From: John Costella Subject: Re: DESIGN: 3D computing vs. virtual reality: what's the Date: Wed, 13 Dec 1995 10:51:21 +1100 (EETDT) From: John Costella > >A word processing document is not a virtual world. A spreadsheet > >is not a virtual world. An image of a building is not a virtual > > Ok, one criticism...your definition of a virtual world hangs on the > concept that a virtual world presents a metaphor. Is a spreadsheet > that uses a notebook metaphor and allows one to "page" through > multiple windows a VW but a spreadsheet that just opens one window not > a VW? And, generally speaking, a mouse is a metaphor for a finger, so > are all mouse-driven interfaces VW's? And finally, some VR interfaces > allow people to interact with computer-generated worlds in a way that > is NOT metaphorical...a driving simulator, for example. Are these not > VW's? I didn't mean to imply it must be a metaphor; it includes metaphors and simulations. Windowed operating systems and paged notebooks are at the lower end of the virtual world spectrum. A mouse itself is just an interface device; the software determines what it controls. > According the the NRC, some of these applications are SE's but not VR, > but rather "teleoperators." "A teleoperator system consists of a human Granted, I use "virtual world" instead of "synthetic environment". Teleoperation is something I omitted. I would argue that, if the inputs to and outputs from the human are simply being relayed over some distance, then there is no virtual world per se. There is a real world, with telepresence or teleoperation. But such systems use interface devices popularly associated with "virtual reality" technology. Augmented reality is essentially the overlaying or synthesis of the real world and a virtual world. At least the way I like to use the terms. ===================================================================== Dr John P. Costella School of Physics, The University of Melbourne mailto:jpc@physics.unimelb.edu.au http://www.ph.unimelb.edu.au/~jpc Phone: +61 3 9344-5435 Home: +61 3 9768-9268 Fax: +61 3 9347-4783 =====================================================================