1. Mixed Reality Reality – Virtuality Continuum Antonio Camurri Casa Paganini – InfoMus Lab – www.infomus.org

2. Virtual Reality VR simulates a world (imitating or not the real world) to enable the user to interact with it. Use of specific interfaces: head-mounted displays, data gloves, etc. Objective: –to substitute the external world with a simulation, and to “connect” the senses to such an artificial world; –to illude the senses by connecting them to haptic, auditory, and visual feedbacks, which are not real, but relative to the simulated virtual world: the user perceives and acts not in the real world in which she is part, but on another virtual world.

3. Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence Artificial Intelligence substitutes the human in specific tasks; emulates rational skills (e.g., expert systems) Virtual Reality substitutes the world Origins of virtual reality are also in sound and music computing: –To simulate artificial worlds by means of sensorial dimensions, including auditory: –One of the first research fields which is at the origin of VR is the synthesis of sound: e.g., the simulation of the sound of “brass” as an attempt to simulate a virtual (sound) world.

4. Reality Virtuality Continuum Real Environment Virtual Reality Environment Augmented Reality Augmented Virtuality

5. Reality Virtuality Continuum Real Environment: only physical, real objects, in real view or through a display VR Environment: only virtual objects, CG simulations, monitor-based or immersive –the participant-observer totally immersed in a completely synthetic world –mimic or not the real world: can exceed the the bounds of physical reality

6. Reality Virtuality Continuum Mixed Reality: where the real and virtual worlds live together in a single display. Augmented Reality: augmenting natural feedback to the user with simulated cues (e.g., telemanipulator and telepresence technologies) Augmented Virtuality: the surrounding environment is principally virtual, but is augmented through the use of real (i.e. unmodelled) imaging/audio data