virtual reality

noun
1.
a realistic simulation of an environment, including three-dimensional graphics, by a computer system using interactive software and hardware.
Origin
1985-90
Examples from the web for virtual reality
  • The line between true and false blurred long before computer technology and virtual reality.
  • We live in that other universe and access the simulation via virtual reality.
  • The father of virtual reality believed technology promised infinite possibilities.
  • There is the electronic army which has been a real army in virtual reality.
  • The camera will capture the image, creating a virtual reality of sorts over the real location.
  • The fascination with virtual reality in a world teeming with real realities.
  • It unfurled almost entirely in the phantom zone where fantasy and virtual reality overlap.
  • Then on the other, there is the virtual reality of the news that is being reported by other press outlets.
  • Numerous writers have addressed the phenomenon of virtual reality in the digital age.
  • virtual reality has great potential in medical science.
British Dictionary definitions for virtual reality

virtual reality

noun
1.
a computer-generated environment that, to the person experiencing it, closely resembles reality VR See also virtual (sense 4)
virtual reality in Science
virtual reality  
A computer simulation of a real or imaginary world or scenario, in which a user may interact with simulated objects or living things in real time. More sophisticated virtual reality systems place sensors on the user's body to sense movements that are then interpreted by the system as movements in the simulated world; binocular goggles are sometimes used to simulate the appearance of objects in three dimensions.
virtual reality in Culture

virtual reality definition


The creation of images and tactile sensations by means of a computer, producing the illusion of reality. Images are often projected onto special goggles to strengthen the illusion. (See cyberspace.)

virtual reality in Technology

(VR)
1. Computer simulations that use 3D graphics and devices such as the data glove to allow the user to interact with the simulation.
2. A form of network interaction incorporating aspects of role-playing games, interactive theater, improvisational comedy, and "true confessions" magazines. In a virtual reality forum (such as Usenet's news:alt.callahans newsgroup or the MUD experiments on Internet and elsewhere), interaction between the participants is written like a shared novel complete with scenery, "foreground characters" that may be personae utterly unlike the people who write them, and common "background characters" manipulable by all parties. The one iron law is that you may not write irreversible changes to a character without the consent of the person who "owns" it, otherwise, anything goes.
See bamf, cyberspace.
[Jargon File]
(1995-01-30)