The Digital Civilizations Interviews

Virtual reality: simulating the physical world

Une «chambre de réalité virtuelle» (Université de l'Iowa)|

Virtual reality consists of allowing a user to interact with a simulated but realistic environment (3D sound and vision, and even touch and the other senses getting involved) almost as if he or she were physically present in it. In its more advanced incarnations, virtual reality involves almost direct contact with the senses (VR goggles and retinal projection; audio helmets; gloves and other items of “force feedback” clothing…) as well as artificially intelligent technology that is necessary for the elements of the virtual environment to behave in a realistic manner. Current research is looking at how to interact directly with the brain to stimulate the senses, and then – later on – to act according to the brain’s impulses. After having given rise to great expectations, this field is now much more modest in its aims. And yet research around it has enjoyed considerable progress, which is being exploited in several areas.

Videogames (and particularly multiplayer games) employ virtual reality to produce bigger and more realistic environments into which players can plunge for hours on end. Some “virtual worlds” are almost completely stripped of their playful pretext (Second Life) are function as true alternative universes. In 2010-2015, the standard and generic construction of these “worlds” could allow them to interconnect with each other, thus creating vast virtual societies. The field of simulation is also largely a result of this kind of research, be it in flight or driving simulators, medical or military training, or the repair of certain machines... The simulation of living, evolving systems is the basis for a related discipline, “artificial life.” Even if the goal of digitally recreating living systems in all their complexity is yet to be attained, this research has enabled us to better understand certain mechanisms of living systems, with very concrete applications, such as evolutionary algorithms, capable of “naturally selecting” solutions from a really vast landscape of choices, or the optimisation of collective behaviours (in automated agents or robots) based on the observation of insect swarms, migrating bird patterns or ant colonies, or machines capable of adapting to difficult environments and even of fixing themselves when broken, etc.

Augmented reality: enriching the physical world

Augmented reality stems from a sort of reaction to the virtual reality project: rather than asking the user to enter into the computer’s world, the computer is made useful in the user’s (physical) world. The project bears some resemblance to that of “ambient computing.”

An Augmented reality system (South Australia University)|

Augmented reality brings information produced by the computer to the real world: describing objects or people, or adding virtual objects to the physical universe… These techniques are used to project information about the local area (such as signposts, alerts, and attractions) onto a car’s windscreen, to help a technician repair the specific machine he’s working on, to test spatial layout “on site,” or to identify people (or objects) encountered. Augmented reality uses visualisation technology that is close to that of virtual reality, recognition technology stemming from AI, and localisation and movement recognition technologies that are indispensable to geographical mobility and ambient intelligence… Finally, virtual and augmented realities come together in telepresence software, in which one “projects” oneself in a real or simulated environment and acts upon that environment in a concrete way, be it steering a robot into a dangerous environment (space, the depths of the ocean, a nuclear power plant or a battle field), visiting a far-off land, or even meeting with other players, whether they are physically present or not.