Interactive Virtual Environments: From the Laboratory to the Field

摘要

Virtual reality technology has the potential to change the way information is retrieved, processed and shared, making it possible to merge several layers of knowledge in a coherent space that can be comprehensively queried and explored. In realizing this potential, the human-computer interface plays a crucial role. Humans learn and perceive by following an interactive process, but the interaction occurs in different places and contexts, between people, and with people. Accordingly, the interactive system components have to be tailored to the application and its users, targeting robustness, multimodality, and familiarity. In this presentation, I aim to explore the promise and challenges of interactive virtual technologies by discussing generally the design and the evaluation results of selected real-world applications, developed by multi-disciplinary research groups, in very different domains, ranging from medicine and finance to cultural heritage.