Virtual reality

• In our view a virtual reality is any kind of virtual environment that simulates "being there", let's users interact with objects and other people.

Often virtual reality is defined as immersive virtual reality or at least as desk-top virtual reality

• A Virtual reality is a “form of human-computer interaction in which a real or imaginary environment is simulated and users interact with and manipulate that world. Users travel within the simulated world by moving toward where they want to be, and interact with things in that world by grasping and manipulating simulated objects. In the most successful virtual environments, users feel that they are truly present in the simulated world and that their experience in the virtual world matches what they would experience in the environment being simulated. This sensation is referred to as engagement, immersion, or presence, and it is this quality that distinguishes virtual reality from other forms of human-computer interaction” ([1]).

Virtual environments According to the degree of physical immersion:

• Immersive virtual reality
• Desk-top virtual reality
• Mixed reality
• 3D interactive environments
• Augmented reality
• text-based virtual reality

Other approaches / ways to look at virtual realities

• Virtual habitat
• Virtual environment
• Shared space
• MMORPGs, a kind of multi-user games