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Case Study: Shared Virtual and Augmented Environments for Creative Applications

2017; Springer Nature; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1007/978-3-319-54081-8_5

2191-5776

Alexei Sourin,

Virtual Reality Applications and Impacts

The origin of shared virtual worlds is summarized. They were predicted by many novelists as well as envisaged in blockbuster movies at the start of the computer era. Constructing the first shared virtual worlds began in the last decade of the twentieth century when the Internet became ubiquitous. Extensions of the hypertext mark-up language (HTML) to immersive 3D graphics were proposed by several vendors and research groups that eventually materialized into what we know now as Extensible 3D (X3D) and its predecessor Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML). Academia has capitalized on these new horizons for education by setting up virtual campuses in Active Worlds—online shared virtual worlds based on the Renderware rendering engine. Thousands of virtual citizens populated CyberTown—a 3D online community developed in VRML language and the Blaxxun collaborative platform. The beginning of the new Millennium saw a start to many new developments and paradigms ranging from massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG) to serious networked gaming and simply living in virtual reality. New development tools, new businesses, and new psychological, ethical, and judicial problems had arrived. Second Life had a major impact on the field as the countries were opening their embassies there, and international corporations used to set up their offices for interviewing job applicants. For many years, Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. was exploring how useful their very own networked virtual world "PlayStation Home" could be. However only a small fraction of the billions of Internet browsing users were involved in virtual 3D living—and these were mostly content creators. Virtual 3D cities were implemented in Google StreetView which brought together augmented reality (AR) and a global positioning system (GPS) in mobile devices. Internet gaming using AR has become a "national sport" and the most popular leisure activity for young people in some countries. Tourists have become accustomed to utilizing AR and GPS navigation in the places they visit. All these new opportunities of "being concurrently here and elsewhere" with mobile phones, just a click away, are encapsulated in Pokémon Go. Its impact is analyzed. The future for shared VR and AR is summarized.