In our view, "virtual reality" refers to technologies or environments that provide realistic cues to some or all of the senses, sufficient to engender in the participant, a willing suspension of disbelief. A successful VR appplication delivers both quality content and experience; thus, virtual reality essentially represents an evolution of user interface studies and human factors-based application design.

The use of goggles, gloves, and or full-body datasuits represents one of the three major VR implementations, or delivery environments. This implementation is called "immersive" or "inclusive" VR because the participant feels as if he or she is inside the graphic, or virtual, world.

The second type of VR implementation is called "desktop VR." It involves viewing the 3D world through a "window" on a stereo viewing monitor or on a screen inside a simulator cab. The participant "steers" through the virtual world using physical controls provided by special 3D data input devices.

The third type of implementation is "third-person," in which you view and steer an image of yourself interacting in the virtual world (this is the type of implementation used in Myron Krueger's VIDEOPLACE and Vivid Effects' Mandala System -- also the approach used by a TV weatherman when he looks off-screen to see his image superimposed on an image of the weather map). In VR applications, this implementation often involves a theatrical sort of set-up that incorporates a viewing stage, video monitors nad projectors, performance animation, and video imaging.