What is Virtual Reality?

[ Previous | Index | Next ]


Main types of VR (cont...)

Distributed Virtual Environments
Any of the above, where there are multiple users present in the world. Sometimes called 'shared worlds'.

Telepresence
Control remote devices by mimicking actual events in the physical world as they happen. Useful for performing operations in hazardous environments or where it is otherwise inconvenient to be present in person.

Augmented reality
Combining the physical and virtual worlds, typically to annotate the physical world or to provide missing information. For example, to recreate the view that an operator of an aircraft would have seen if it had not been foggy.

Author: Michael Louka (mlouka@sn.no)
Last Updated: 18 November 1996