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System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Part of: Synthesis digital library of engineering and computer science.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 161-169) and index.

1. Lecture 1, Introduction -- 1.1 Outline of the lecture -- 1.2 What is virtual reality? -- 1.3 Perception of reality -- 1.4 Altering perception of reality -- 1.5 Goal of VR -- 1.6 Virtual environments -- 1.7 Virtual reality and other media -- 1.8 Immersion -- 1.9 Multimodal experiences -- 1.10 Uncanny valley -- 1.11 Interaction -- 1.12 Interaction loop -- 1.13 Interaction vs. immersion -- 1.14 Definition of virtual environments -- 1.15 Types of VEs --

2. Lecture 2, History of VR and current applications -- 2.1 Outline of the lecture -- 2.2 History of VR -- 2.3 Human mind and senses -- 2.4 Ancient origins -- 2.5 Realism in visual arts -- 2.6 Development of photography -- 2.7 Moving pictures -- 2.8 Stereo vision -- 2.9 Head-mounted displays -- 2.10 Flight simulators -- 2.11 History of computing -- 2.12 History of human computer interaction -- 2.13 History of virtual reality -- 2.14 VE today -- 2.15 Applications of VE -- 2.16 Fields influenced by VR --

3. Lecture 3, Human senses -- 3.1 Outline of the lecture -- 3.2 Human senses -- 3.3 Purpose of senses -- 3.4 Senses, stimuli, and sensation -- 3.5 Visual sense, a physical phenomenon -- 3.6 Visual sense-physiology -- 3.7 Perception of color -- 3.8 Depth perception -- 3.9 Pattern recognition -- 3.10 Motion perception -- 3.11 Auditory sense, a physical phenomenon -- 3.12 Audio sense-physiology -- 3.13 Audio sense-properties -- 3.14 Sensing the direction of the sound -- 3.15 Sense of equilibrium -- 3.16 Haptic sense -- 3.17 Sense of proprioception -- 3.18 Synesthesia --

4. Lecture 4, VR systems -- 4.1 Outline of the lecture -- 4.2 VR system requirements -- 4.3 VR system architecture -- 4.4 Computational platforms -- 4.5 PC-based VR systems -- 4.6 GPU -- 4.7 Distributed VR systems -- 4.8 Mobile devices and VE -- 4.9 I/O devices-standard -- 4.10 I/O devices-VR specific -- 4.11 Caves -- 4.12 VE software -- 4.13 Scene graph -- 4.14 3D rendering engines -- 4.15 3D rendering -- 4.16 Physics engine -- 4.17 Spatialized audio --

5. Lecture 5, User experience, human computer interaction and UI -- 5.1 Outline of the lecture -- 5.2 User experience -- 5.3 Human computer interaction -- 5.4 Evaluating user experience -- 5.5 Skeumorphic design -- 5.6 GUI design for virtual environments -- 5.7 Typical 3D interaction tasks -- 5.8 Navigation -- 5.9 Reference frames -- 5.10 Wayfinding -- 5.11 Wayfinding help -- 5.12 Travel -- 5.13 Travel tasks -- 5.14 Selection and manipulation -- 5.15 System control -- 5.16 Classification of system control methods -- 5.17 Graphical menu design issues -- 5.18 Voice commands -- 5.19 Gesture commands -- 5.20 Tools -- 5.21 Multimodal UI -- 5.22 Symbolic input --

6. Lecture 6, Input devices and tracking -- 6.1 Outline of the lecture -- 6.2 Purpose of input devices -- 6.3 Input feedback -- 6.4 Human related issues -- 6.5 Degrees of freedom -- 6.6 Data Glove -- 6.7 Pinch Glove -- 6.8 Tracking -- 6.9 Tracker properties -- 6.10 Tracking technology -- 6.11 Mechanical trackers -- 6.12 Electromagnetic trackers -- 6.13 AC electromagnetic trackers -- 6.14 DC electromagnetic trackers -- 6.15 Acoustic trackers -- 6.16 Optical trackers -- 6.17 Inertial trackers -- 6.18 Consumer products -- 6.19 Motion capture -- 6.20 Face tacking --

7. Lecture 7, Displays -- 7.1 Outline of the lecture -- 7.2 Output devices -- 7.3 Properties of video displays -- 7.4 Types of video displays -- 7.5 Display technologies -- 7.6 Stereoscopic displays -- 7.7 Stereoscopic displays with glasses -- 7.8 Active shutter glasses -- 7.9 Polarizing filter glasses -- 7.10 Anaglyph 3D displays -- 7.11 Head-mounted displays -- 7.12 CAVEs -- 7.13 Autostereoscopic displays -- 7.14 Virtual retinal displays -- 7.15 Audio displays -- 7.16 Wave field synthesis -- 7.17 Haptic displays -- 7.18 Force feedback --

8. Lecture 8, Networked VR -- 8.1 Outline of the lecture -- 8.2 Networked VE -- 8.3 Applications of networked VE -- 8.4 Distributed environment issues -- 8.5 Architectures -- 8.6 Serverless architectures -- 8.7 Peer-to-peer pros and cons -- 8.8 Single server architecture -- 8.9 Single server pros and cons -- 8.10 Multi-server architecture -- 8.11 Coordinated multi-server architecture -- 8.12 Coordinated multi-server pros and cons -- 8.13 State synchronization -- 8.14 Shared repository -- 8.15 Frequent state regeneration -- 8.16 Dead reckoning -- 8.17 Web 3D -- 8.18 X3D -- 8.19 WebGL --

9. Lecture 9, Augmented reality -- 9.1 Outline of the lecture -- 9.2 Augmented vs. virtual reality -- 9.3 Basic principle of operation -- 9.4 History of augmented reality -- 9.5 AR hidden in real life -- 9.6 Visual augmented reality -- 9.7 Image registration -- 9.8 Marker-based image registration -- 9.9 Markerless AR systems -- 9.10 Non-optical image registration -- 9.11 HMD base AR systems -- 9.12 Video AR systems -- 9.13 Optical AR systems -- 9.14 Monitor-based AR systems -- 9.15 Projector-based AR systems -- 9.16 Screens vs. displays -- 9.17 Mobile AR -- 9.18 Audio AR systems -- 9.19 Haptic AR -- 9.20 Inter-modal AR systems -- 9.21 Ubiquitous/wearable computing -- 9.22 AR and gaming --

10. Lecture 10, VE and video games -- 10.1 Outline of the lecture -- 10.2 Virtual environments and video games -- 10.3 What is a game? -- 10.4 Games as VEs -- 10.5 Two paths -- 10.6 Video games monetization models -- 10.7 Packaged goods marketing models -- 10.8 Games as virtual tourist destinations -- 10.9 Open world games -- 10.10 Multiplayer games and social interaction -- 10.11 Social games -- 10.12 Game-like aspects of non-game VEs -- 10.13 Massive multiplayer online games -- 10.14 VR technology and game-related hardware -- 10.15 3D graphics in video games -- 10.16 I/O devices -- 10.17 Augmented reality and video games --

Bibliography -- Author's biography -- Index.

Abstract freely available; full-text restricted to subscribers or individual document purchasers.

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The book is based on the material originally developed for the course on Virtual Reality, which the author was teaching at Tampere University of Technology, as well as course on Virtual Environments that the author had prepared for the University for Advancing Studies at Tempe, Arizona. This original purpose has influenced the structure of this book as well as the depth to which we explore the presented concepts. Therefore, our intention in this book is to give an introduction into the important issues regarding a series of related concepts of Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Virtual Environments. We do not attempt to go into any of these issues in depth but rather outline general principles and discuss them in a sense broad enough to provide sufficient foundations for a further study. In other words, we aim to provide a set of keywords to the reader in order give him a good starting point from which he could go on and explore any of these issues in detail.

Also available in print.

Title from PDF title page (viewed on October 25, 2015).