Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment, education and business. VR is one of the key technologies in the reality-virtuality continuum. As such, it is different from other digital visualization solutions, such as augmented virtuality and augmented reality.
A wearable computer, also known as a body-borne computer, is a computing device worn on the body. The definition of 'wearable computer' may be narrow or broad, extending to smartphones or even ordinary wristwatches.
Augmented reality (AR) is an interactive experience that combines the real world and computer-generated 3D content. The content can span multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory and olfactory. AR can be defined as a system that incorporates three basic features: a combination of real and virtual worlds, real-time interaction, and accurate 3D registration of virtual and real objects. The overlaid sensory information can be constructive, or destructive. As such, it is one of the key technologies in the reality-virtuality continuum.
Computer-mediated reality refers to the ability to add to, subtract information from, or otherwise manipulate one's perception of reality through the use of a wearable computer or hand-held device such as a smartphone.
Mixed reality (MR) is a term used to describe the merging of a real-world environment and a computer-generated one. Physical and virtual objects may co-exist in mixed reality environments and interact in real time.
A head-mounted display (HMD) is a display device, worn on the head or as part of a helmet, that has a small display optic in front of one or each eye. HMDs have many uses including gaming, aviation, engineering, and medicine.
The metaverse is a loosely defined term referring to virtual worlds in which users represented by avatars interact, usually in 3D and focused on social and economic connection.
Interactive media normally refers to products and services on digital computer-based systems which respond to the user's actions by presenting content such as text, moving image, animation, video and audio. Since its early conception, various forms of interactive media have emerged with impacts on educational and commercial markets. With the rise of decision-driven media, concerns surround the impacts of cybersecurity and societal distraction.
Ambient intelligence (AmI) refers to environments with electronic devices that are aware of and can recognize the presence of human beings and adapt accordingly. This concept encompasses various technologies in consumer electronics, telecommunications, and computing. Its primary purpose is to enhance user interactions through context-aware systems.
Edge computing is a distributed computing model that brings computation and data storage closer to the sources of data. More broadly, it refers to any design that pushes computation physically closer to a user, so as to reduce the latency compared to when an application runs on a centralized data centre.
In virtual reality (VR), immersion is the perception of being physically present in a non-physical world. The perception is created by surrounding the user of the VR system in images, sound or other stimuli that provide an engrossing total environment.
Augmented learning is an on-demand learning technique where the environment adapts to the learner. By providing remediation on-demand, learners can gain greater understanding of a topic while stimulating discovery and learning. Technologies incorporating rich media and interaction have demonstrated the educational potential that scholars, teachers and students are embracing. Instead of focusing on memorization, the learner experiences an adaptive learning experience based upon the current context. The augmented content can be dynamically tailored to the learner's natural environment by displaying text, images, video or even playing audio. This additional information is commonly shown in a pop-up window for computer-based environments.
Wearable technology is any technology that is designed to be used while worn. Common types of wearable technology include smartwatches and smartglasses. Wearable electronic devices are often close to or on the surface of the skin, where they detect, analyze, and transmit information such as vital signs, and/or ambient data and which allow in some cases immediate biofeedback to the wearer.
Vuzix is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Rochester, New York and founded by Paul Travers in 1997. Vuzix is a supplier of wearable virtual reality and augmented reality display technology. Vuzix manufactures and sells computer display devices and software. Vuzix head-mounted displays are marketed towards mobile and immersive augmented reality applications, such as 3D gaming, manufacturing training, and military tactical equipment. On January 5, 2015, Intel acquired 30% of Vuzix's stock for $24.8 million.
Visual computing is a generic term for all computer science disciplines dealing with the 3D modeling of graphical requirements, for which extenuates to all disciplines of the Computational Sciences. While this is directly relevant to the software visualistics of Microservices, Visual Computing also includes the specializations of the subfields that are called Computer Graphics, Image Processing, Visualization, Computer Vision, Computational Imaging, Augmented Reality, and Video Processing, upon which extenuates into Design Computation. Visual computing also includes aspects of Pattern Recognition, Human-Computer Interaction, Machine Learning, Robotics, Computer Simulation, Steganography, Security Visualization, Spatial Analysis, Computational Visualistics, and Computational Creativity. The core challenges are the acquisition, processing, analysis and rendering of visual information. Application areas include industrial quality control, medical image processing and visualization, surveying, multimedia systems, virtual heritage, special effects in movies and television, and ultimately computer games, which is central towards the visual models of User Experience Design. Conclusively, this includes the extenuations of large language models (LLM) that are in Generative Artificial Intelligence for developing research around the simulations of scientific instruments in the Computational Sciences. This is especially the case with the research simulations that are between Embodied Agents and Generative Artificial Intelligence that is designed for Visual Computation. Therefore, this field also extenuates into the diversity of scientific requirements that are addressed through the visualized technologies of interconnected research in the Computational Sciences.
A digital twin is a digital model of an intended or actual real-world physical product, system, or process that serves as a digital counterpart of it for purposes such as simulation, integration, testing, monitoring, and maintenance.
OpenXR is an open-source, royalty-free standard for access to virtual reality and augmented reality platforms and devices. It is developed by a working group managed by the Khronos Group consortium. OpenXR was announced by the Khronos Group on February 27, 2017, during GDC 2017. A provisional version of the standard was released on March 18, 2019, to enable developers and implementers to provide feedback on it. On July 29, 2019, OpenXR 1.0 was released to the public by Khronos Group at SIGGRAPH 2019 and on April 15, 2024, OpenXR 1.1 was released by Khronos.
There are many applications of virtual reality (VR). Applications have been developed in a variety of domains, such as architectural and urban design, industrial designs, restorative nature experiences, healthcare and clinical therapies, digital marketing and activism, education and training, engineering and robotics, entertainment, virtual communities, fine arts, heritage and archaeology, occupational safety, as well as social science and psychology.
Smart tourism is an important component of a smart city. Tourism is one of the major components of economic growth for communities worldwide. A key requirement of tourism has been to attract more and more tourists from different parts of the world. Smart tourism refers to the application of information and communication technology, such similar to the smart cities, for developing innovative tools and approaches to improve tourism. Smart tourism is reliant on core technologies such as ICT, mobile communication, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality. It supports integrated efforts at a destination to find innovative ways to collect and use data derived from physical infrastructure, social connectedness and organizational sources, and users in combination with advanced technologies to increase efficiency, sustainability, experiences. The information and communication technology tools used for smart tourism include IoT, mobile communication, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence. It combines physical, informational, social, and commercial infrastructure of tourism with such tools to provide smart tourism opportunities. The principles of smart tourism lie at enhancing tourism experiences, improve the efficiency of resource management, maximize destination competitiveness with an emphasis on sustainable aspects. It should also gather and distribute information to facilitate efficient allocation of tourism resources and integrate tourism supplies at a micro and macro level ensuring that the benefits are well distributed. They are observed to be effective in technologically advanced destinations such as smart cities.
Spatial computing is any of various human–computer interaction techniques that are perceived by users as taking place in the real world, in and around their natural bodies and physical environments, instead of constrained to and perceptually behind computer screens. This concept inverts the long-standing practice of teaching people to interact with computers in digital environments, and instead teaches computers to better understand and interact with people more naturally in the human world. This concept overlaps with others including extended reality, augmented reality, mixed reality, natural user interface, contextual computing, affective computing, and ubiquitous computing. The usage for labeling and discussing these adjacent technologies is imprecise.
