-on approach to getting up and running with virtual reality using the Unity game engine. By utilizing the free SteamVR 2.x libraries, this book and its example code are compatible with the main virtual reality (VR) head-mounted displays currently available. This book also looks at some of the main issues surrounding virtual reality, such as motion sickness and performance issues, providing practical ways to reduce their impact to make better VR experiences. Key Features: Discusses some of the key issues facing virtual reality and provides helpful tips for making better VR experiences Practical examples geared to work with any headset compatible with SteamVR, including Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Valve Index Uses the SteamVR Interaction system for interactions such as picking up and throwing objects, operating user interfaces and capturing input events for your own scripts Explore advanced spatialized audio with Steam Audio. Discover how to build user interfaces for virtual reality, as well as discussing some best practices for VR-based user interface design Written by a games industry veteran with a proven track record, having worked for IBM Research in educational VR research projects and having made and launched VR experiences.

This book features the latest research in the area of immersive technologies, presented at the 6th International Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Conference, held in online in 2020. Bridging the gap between academia and industry, it presents the state of the art in augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies and their applications in various industries such as marketing, education, health care, tourism, events, fashion, entertainment, retail and the gaming industry. The book is a collection of research papers by prominent AR and VR scholars from around the globe. Covering the most significant topics in the field of augmented and virtual reality and providing the latest findings, it is of interest to academics and practitioners alike.

With the advent of the internet and handheld or wearable media systems that plunge the user into 360 video, augmented-or virtual reality-technology is changing how stories are told and created. In this book, John V. Pavlik argues that a new form of mediated communication has emerged: experiential news. Experiential media delivers not just news stories but also news experiences, in which the consumer engages news as a participant or virtual eyewitness in immersive, multisensory, and interactive narratives. Pavlik describes and analyzes new tools and approaches that allow journalists to tell stories that go beyond text and image. He delves into developing forms such as virtual reality, haptic technologies, interactive documentaries, and drone media, presenting the principles of how to design and frame a story using these techniques. Pavlik warns that although experiential news can heighten user engagement and increase understanding, it may also fuel the transformation of fake news into artificial realities, and he discusses the standards of ethics and accuracy needed to build public trust in journalism in the age of virtual reality. Journalism in the Age of Virtual Reality offers important lessons for practitioners seeking to produce quality experiential news and those interested in the ethical considerations that experiential media raise for journalism and the public.

This book explains how to plan and build a Virtual Private Network (VPN), a collection of technologies that creates secure connections or "tunnels" over regular Internet lines. It discusses costs, configuration, and how to install and use VPN technologies that are available for Windows NT and Unix, such as PPTP and L2TP, Altavista Tunnel, Cisco PIX, and the secure shell (SSH). New features in the second edition include SSH and an expanded description of the IPSec standard.

A trailblazing inquiry into human love and relationships in the age of super-smart technology Technology is our new life partner. No longer confined to the sidelines, new interactive technologies like AI therapists, avatar friends, and robot assistants are ready to transform technology's role from basic tools of convenience to intimate elements of our social and emotional lives. This turn towards human-like technology signals the beginning of a new epoch in human history, a change already facing both excitement and resistance. Blending science, sociology, history, and psychology, Relationships 5.0 asks how recent technological developments cause us to think differently about our family lives, love affairs, and emotional needs. It argues that we are currently living through a technological paradigm shift similar in magnitude to the preceding agricultural, industrial, and informational revolutions in human history. Thanks to the convergence of the cognitive revolution (AI), the sensorial revolution (VR and AR), and the physical revolution (robots), technology can now fulfill emotional, intellectual, and physical needs that have until now been met by other humans. While many are still wary of human-technology companionship, Relationships 5.0 reveals that these novel interactions aren't as risky as we'd once thought, but can instead make our social and emotional lives richer and more diverse. Still, we must ask: What will the age of Relationships 5.0 look like? How should we prepare for such an age? Who might already be ready to embrace these changes, and why? Guiding readers away from fear and toward a new reality, Relationships 5.0 exposes the fundamental questions behind such essentials as companionship, trust, and love-and offers fascinating and revealing ideas about what the coming years will look like.

Like the first edition, the central question this book addresses is how virtual reality can be used in the design, production and management of the built environment. The book aims to consider three key questions. What are the business drivers for the use of virtual reality? What are its limitations? How can virtual reality be implemented within organizations? Using international case studies it answers these questions whilst addressing the growth in the recent use of building information modelling (BIM) and the renewed interest in virtual reality to visualize and understand data to make decisions. With the aim of inspiring and informing future use, the authors take a fresh look at current applications in the construction sector, situating them within a broader trajectory of innovation. The new edition expands the scope to consider both immersive virtual reality as a way of bringing professionals inside a building information model, and augmented reality as a way of taking this model and related asset information out to the job-site. The updated edition also considers these technologies in the context of other developments that were in their infancy when the first edition was written - such as laser scanning, mobile technologies and big data. Virtual Reality in the Built Environment is essential reading for professionals in architecture, construction, design, surveying and engineering and students on related courses who need an understanding of BIM, CAD and virtual reality in the sector. Please follow the book's Twitter account: @vrandbe http://buildingvr.blogspot.co.uk/

This comprehensive resource examines the rapidly-growing esports phenomenon in higher education, bringing the perspectives of players, administrators, and scholars together in one volume to discuss the basics of esports, how to start and maintain successful esports programs, and issues and trends in the field. Esports are a global phenomenon with an estimated audience of 400 million people in 2018. Given their already strong base and rising popularity on college campuses, esports have been referred to as the new college football. This book offers practical insights into how to develop and maintain an esports program that is consistent with institutional purposes and values. The book is helpful to all types of institutions (small to large, public and private, 2-year or 4-year). It draws on current scholarship and the professional experience of the authors, focused heavily on practical advice for higher education professionals. Among the challenges of esports in higher education the book addresses are competition structure, competition climate, child protection, cheating, gambling, lack of reliable relevant data to inform decisions, and the advent of an esports arms race. Some of the opportunities described in the book include student recruitment and success networks with high schools, and partnerships with the esports industry. Done correctly, esports can provide a structured way for all students (on campus, off campus, and online) to engage in both curricular and cocurricular programming that can provide measurable learning outcomes and have a positive impact on retention rates.

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.

Table of Contents

1. Theoretical Foundations of Social Computing and Virtual Communities; Charalambos Vrasidas and George Veletsianos

2. An Overview of Social Networks; Gindo Tampubolon

3. Research Methods 2.0: Doing Research Using Virtual Communities; Paul Cairns and Mark Blythe

4. E-Learning Communities; Andrew Laghos

5. Technology-Enhanced Health Communities: Research on the Use of Social Computing Applications byBoth the Sick and the Well; Laura Slaughter, Aksel Tjora, and Anne-Grete Sandaunet

6. Online Support Communities; Ulrike Pfeil

7. Online Content Sharing;Masahiro Hamasaki, Kouchiro Eto, Sri Kurniawan, Tom Hope, Hideaki Takeda, and Takuichi Nishimura

8. From Online Familiarity to Offline Trust: How a Virtual Community Creates Familiarity and Trust between Strangers; Paula Bialski and Dominik Batorski

9 Second Life, Immersion, and Learning; Diane Carr and Martin Oliver

10. Residency, Relationships, and Responsibility: The Social Side of World of Warcraft; David White

11. Perceiving an Internet Community as a "Utopia": Beliefs, Norms, and Resistance among Older Chinese; Bo Xie

12. Social Network Sites: An Exploration of Features and Diversity; Mike Thelwall and David Stuart

Fantasy sports have the opportunity to provide a sporting community in which gendered physical presence plays no role-a space where men and women can compete and interact on a level playing field. Whose Game? shows, however, that while many turn to this space to socialize with friends or participate in a uniquely active and competitive fandom, men who play also depend on fantasy sports to perform a boyhood vision of masculinity otherwise inaccessible to them. Authors Rebecca Kissane and Sarah Winslow draw on a rich array of survey, interview, and observational data to examine how gender, race, and class frame the experiences of everyday fantasy sports players. This pioneering book examines gendered structures and processes, such as jock statsculinity-a nerdish form of masculine one-upmanship-and how women are often rendered as outsiders. Ultimately, Whose Game? demonstrates that fantasy sports are more than just an inconsequential leisure activity. This online world bleeds into participants' social lives in gendered ways-forging and strengthening relationships but also taking participants' time and attention to generate negative emotions, stress, discord, and unproductivity.

The Advanced Game Narrative Toolbox continues where the Game Narrative Toolbox ended. While the later covered the basics of writing for games, the Advanced Game Narrative Toolbox will cover techniques for the intermediate and professional writer. The book will cover topics such as how to adapt a novel to a game, how to revive IPs and how to construct transmedia worlds. Each chapter will be written by a professional with exceptional experience in the field of the chapter.

Key Features

Learn from industry experts how to tackle today’s challenges in storytelling for games.

A learn by example and exercise approach, which was praised in the Game Narrative Toolbox.

An in depth view on advanced storytelling techniques and topics as they are currently discussed and used in the gaming industry.

Expand your knowledge in game writing as you learn and try yourself to design quests, write romances and build worlds as you would as a writer in a game studio.

Improve your own stories by learning and trying the techniques used by the professionals of game writing.

Table of Contents

Introduction. Planning Your Work. Diversity & Research. Romances. Cinematics. Building a Universe. Writing for Non-Digital Games (Board Games). Adapting a Digital World to a Novel. From Novel to Computer Game. Reinventing an IP. Managing the Branches. Quest Design. Writing and implementation. The Writer in the Studio (VO). Editing and Quality Control. Freelancing and Surviving. Journalism. Past the Release.

Storytelling for Virtual Reality serves as a bridge between students of new media and professionals working between the emerging world of VR technology and the art form of classical storytelling. Rather than examining purely the technical, the text focuses on the narrative and how stories can best be structured, created, and then told in virtual immersive spaces. Author John Bucher examines the timeless principles of storytelling and how they are being applied, transformed, and transcended in Virtual Reality. Interviews, conversations, and case studies with both pioneers and innovators in VR storytelling are featured, including industry leaders at LucasFilm, 20th Century Fox, Oculus, Insomniac Games, and Google. For more information about story, Virtual Reality, this book, and its author, please visit StorytellingforVR.com

The last century has seen enormous leaps in the development of digital technologies, and most aspects of modern life have changed significantly with their widespread availability and use. Technology at various scales - supercomputers, corporate networks, desktop and laptop computers, the internet, tablets, mobile phones, and processors that are hidden in everyday devices and are so small you can barely see them with the naked eye - all pervade our world in a major way. Computers and Society: Modern Perspectives is a wide-ranging and comprehensive textbook that critically assesses the global technical achievements in digital technologies and how are they are applied in media; education and learning; medicine and health; free speech, democracy, and government; and war and peace. Ronald M. Baecker reviews critical ethical issues raised by computers, such as digital inclusion, security, safety, privacy,automation, and work, and discusses social, political, and ethical controversies and choices now faced by society. Particular attention is paid to new and exciting developments in artificial intelligence and machine learning, and the issues that have arisen from our complex relationship with AI.

This open access book tackles the design of 3D spatial interactions in an audio-centered and audio-first perspective, providing the fundamental notions related to the creation and evaluation of immersive sonic experiences. The key elements that enhance the sensation of place in a virtual environment (VE) are: Immersive audio: the computational aspects of the acoustical-space properties of Virutal Reality (VR) technologies Sonic interaction: the human-computer interplay through auditory feedback in VE VR systems: naturally support multimodal integration, impacting different application domains Sonic Interactions in Virtual Environments will feature state-of-the-art research on real-time auralization, sonic interaction design in VR, quality of the experience in multimodal scenarios, and applications. Contributors and editors include interdisciplinary experts from the fields of computer science, engineering, acoustics, psychology, design, humanities, and beyond. Their mission is to shape an emerging new field of study at the intersection of sonic interaction design and immersive media, embracing an archipelago of existing research spread in different audio communities and to increase among the VR communities, researchers, and practitioners, the awareness of the importance of sonic elements when designing immersive environments.