Cover Page

Series Editor

Jean-Charles Pomerol

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality

Myths and Realities

Edited by

Bruno Arnaldi

Pascal Guitton

Guillaume Moreau

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Preface

“Virtual reality”, a strange oxymoron, is back in common use in the media, like in the early 1990s, a quarter of a century ago! A period that today’s young innovators are not very familiar with. Yes, at the risk of shocking some people, we must reveal that this science and the associated techniques are no invention of the 21st Century but date back well into the previous century!

Today, we are witnessing the renaissance and democratization of virtual reality, with its share of relevant and effective applications, as well as a host of technological difficulties that no developer can afford to ignore. Some enthusiasts wish to create new applications and believe that skills in innovation are all that is required. However, this approach is doomed to failure unless it is preceded by a detailed study of the state of the art of virtual reality techniques and a knowledge of the fundamentals and existing uses. Many young entrepreneurs have contacted me, thinking they have a novel virtual reality application when they don’t even have a basic understanding of this science or its techniques. I have had to tell others, “but this already exists in the industry, it is already being marked by companies that are over twenty years old”. The latest innovation, the “low-cost” visioheadset or immersive headset, may have sparked off a mad buzz in the media, but the field of virtual reality has existed long before this! 2016 was not 1 V.R. (the first year of our science, Virtual Reality)! However, the considerable decrease in the price of visioheadsets has made it possible to open this technology up to large-scale use. The media and websites dedicated to virtual reality are most often run by non-specialists and are abound with indiscriminately proposed applications: some of these have existed for several years now, and others, while useful, would be inappropriate or even crazy. Virtual reality is not a magic wand. Let us remember that it is not sufficient to use an innovative technology for its own sake. This innovation must be made functional for the user, using new technological devices, whether a visioheadset or any other equipment.

Research and development in virtual reality has been undertaken for more than a quarter of a century by the VR community in France and in other parts of the world. It would be a great misfortune to be unaware of this work. However, if you are reading this now, then you have made the right choice! The fruit of all the research and professional developments in the field over the past decade is now presented in this volume. And who better than Bruno Arnaldi, Pascal Guitton and Guillaume Moreau to guide you through this arduous journey through the past 10 years in R&D in virtual development, as well as to give a glimpse of what the future may hold?

The three editors of this book are major actors in the field of virtual reality and augmented reality. All of them have participated in developing research in France, via the Groupe de Travail GT-RV (GT-VR Work Group) at CNRS (1994) and then through the Association Française de Réalité Virtuelle (The French Virtual Reality Association), which they established in 2005 as co-founders and in which they are very active members: President, Vice-President or members of the administrative council. This association has made it possible to efficiently structure the entire community (teachers, researchers, industrialists and solution providers). In parallel to this, thanks to their enthusiastic and indispensable support, I was able to organize and edit a collective work with contributions from more than a hundred authors, over five volumes: the Virtual Reality Treatise. There were three coordinators in this project. However, the third edition of this book is now 10 years old, and we needed a more recent publication to step into the breach.

It is essential to have a strong basic knowledge of virtual reality before plunging into the field, whether you are a student or an entrepreneur. The contents of this book, to which 30 authors have contributed, cover all the current problems and research questions, as well as the commercially available solutions: the immersion of a user, the user’s interfacing with the artificial space and the creation of this artificial space. All the technology and software available today are discussed here. The human factor is also taken into account, and there is a detailed description of methods of evaluation. There is also a section devoted to the risks associated with the use of visioheadsets.

A recent community that has come up in France, under the Think Tank UNI-VR, is bringing together professionals from the world of movies and audiovisual material. Using new 360° cameras, which enable the creation of artificial worlds made out of 360 images and not synthetic images, this group aims to create a new art, with two complementary approaches: one that produces “360 videos”, where the user remains a spectator, but with a bodily and proprioceptive immersion in the 360° video; the other designs “VR videos”, where the user becomes a “spect-actor”, as if they are able to interact with the story that unfolds the characters and the artificial environment, this being the authentic field of virtual reality. This artistic goal is close to that of “interactive digital arts”, even though these two communities do not know much about each other. Towards the end of the 1980s, French and international artists in the digital arts appropriated virtual reality to create interactive artistic creations, (“les pissenlits” (The Dandelions) by E. Couchot, M. Bret and M-H. Tramus, 1988; “L’autre” (The Other) by Catherine Ikam, 1991). A journalist from “Les Cahiers du Cinéma” once interviewed me, stating that “virtual reality is the future of the movies!” A strange remark, when we know of the antagonism between the movies (where the spectator is passive) and virtual reality (where the user is active, interacting with the artificial environment)! Another journalist was carried away by an innovation without bothering to learn about the fundamentals of this innovation and its impact on the individual! However, like all specialists, I did not imagine that 20 years later 360° would also enable the creation of an artificial world, where a user could be immersed in the heart of a film. By allowing the user to interact here, we enter into the field of virtual reality or augmented reality, by blending the real world and the artificial space. Unlike cinema, here there is no longer “a story to be told” but “a story to be lived”. With this book, readers have a source of detailed information that will allow them to successfully develop their own “VR videos”.

However, the digital modeling of an artificial world and its visual representation through synthetic images will remain the chief avenue for the development of the uses of virtual reality. For at least 15 years now, professional applications (e.g. industrial and architectural designs, training and learning, health) have made use of this. Different communities must collaborate more closely on theorizing this discipline and its techniques, which are exhaustively presented in this book by Bruno Arnaldi, Pascal Guitton and Guillaume Moreau. The merits of this book cannot be overstated – they must be bought!

Philippe Fuchs
January 2018