Virtual Reality

The concept of «virtuality» has introduced a completely new mode of representing, presenting, as well as acquiring knowledge. The present collection of papers acknowledges this development and gives a survey over the most important developments, issues, and foundations from an interdisciplinary perspective. This book intends to enlarge the definition of virtual reality in order to go beyond the toy character it may still have in the public. The contributions show that virtuality has not only been successfully applied in various technical and medical domains but also touches basic philosophical problems and questions related to cognitive science. In fact, developing the concept of virtuality further will be the key to many challenges in both theoretical and technical domains.

Autorentext
The Editor: Alexander Riegler obtained his Ph.D. in Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science in 1995 at the Vienna University of Technology, on the basis of a dissertation about Constructivist Artificial Life. His academic interests include cognitive science, philosophy of science, and research in biological and cognitive complexity. He has been working at the universities of Vienna, Zurich, and Brussels.

Inhalt

Contents: Markus F. Peschl/Alexander Riegler: Virtual Science: Virtuality and Knowledge Acquisition in Science and Cognition - Shulamith Kreitler: Psychological Perspectives on Virtual Reality - Karl Edlinger: Virtual Reality, Cyberspace and Living Organisms: Towards a New Understanding of Perception and Cognition? - Steffen P. Walz/Isabel Zundel: Madness and Virtuality: An Approximation - Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann/Sumedha Kshirsagar: The Emotional Talking Virtual Humans - Arne Wagner/Werner Millesi/Franz Watzinger/Michael Truppe/Michael Rasse/Georg Enislidis/Christian Kermer/Rolf Ewers: Computed Navigation in Cranio-Maxillo-Facial and Oral Head and Neck Surgery: Principles, Indications and Potentials for Telepresence and Teleassistance - Corina Sas/Ronan Reilly/Gregory O'Hare: Virtual Reality in Surgery: Between Satisfaction and Stress - Chris Stary: Exploring the Concept of Virtuality: Technological Approaches and Implications from Tele-Education - Daniel Mellet d'Huart: From Reality to «the Real»: Using Augmented Virtual Reality for Training - Ashweeni Kumar Beeharee/Steve Pettifer/Adrian West: A Framework for Optimising Network Usage for Plausible Distributed Virtual Environments - Gerardo Silva Chandía: VR and Web Page Support in Civil Engineering Education (Experience Report) - László Roplyi: Virtuality and Plurality - Stephen E. Robbins: Bergson's Virtual Action - Olaf Diettrich: Virtual Reality and Cognitive Processes - Andrea Gaugusch: (Re)constructing (Virtual) Reality - Rainer Born: Virtual Reality: Reflections Of Chances, Changes and Dangers in Communicating Knowledge with the Help of VR-Technologies - William Keays: Rethinking Boundaries.