scholarly journals Virtual Reality: Fictional all the Way Down (and that’s OK)

Disputatio ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (55) ◽  
pp. 333-343 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jesper Juul

AbstractAre virtual objects real? I will claim that the question sets us up for the wrong type of conclusion: Chalmers (2017) argues that a virtual calculator (like other entities) is a real calculator when it is “organizationally invariant” with its non-virtual counterpart—when it performs calculation. However, virtual reality and games are defined by the fact that they always selectively implement their source material. Even the most detailed virtual car will still have an infinite range of details which are missing (gas, engines, pistons, fuel, chemical reactions, molecules, atoms). This means that even the most detailed virtual object will still have fictional aspects. Rather than argue that virtual objects are, or aren’t, real, it is preferable to think of overlaps and continuities between the fictional and the real, where even the most painstakingly detailed virtual reality implementation of a non-virtual object is still art: a human process of selection and interpretation. Virtual reality should therefore not be philosophically understood just as a technological implementation on a trajectory to perfection, but as a cultural artifact which derives its value in part from its simplification and difference from its source material.

Disputatio ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (46) ◽  
pp. 309-352 ◽  
Author(s):  
David J. Chalmers

Abstract I argue that virtual reality is a sort of genuine reality. In particular, I argue for virtual digitalism, on which virtual objects are real digital objects, and against virtual fictionalism, on which virtual objects are fictional objects. I also argue that perception in virtual reality need not be illusory, and that life in virtual worlds can have roughly the same sort of value as life in non-virtual worlds.


2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 112-136
Author(s):  
Brooke Belisle

Google Earth VR (GEVR), released in 2017, claims to put the whole world within reach using virtual reality (VR). Relying on sensors that track a user’s position and gestures in actual space, GEVR suggests that users can experience its virtual Earth in the same way that they experience the real one: as a world they actively embody rather than a representation they examine from the outside. While GEVR conjures a dematerialized world, it also interrogates how what counts as a material world may always be suspended between embodied, technical, and aesthetic mediations. If ‘the whole world’ – which exceeds individual perception – can only be conceived through aesthetic logics, what do the particular aesthetics of GEVR tell us about the way our world is imaged and imagined today? What are the implications of the way it stages ‘worlding’ as a provisional, dimensional coordination? What does the disorienting experience it offers suggest about contemporary entanglements of perception and representation, body and world, the individual here-and-now and a global everywhere-at-once?


2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (9) ◽  
pp. 1797
Author(s):  
Chen ◽  
Lin

Augmented reality (AR) is an emerging technology that allows users to interact with simulated environments, including those emulating scenes in the real world. Most current AR technologies involve the placement of virtual objects within these scenes. However, difficulties in modeling real-world objects greatly limit the scope of the simulation, and thus the depth of the user experience. In this study, we developed a process by which to realize virtual environments that are based entirely on scenes in the real world. In modeling the real world, the proposed scheme divides scenes into discrete objects, which are then replaced with virtual objects. This enables users to interact in and with virtual environments without limitations. An RGB-D camera is used in conjunction with simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) to obtain the movement trajectory of the user and derive information related to the real environment. In modeling the environment, graph-based segmentation is used to segment point clouds and perform object segmentation to enable the subsequent replacement of objects with equivalent virtual entities. Superquadrics are used to derive shape parameters and location information from the segmentation results in order to ensure that the scale of the virtual objects matches the original objects in the real world. Only after the objects have been replaced with their virtual counterparts in the real environment converted into a virtual scene. Experiments involving the emulation of real-world locations demonstrated the feasibility of the proposed rendering scheme. A rock-climbing application scenario is finally presented to illustrate the potential use of the proposed system in AR applications.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ezgi Pelin Yildiz

Augmented reality is defined as the technology in which virtual objects are blended with the real world and also interact with each other. Although augmented reality applications are used in many areas, the most important of these areas is the field of education. AR technology allows the combination of real objects and virtual information in order to increase students’ interaction with physical environments and facilitate their learning. Developing technology enables students to learn complex topics in a fun and easy way through virtual reality devices. Students interact with objects in the virtual environment and can learn more about it. For example; by organizing digital tours to a museum or zoo in a completely different country, lessons can be taught in the company of a teacher as if they were there at that moment. In the light of all these, this study is a compilation study. In this context, augmented reality technologies were introduced and attention was drawn to their use in different fields of education with their examples. As a suggestion at the end of the study, it was emphasized that the prepared sections should be carefully read by the educators and put into practice in their lessons. In addition it was also pointed out that it should be preferred in order to communicate effectively with students by interacting in real time, especially during the pandemic process.


2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 18-41
Author(s):  
Zeenat AlKassim ◽  
Nader Mohamed

This paper discusses recent and unique inventions in Human Computer Interaction (HCI). To that end, firstly the authors discuss the Sixth Sense Technology. This technology allows users to interact with virtual objects in the real world in a unique manner. It has a number of applications which are further discussed. Then the opportunities and challenges are discussed. Most importantly, a list of inventions in fields of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) in the recent years are discussed, grouped and compared. These include the smart eye glasses, VR headsets, smart watches, and more. Future implications of all those technologies are brought into light considering the new advancements in software and hardware designs. Recommendations are highlighted for future inventions.


Disputatio ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (55) ◽  
pp. 437-451
Author(s):  
Mark Silcox

AbstractIn “The Virtual and the Real,” David Chalmers argues that there is an epistemic and ontological parity between VR and ordinary reality. My argument here is that, whatever the plausibility of these claims, they provide no basis for supposing that there is a similar parity of value. Careful reflection upon certain aspects of the transition that individuals make from interacting with real-world, physical environments to interacting with VR provides a basis for thinking that, to the extent that there are good reasons to deny the reality of virtual objects, there are also reasons to place a correspondingly higher value upon the experience of interacting with a VR environment. Chalmers’ assumption to the contrary arises from a subtle misrepresentation of how the phenomenon of cognitive penetration works in the perception of virtual objects, and from an unwillingness to acknowledge how our attitudes toward virtual environments are conditioned by the values we adopt when engaged in gameplay.


Author(s):  
Yuzhu Lu ◽  
Shana Smith

In this paper, we present a prototype system which makes use of the characterisitcs of CAVE-based virtual reality to enhance immersion in an augmented-reality environment. The system integrates virtual objects into a real scene captured by a set of stereo remote cameras. We also developed a GPU-based method for computing occlusion between real and virtual objects, in real time. The method uses information from the captured stereo images to determine depth of objects in the real scene. Results and performance comparisons show that the GPU-based method is much faster than prior CPU-based methods.


Disputatio ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (55) ◽  
pp. 291-296
Author(s):  
Ricardo Santos ◽  
David Yates

AbstractIn June 2016, David Chalmers delivered the Petrus Hispanus Lectures at the LanCog research group, University of Lisbon, on the subject of objects, properties, and perception in virtual reality environments. The paper resulting from these lectures was subsequently published in Disputatio as “The Virtual and the Real” (vol. IX, 2017, No. 46, pp. 309–52). In it, Chalmers defends virtual realism, according to which virtual objects are bona fide digital objects with virtual counterparts of perceptible properties such as colour and shape, and perception in virtual reality environments is typically veridical rather than illusory. This special issue collects responses to Chalmers due to Claus Beisbart, Jesper Juul, Peter Ludlow, Neil McDonnell and Nathan Wildman, Alyssa Ney, Eric Schwitzgebel, and Marc Silcox; together with a detailed response by Chalmers to each paper.You can read the target article (Chalmers 2017, “The Virtual and the Real”) under discussion in this Special Issue here: https://content.sciendo.com/view/journals/disp/9/46/article-p309.xml


Author(s):  
Arpita M Hegde

The Real environment is supplemented or augmented with the computer-generated virtual objects or image is known as Augmented Reality. Augmented Reality adds thing to the existing world. It is an enhancement of real world where we mix the real world with the virtual objects. In this paper we are implementing a methodology that builds preview of the interior designs of the room which contains the virtual object alongside the real environment. Using this application user can place the selected objects such as furniture, lamps, vase etc in their personal space. This eventually reduces the challenging task of purchasing and adjusting non suitable objects to his or her room as user gets the preview before purchasing the actual item. This application is more suitable for this busy and digitalizing world.


Disputatio ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (55) ◽  
pp. 297-331
Author(s):  
Claus Beisbart

AbstractWhat is the status of a cat in a virtual reality environment? Is it a real object? Or part of a fiction? Virtual realism, as defended by D. J. Chalmers, takes it to be a virtual object that really exists, that has properties and is involved in real events. His preferred specification of virtual realism identifies the cat with a digital object. The project of this paper is to use a comparison between virtual reality environments and scientific computer simulations to critically engage with Chalmers’s position. I first argue that, if it is sound, his virtual realism should also be applied to objects that figure in scientific computer simulations, e.g. to simulated galaxies. This leads to a slippery slope because it implies an unreasonable proliferation of digital objects. A philosophical analysis of scientific computer simulations suggests an alternative picture: The cat and the galaxies are parts of fictional models for which the computer provides model descriptions. This result motivates a deeper analysis of the way in which Chalmers builds up his realism. I argue that he buys realism too cheap. For instance, he does not really specify what virtual objects are supposed to be. As a result, rhetoric aside, his virtual realism isn’t far from a sort of fictionalism.


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