defining virtual reality

Virtual Reality can be defined as an enveloping, responsive, and sophisticated computer generated environment. An immersive setting engages sensory methods with enough spacial depth to give the person engaged a subjective sense of being surrounded by the fabricated construct rather than viewing the simulated parts as tangential components of the predominant real-world setting. It need not be that the human thinks that the virtual world is real, but does require that the human acts to a large degree as if the virtual environment were actual. Additional VR-related reference material at bnm-interactive .

Virtual reality is a computer-fabricated construct inside which several human beings can come in contact with things three dimensionally with the involvement of sight, hearing, and (in some measure) touch and locomotion. One's sense of realism in this type of setting grows with: (1) more range and depth of sensory bandwidth actively involved in the communication between humans and computers (e.g. degree of scope of sight, resolution of visual pictures, quality of sonic interaction, quantity and degree of body members engaged in locomotor and kinesthetic interaction); and (2) greater quickness and intelligence of the human to computer interaction, especially as the behavior of artificially-generated components better conforms to the tangible and other laws that direct their real-world counterparts. Differences from the latter occur for surreal world uses. In any event, even for those applications the gap from realistic dynamics must be controlled to make an enough sense of reality for the human to be believablely actively involved. If the world is too surreal, then meaningful interaction fails. Linked page Virtual Tours Oregon also provides information on this.

If you are interested, please also see Immersive Simulation .