Embodied Experiences in Immersive Virtual Environments


Book Description

Immersive virtual environments (IVE) allow users experience vivid sensorimotor stimuli by digitally simulating sensorimotor information. As a result, users are able to embody experiences by seeing, hearing, and feeling realistic perceptual cues linked to those experiences. Embodied experiences are defined as being surrounded by simulated sensorimotor information in mediated environments that create the sensation of personally undergoing the experience at that moment. Based on the theoretical framework of embodied cognition, which stipulates a close connection between sensorimotor experiences of the body and mental schemas, the current dissertation studies demonstrated that embodied experiences in IVEs are able to influence attitudes and behaviors in the physical, non-mediated world. Two studies explored the effect of embodied experiences on proenvironmental attitude and behavior by having participants embody the experience of cutting down a redwood tree as a result of using non-recycled paper products. Focus was also placed on investigating individual elements of embodied experiences in IVEs and the moderating effect of individual differences in the capacity to feel presence, the perception that a mediated experience is real. In both studies, actual pro-environmental behavior is observed and compared to self-reports of attitude and behavioral intention.




The Virtual Dimension


Book Description

"The Virtual Dimension critically examines the role that digital and immersive technologies have on the methods used by architects, designers, and artists to conceptualize and represent both real and virtual spaces. Interdisciplinary in nature, the essays included here address the implications of "going virtual" from a variety of cultural and theoretical viewpoints."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved




Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Realities in Education


Book Description

This book describes the current state of the art of various types of immersive learning: in research, in practice, and in the marketplace. It discusses advanced approaches in the design and development for various forms of immersive learning environments, and also the emerging innovations in assessment and research in the field. In addition, it demonstrates the opportunities and challenges in implementing advances in VR and immersion at scale in formal and informal learning. We are living in a time of rapid advances in terms of both the capabilities and the cost of virtual reality, multi-user virtual environments, and various forms of mixed reality. These new media potentially offer extraordinary opportunities for enhancing both motivation and learning across a range of subject areas, student developmental levels, and educational settings. With the development of practical and affordable virtual reality and mixed reality, people now have the chance to experience immersive learning both in classrooms and informally in homes, libraries, and community centers. The book appeals to a broad readership including teachers, administrators, scholars, policy makers, instructional designers, evaluators and industry leaders.




Visual Representations and Interpretations


Book Description

The value of multi-disciplinary research and the exchange of ideas and methods across traditional discipline boundaries are well recognised. Indeed, it could be justifiably argued that many of the advances in science and engineering take place because the ideas, methods and the tools of thought from one discipline become re applied in others. Sadly, it is also the case that many subject areas develop specialised vocabularies and concepts and can consequently approach more general problems in fairly narrow, subject-specific ways. Consequently barriers develop between disciplines that prevent the free flow of ideas and the collaborations that on Visual Representations could often bring success. VRI'98, a workshop focused & Interpretations, was intended to break down such barriers. The workshop was held in the Foresight Conference Centre, which occupies part of the former Liverpool Royal Infirmary, a Grade 2 listed building, which has been recently restored. The building combines a majestic architecture with the latest in new conference facilities and technologies and thus provided a very suitable setting for a workshop aimed at bringing the Arts and the Sciences together. of the workshop was to promote inter-disciplinary awareness across The main aim a range of disciplines where visual representations and interpretations are exploited. Contributions to the workshop were therefore invited from researchers who are actively investigating visual representations and interpretations: - artists, architects, biologists, chemists, clinicians, cognitive scientists, computer scientists, educationalists, engineers, graphic designers, linguists, mathematicians, philosophers, physicists, psychologists and social scientists.




Char Davies' Immersive Virtual Art and the Essence of Spatiality


Book Description

In this first book-length study of the internationally renowned Canadian artist Char Davies, Laurie McRobert examines the digital installations Osmose and Ephémère in the context of Davies' artistic and conceptual inspirations. Davies, originally a painter, turned to technology in an effort to create the effect of osmosis between self and world. By donning a head-mounted display unit and a body vest to monitor breathing and balance, participants are immersed in 3D-virtual space where they interact with abstract images of nature while manoeuvring in an artificial spatial environment. Char Davies' Immersive Virtual Art and the Essence of Spatiality explores spatiality through a broad scope of disciplines, including philosophy, mythology, biology, and visual studies, in order to familiarize the reader with virtual reality art - how it differs from traditional artistic media and why immersive virtual art promises to expand our imaginative horizons. This original study provides us with an important exposition of two of Char Davies' acclaimed projects and an exploration of the future impact of digital virtual art on our worldviews.




Cases on Immersive Virtual Reality Techniques


Book Description

As virtual reality approaches mainstream consumer use, new research and innovations in the field have impacted how we view and can use this technology across a wide range of industries. Advancements in this technology have led to recent breakthroughs in sound, perception, and visual processing that take virtual reality to new dimensions. As such, research is needed to support the adoption of these new methods and applications. Cases on Immersive Virtual Reality Techniques is an essential reference source that discusses new applications of virtual reality and how they can be integrated with immersive techniques and computer resources. Featuring research on topics such as 3D modeling, cognitive load, and motion cueing, this book is ideally designed for educators, academicians, researchers, and students seeking coverage on the applications of collaborative virtual environments.




The Handbook of International Trends in Environmental Communication


Book Description

This handbook provides a comprehensive review of communication around rising global environmental challenges and public action to manage them now and into the future. Bringing together theoretical, methodological, and practical chapters, this book presents a unique opportunity for environmental communication scholars to critically reflect on the past, examine present trends, and start envisioning exciting new methodologies, theories, and areas of research. Chapters feature authors from a wide range of countries to critically review the genesis and evolution of environmental communication research and thus analyze current issues in the field from a truly international perspective, incorporating diverse epistemological perspectives, exciting new methodologies, and interdisciplinary theoretical frameworks. The handbook seeks to challenge existing dominant perspectives of environmental communication from and about populations in the Global South and disenfranchised populations in the Global North. The Handbook of International Trends in Environmental Communication is ideal for scholars and advanced students of communication, sustainability, strategic communication, media, environmental studies, and politics.




OECD Digital Economy Outlook 2024 (Volume 1) Embracing the Technology Frontier


Book Description

The OECD Digital Economy Outlook 2024, Volume 1: Embracing the Technology Frontier provides new insights on key technologies that underpin the digital technology ecosystem and their impacts. Using big data and machine-learning techniques, Volume 1 provides new estimates of the growth rate of the ecosystem’s core – the information and communications technology (ICT) sector.




Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality. Multimodal Interaction


Book Description

This two-volume set LNCS 11574 and 11575 constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality, VAMR 2019, held in July 2019 as part of HCI International 2019 in Orlando, FL, USA. HCII 2019 received a total of 5029 submissions, of which 1275 papers and 209 posters were accepted for publication after a careful reviewing process. The 80 papers presented in this volume were organized in topical sections named: multimodal interaction in VR, rendering, layout, visualization and navigation, avatars, embodiment and empathy in VAMR, cognitive and health issues in VAMR, VAMR and robots, VAMR in learning, training and entertainment, VAMR in aviation, industry and the military.




Handbook of Research on Teaching With Virtual Environments and AI


Book Description

The increasingly pervasive use of digital technology has catapulted society into an interconnected world where the natural boundaries between humankind and machine, virtual and real, individual and community have become less perceptible. As individuals interact with different digital technologies, they must build a digital intelligence, which must be further cultivated as it is a key competency for the future of school and work. Digital intelligence includes understanding the mutual strengths between people and technology, as well as developing an awareness in the use of digital tools in order to avoid common threats such as cyberbullying, addiction to video games, techno-stress, and more. As adolescents continue to engage with virtual reality and 3D virtual worlds where the online and offline overlap and coincide, it is important to build this intelligence as well as utilize these technologies to promote successful learning. The Handbook of Research on Teaching With Virtual Environments and AI explores the new personalized educational opportunities that are available with digital technology and virtual environments that can be used within education. This book focuses on the use of these tools and how to navigate the use of new technologies such as AI and virtual environments for educational practices. While highlighting topics such as virtual worlds, game-based learning, intelligent tutoring, augmented reality, and more, this book is ideal for teachers, administrators, technologists, educational software developers, IT specialists, practitioners, researchers, academicians, and students interested in how virtual environments and AI are being implemented in teaching practices.