GRIGORE C. BURDEA is Professor Emeritus at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey; he is author of several books on virtual reality and recipient of the prestigious IEEE Virtual Reality Career Award. Burdea is Fellow of the IEEE Virtual Reality Academy and Founder of the International Society on Virtual Rehabilitation.

PHILIPPE COIFFET was Director of Research at the French National Scientific Research Center and Member of the National Academy for Technology of France. He authored 20 books on robotics and virtual reality, which have been translated into several languages.

About the Authors xvii

Foreword by Distinguished Professor Henry Fuchs xix

Preface to the 3rd Edition xxiii

About the Companion Instructor Website xxv

1 Introduction 1

1.1 The Three Is of Virtual Reality 3

1.2 Early VR 4

1.3 First Commercial VR 9

1.4 VR at the Turn of the Millennium 13

1.5 VR in the 21st Century 16

1.6 Components of Classical and Modern VR Systems 18

1.7 Review Questions 19

2 Input Devices: Trackers, Navigation, Gesture, and Neural Interfaces 23

2.1 Three-Dimensional Position Trackers 24

2.2 Navigation and Manipulation Interfaces 70

2.3 Gesture Interfaces 86

2.4 Neural Interfaces 101

2.5 Conclusions 108

2.6 Review Questions 109

3 Output Devices: Graphics Displays 119

3.1 The Human Vision System 120

3.2 Graphics Display Characteristics 123

3.3 Display Technologies 126

3.4 Personal Graphics Displays 129

3.5 Large-Volume Displays 160

3.6 Micro-LED Walls and Holographic Displays 176

3.7 Conclusions 180

3.8 Review Questions 180

4 Output Devices: Three-Dimensional Sound, Haptic, and Olfactory Displays 191

4.1 Three-Dimensional Sound Displays 192

4.2 Haptic Displays 206

4.3 Olfactory Displays 231

4.4 Conclusions 241

4.5 Review Questions 241

5 Computing Architectures for Virtual Reality 251

5.1 The Rendering Pipeline 253

5.2 Gaming Desktop Architectures 266

5.3 Graphics Benchmarks 276

5.4 Distributed VR Architectures 283

5.5 Conclusions 302

5.6 Review Questions 302

6 Modeling Virtual Environments 309

6.1 Geometric Modeling 310

6.2 Kinematics Modeling 333

6.3 Physical Modeling 345

6.4 Behavior Modeling 370

6.5 Model Management 377

6.6 Conclusions 393

6.7 Review Questions 393

7 Virtual Reality Programming 405

7.1 Scene Graphs and Toolkits 406

7.2 Toolkits 414

7.3 Unity 3D Game Engine 444

7.4 Conclusions 461

7.5 Review Questions 462

8 Human Factors in Virtual Reality 469

8.1 Methodology and Technology 471

8.2 User Performance Studies 489

8.3 Health and Safety Issues in Virtual Environments 513

8.4 Societal Implications of Virtual Reality 534

8.5 Conclusions 538

8.6 Review Questions 539

9 Applications of Virtual Reality 551

9.1 Medical Applications of Virtual Reality 552

9.2 Virtual Reality in Education, Arts and Entertainment 586

9.3 Military Virtual Reality Applications 618

9.4 Conclusions 638

9.5 Review Questions 638

References 640

Index 657