... towards Real Virtuality

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We rely on our senses to interact with the world around us. Do we actually need to travel to be somewhere to experience it fully? This project will develop a virtual cocoon through which people can interact naturally with the world without actually travelling or being put in that particular, potentially dangerous, real situation. All five senses will be stimulated to provide a rich sensory real virtuality experience. A key feature behind this real virtuality project is the attention to be paid to the degree of naturalness perceived by the user in the virtual world. The virtual cocoon will revolutionise the way in which we do business by providing low-cost, high confidence, high quality multi-sensory knowledge directly to your current location. This will significantly change, for example, purchasing via the internet because you could smell the flowers, feel the fabric of a dress, try out a sofa for comfort, examine products in any desired lighting condition, etc, all before you buy them, and with the confidence that the purchasing experience is the same as if you were there in the shop examining the product using all your appropriate senses. The virtual cocoon could even be linked to, for example Google Earth, to enable you to investigate the ambiance of a restaurant on the other side of the world when you are planning your trip.Furthermore with a virtual cocoon, you could visit an African game park as a family, even if some members are distributed around the world; select your desired listening position at a concert in the Albert Hall; design comfort levels and sensory aesthetics for new buildings or refurbishments; explore hypotheses about site utilisation such as the perception of prehistoric cave art as it was being painted; examine a patient in a remote location from a local GP's consulting room; visit ancient Rome during History or Latin lessons; be trained as a pilot to land in brown out conditions in the desert; gain experience as a driver in rare, but highly dangerous conditions; or mock up digitally organisational workflow incorporating environmental as well as locational attributes. What will people make of virtual cocoons and how will they change tomorrow's society? We cannot yet say what the exact nature of the virtual cocoon will be to achieve widespread adoption and economic success, but we do assume it will need to be low-cost, easy to interface with and highly portable, ideally something you can keep in your pocket. These issues will also be thought through in substantial details via series of activities whcih will bring together leading academics and industry. There will also be a number of opportunities for the general public to join in this thinking through open public debates lead by experts who will put opposing views to stimulate discussion..