Virtual Environments

Technology Map Contents

Explorer no longer monitors this technology area.

October 2006

<<  Return to Viewpoints
  Download complete Technology Map  (PDF)

Technology Map Detailed Contents

Recent Developments

• Research on Inexpensive Three-Dimensional Sound
• Leading Research on Haptics for Virtual Environments
• Development of Multicore Microprocessor Chips for Virtual Environments
• Haptics for Teaching Anatomy
• Virtual Environments for Treating Posttraumatic-Stress Syndrome in Soldiers
• Virtual-Reality Systems for Stroke Rehabilitation
• Video Games and Neurofeedback for Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
• Realistic Sound Modeling of Virtual Instruments
• Motion Capture for VE-Based Distance Education
• Research Prototype for Three-Dimensional Tele-Immersive Videoconferencing
• Synergies between Contextual Natural-Language Interfaces and VEs
• VirtuSphere Interface for Full-Body Immersion
• Specialized Computer-Game Treatment for “Lazy Eye”
• Perception of Motion without Physical Movement
• Augmented Reality System Using Infrared Vision for Improved Vision in Adverse Conditions
• Virtual Environments for Self-Guided Academic and Professional Learning
• Specialist MUVE for Health-Care Practitioners

Updates

Importance of the Technology

The Technology in Brief

• Advantages and Limitations
• VE Requirements
• Hardware and Software Components
• Immersive Virtual Environments
• Cave Automatic Virtual Environments
• Immersive Versus Nonimmersive VEs
• Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games
• Data and Information Visualization
• Movement toward a 3-D Web
• Telepresence
• Augmented Reality

Commercial Development Parameters

• Demand Factors
• General Constraints
• Synergistic Technologies
• Competing Technologies
• Required Resources
• Regulatory Factors

Areas to Monitor

• Input Devices: Wearable Devices versus Free-Space Gestures
• Augmented Reality
• Intellectual-Property Rights
• Navigating in Virtual Worlds
• Gambling in Virtual Environments
• Networks
• Collaborative Technology Environments
• Presence
• Future Advanced Interfaces
• Performance Evaluation
• Human Perception and Physiology
• Cybersickness
• Gender-Based Differences in VEs
• Blending of Real and Virtual Boundaries and Financial, Legal, and Property Issues
• Virtual Surgery and Telesurgery using Haptics

Implications of Commercialization

• Sensory Communication Tools
• Virtual Realities and Smart Mobs
• Seeing; Not Believing
• Cyberspace and Virtual Communities
• Management of Users' Expectations
• Actual versus Virtual Reality

Market Development

• Entertainment
• Industrial Applications

Applications

• Entertainment and Media
• Simulation And Training
• Design
• Retail
• Advertising
• Financial Analysis
• Information Visualization and Navigation
• Medical Diagnosis and Treatment
• Medical Engineering, Prostheses, and Human Factors
• Education
• Communications
• Military and Aerospace Applications
• Art
• Tele-Immersion
• Courtroom
• Virtual Prototyping
• Smart Textiles

Players