Introduction to Virtual and Augmented Reality

Abstract

What is Virtual Reality (VR)? What is Augmented Reality (AR)? What is the purpose of VR/AR? What are the basic concepts? What are the hard- and software components of VR/AR systems? How has VR/AR developed historically? The first chapter examines these questions and provides an introduction to this textbook. This chapter is fundamental for the whole book. All subsequent chapters build on it and do not depend directly on one another. Therefore, these chapters can be worked through selectively and in a sequence that suits the individual interests and needs of the readers. Corresponding tips on how this book can be used efficiently by different target groups (students, teachers, users, technology enthusiasts) are provided at the end of the chapter, as well as a summary, questions for reviewing what has been learned, recommendations for further reading, and the references used in the chapter.

Dedicated website for additional material: vr-ar-book.org

Recommended Reading

• Angel E, Shreiner D (2015) Interactive computer graphics: a top-down approach with WebGL. Pearson Education, Harlow – Textbook covering the basics of computer graphics, e.g., discussing the generation of images with the computer. It also introduces OpenGL and WebGL, a programming library for computer graphics, and discusses the possibilities of using graphics processors (GPUs) in the form of so-called shaders.

• Rabin S (2009) Introduction to game development, 2nd edition. Charles River Media, Boston – a standard work on computer games. Due to the manifold points of contact between VR and computer games, literature from the field of computer games is also relevant.

Original scientific literature can be found in specialist journals and conference proceedings which can be researched and accessed in digital libraries (e.g., dl.acm.org, ieeexplore.org, link.springer.com) or via search engines (e.g. scholar.google.com). In the field of VR the IEEE VR Conference (ieeevr.org) takes place annually. Moreover, there is the Eurographics Symposium on Virtual Environments (EGVE) as well as the VR Conferences of euroVR, which are partly jointly organized as Joint Virtual Reality Conference (JVRC). With the focus on AR, ISMAR, the IEEE Symposium for Mixed and Augmented Reality, is held annually. In addition, there are special events that focus on aspects of user interfaces of VR and AR, such as the ACM VRST conference or the 3DUI, the IEEE Symposium for 3D User Interfaces. There are also further events dealing with special applications of VR, for instance in the industrial sector (e.g., VRCAI – ACM International Conference on Virtual Reality Continuum and Its Applications in Industry). Some scientific journals also focus on VR and AR, e.g., Presence – Teleoperators and Virtual Environments by MIT Press, Virtual Reality by Springer Verlag or the Journal of Virtual Reality and Broadcasting (jVRb) as an open access e-journal.

In addition to conference proceedings and professional journals that deal primarily with VR and AR, literature is also recommended that deals with essential aspects of VR and AR, such as Computer Graphics (e.g., ACM SIGGRAPH and the ACM Transactions on Graphics), Computer Vision (e.g., IEEE ICCV) or Human–Machine Interaction (e.g. ACM SIGCHI).