Leda Kanellakos
An Introduction to
Virtual Reality
There is a new way of communication emerging -- a
virtual way. It is accomplished through computer
simulation plus a bit of hallucination, and next
thing you realize, you are anywhere you wish to be.
This leap in communication can be compared to the
introduction of the television in the 1940s.
Starting from a total of 5,000 t.v. sets in the U.S.,
today you can find one (or more) in every home.
Virtual Reality (VR), also known as virtual
environments, simulation, or cyberspace, is as
far advanced as television was to radio. Critics
think there is nothing real about VR, but one
survey suggests it will eventually amount to more
than 60% of the market when its technology matures.
Virtual Reality is defined in terms of telepresence
and depends on the perceiver. It is a medium for
the extension of the body and mind. It marks a
grand step for imagination, and aims to open up
physical boundaries. It could provide an interactive
experience rather than a passive one, one that takes
you to new worlds that have never before existed.
Virtual Reality is electronic simulations
of environments experienced via head
mounted eye goggles and wired clothing
enabling the end user to interact in realistic
three-dimensional situations.
(Coates, 1992)
Virtual Reality is an alternate world filled
with computer-generated images that respond
to human movements. These simulated environ-
ments are usually visited with the aid of an expen-
sive data suit which features stereophonic video
goggles and fiber-optic data gloves.
(Krueger, 1991, p. xiii)
The media has created quite a public appetite for VR.
However, the technology is not yet ready to be implemented
at home. According to a woman who sampled one of the
better-known systems at a recent multimedia technology
show, "It reminded me of a 3D video game. The images
were not very realistic." The less expensive systems have
crude graphics, and those with texture-mapped graphics
are too high-priced for the home market.
What can VR provide for you? Like other media, VR will
let people conduct exchanges across time and space. It
will transmit both verbal and nonverbal messages, allowing
people in separate places to meet in another location. This
location is called "cyberspace", a simulated environment
where simulated people can meet "face-to-face". Eventually,
VR may have the ability to convey touch, allowing intimate
and powerful nonverbal communications.
With society redefining itself in this information age,
people get to know each other and form bonds in multiple
ways and through a variety of media. Letters and
telephone calls become outdated as e-mail and video
conferencing take over. VR introduces yet another
new way for a personal encounter using the power of
a computer, rather than an airline. Of course you are
not physically sent to your rendezvous point, but if it
appears that you are, why not schedule Tahiti for your
next meeting? And if you're going to be in Tahiti, why
not simulate a great tan, and wear a pair of your favorite
sunglasses? What better way to attend your high school
reunion? How about trimming those extra pounds and
erasing that gray hair? The limits of presenting an image
will depend on your imagination. VR will supposedly give
you the means to transcend the real to create a communi-
cation environment that is hyper-real.
Virtual reality, taken to its ideal, may then be providing
a communications environment where deception prevails.
People may portray fake self-images and thus, may mani-
pulate others' perceptions to achieve their own objective
in, say, a negotiation at hand. VR will allow people to
create and experience multidimensional messages that
act as "reality". The power of expression could be
amplified. Actual face-to-face communication (not
through VR) may no longer be the most immediate form
of interpersonal communication since it may prove too
confining. Why meet face-to-face when I can schedule
the meeting through VR and change my image?
Total freedom of expression can happen with VR. When it
is fully available, people might have the chance to ex-
perience sensory worlds indistinguishable from the real
world. Careful judgments will have to be made as to what
is real, and what is not. Information represented will be
a function of the observer's perception -- it is a constructed
reality. Reality studies indicate that in the past when a new
media has been introduced, people apply judgment processes
they already have. Initially, this has led to mistakes, even
funny ones, to which people adjust over time. The feeling
of being in another environment is at first likely to trigger
a broad range of involuntary emotional reactions similar to
those evoked by a frightening scene on television. Until we
adapt to VR's ability to make the fake seem much more real
than television, the reactions could be damaging. But studies
suggest that people will become accustomed to VR, with
responses that grow less intense.
Although VR plans to bring a new "reality" into our worlds, I
am not convinced it will satisfy or deceive our senses. Our
innate biological needs cannot be replaced by a computerized
fantasy. Over three million years of human evolution cannot
be replaced by a keystroke. With all the required gear to wear,
I doubt we will feel the soft warmth of a blanket, the comfort
of a hug, the cool grass between our toes, or the rain on our faces.
(Author's note: For more detailed information on Virtual
Realty (VR), please refer to the outstanding book, "Commun-
ication in the Age of Virtual Reality", edited by Frank
Biocca and Mark R. Levy. This book contains enriching research
articles from many perspectives about the coming of VR.)
