artificial reality

[‚ärd·ə′fish·əl rē′al·əd·ē]

(computer science)

virtual reality

A computer-generated reality that projects the user into a 3D space. Using a stereoscopic headset that provides a completely immersive experience, the virtual reality (VR) system is operated by the user's head and hand movements or a physical control unit, the latter commonly used with virtual reality games. In the early days of VR, data gloves tethered by wires to a computer were used to track hand gestures.

The very first virtual reality systems were created for pilot and astronaut training, employing a physical housing that looks like the inside of a cockpit. Extremely costly and still being used, they provide a totally realistic experience that simulates taking off, flying and landing (see flight simulator).

Like Real Life
When people wear ordinary non-VR video goggles, turning their head horizontally or vertically changes nothing (see video headphones). However, just as in real life, when people move their head with a VR headset, the view changes. VR headsets are either entirely self-contained units or a device that contains the user's smartphone (see VR headset, Oculus, Samsung Gear VR, Daydream VR and Google Cardboard).

Virtual Reality vs. Augmented Reality
"Virtual" reality is an entirely generated environment, whereas "augmented" reality creates images or video in space in front of the user or off to the side (see augmented reality). See virtual reality locomotion, social VR, metaverse, 3D visualization, virtual world, head mounted display, 6DOF, cyberspace, VRML and Second Life.

VR at the Dentist

In the late 1990s, this VR system kept children entertained at the dentist. Using a game controller, this boy was manipulating the scenes. (Image courtesy of I-O Display Systems.)

Spatially Immersive Systems

In the early 1990s, Fakespace Systems' CAVE products were developed by the Electronic Visualization Lab at the University of Illinois. These examples simulate a new train station (top) for observation and a Caterpillar bulldozer for training (below). The steering wheel on the left meets the real wheel on the right in virtual space. (Images courtesy of Mechdyne Corporation, www.mechdyne.com)

Spatially Immersive Systems

In the early 1990s, Fakespace Systems' CAVE products were developed by the Electronic Visualization Lab at the University of Illinois. These examples simulate a new train station (top) for observation and a Caterpillar bulldozer for training (below). The steering wheel on the left meets the real wheel on the right in virtual space. (Images courtesy of Mechdyne Corporation, www.mechdyne.com)

Virtual Reality in the 1950s

In 1957, Morton Heilig created the first fully immersive system. Not only did the Sensorama have 3D and stereo sound, it included smell, seat vibrations and wind to enhance the illusion. (Image courtesy of Minecraftpsyco.)

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References in periodicals archive

He proclaimed that this artificial reality, that he called simulation, got such a strong hold that old meanings and explanations had vanished.

Discerning Hyper Reality in Mohsin Hamid's Moth Smoke: A Postmodernist Reading

Unlike the wall-mounted portion of the installation--which, given its composition from a multitude of identically shaped tiles, reflects the logical arrangement of a regular, albeit sagging, grid--the floor pieces seem to have escaped from the orderly rows of seedling trays or laboratory incubators to flourish in the wild as the progenitors of a new and partly artificial reality.

Susan Beiner's synthetic reality: biotechnology, nature and creativity

They include Caspian Learning, which supplies children's learning software based on 3D computer games technologies; Pilot, publishers of a free North-East music magazine and Artificial Reality, a company which creates 3D animated models for architects and the construction industry.

A helping hand for business start ups

* Artificial Reality, Joico's new spring 2006 collection, combines the aggressive attitude of very short hair with the soft, romantic look of long locks in a single multi-dimensional coiffure.

Artificial Reality, Joico's new spring 2006 collection, combines the aggressive attitude of very short hair with the soft, romantic look of long locks in a single multi-dimensional coiffure

The case for cognitive benefits begins with a fundamental feature of games: "far more than books or movies or music, games force you to make decisions." In an artificial reality, players decide where to steer a car, how to invest money, which weapon to grab.

Dumb & dumber

Surely Taylor is correct to highlight the relationship between recent cultural developments and contemporary economic life, both of which seem to disclose a move away from moral order and toward an increasingly simulated and artificial reality. In such a context--who knows?--economic theory might well benefit from the consideration of "self-organized criticality" and/or "complex adaptive systems theory."

Confidence Games: Money and Markets in a World Without Redemption

"The main thing is about avoiding reality and living in an artificial reality.

CLINIC HAS TXT ADDICTS

It was all about creating a separate, artificial reality inside the machine."

Bugging out

So Neo from The Matrix isn't the only one living in an artificial reality. Neo found out that he's The One, when will Nell discover she married One?

Bushell on the box: Brief comments

War twists and distorts a culture and requires "a new, artificial reality." Traditional morality is abandoned.

Seeing through the lie that is war: from the nightmare of the battlefield, a warning against national self-worship. (Cover Story)

Krueger, whose book Artificial Reality II [2] describes his vision of human-computer interaction.

Look Ma, No Mouse!