Virtual Reality on the Internet: Collaborative Virtual Reality
Andrew E. Johnson, Jason Leigh · The Internet Encyclopedia · 2004
Abstract Collaborative virtual reality holds the promise of creating an environment for collaboration that is “better than being there.” Rather than try to replicate the conditions of a face‐to‐face meeting, collaborative virtual reality gives us the opportunity to go beyond what is possible in the real world and to share space not only with our collaborators scattered around the world, but also with the topic of collaboration—a new car design, a simulation of a thunderstorm, the structure of the inner ear. Each collaborator brings his or her past experience to the collaboration, and the virtual environment can tailor itself to give users a representation appropriate for their background. Because the shared virtual world is maintained by a computer, the computer can “remember” all the interactions in that world, providing opportunities for asynchronous as well as synchronous collaboration.