A survey of virtual reality research: From technology to psychology

Abstract

A technology of virtual reality enables us to immerse ourselves into 3D synthesized environments. In this paper, I review recent researches on virtual reality focusing on (a) the terminology used in this research area, (b) technological approaches to setting up different components of virtual reality—autonomy, interaction, and presence—, (c) objective measures and subjective ratings of a viewer's sense of presence in virtual environments, (d) present applications of virtual reality in different fields and their relation to pictorial communication. This review concludes that intermodality conflict and measurement of sense of presence are the crucial perceptual and cognitive topics in virtual reality research. © 1995, The Japanese Psychological Association. All rights reserved.