three-dimensional perception in virtual reality settings

Many cues for 3D sensation come from communication among things. Key characteristics of these connections are overlap, scale, and parallax. Objects that overlap over other components are perceived as nearer. Objects believed to be alike in magnitude but seeming bigger are seen to be closer and things that grow in apparent size are seen to be travelling nearer. Objects that move a greater distance in comparison with other components when one's head moves are thought to be closer. Aarhus QuickTime VR Panoramas discusses additional information about these concepts.

Virtual reality is an extremely useful interface for telerobotics (human activation of a robot by remote control). Telerobotics is used for work in hazardous or hostile worlds such as: other planets; places with radioactive contamination; chemically or biologically poisonous areas; combat zones; bomb hazard areas; beneath the surface of the earth; or in under the sea. For instance, telerobotics with a virtual interface was used to repair the Hubble Space Telescope. For applications in which work should be done on a scope that is either too large or too tiny for unassisted manual work, virtual robotics can also span the scale barrier. An operator's manual inputs can be virtually amplified to operate heavy hardware for mineral extraction, excavation, or construction. Human movements can be virtually reduced in scale for microsurgical procedures, genetic applied science, molecular modeling, or nanomanufacturing. Use of virbots in software or computer intelligence is less common, but evolving. Virtual Tours Rochester, Minnesota also has interesting notes on this topic.

The page on Virt Phones delves into interesting topics.