... towards Real Virtuality

我们依靠感官与周围的世界互动。我们真的需要旅行到某个地方才能充分体验吗？这个项目将开发一种虚拟的茧，通过它人们可以与世界自然地互动，而不需要实际旅行或被置于特定的、潜在的危险的真实情况中。所有五种感官都将受到刺激，以提供丰富的感官真实虚拟体验。这个真实的虚拟项目背后的一个关键特征是要关注用户在虚拟世界中感受到的自然度。虚拟茧将直接为您当前的位置提供低成本、高信心、高质量的多感官知识，从而彻底改变我们的业务方式。例如，这将极大地改变通过互联网购物的方式，因为你可以在购买之前闻到花香、感觉衣服的面料、尝试沙发的舒适性、在任何所需的照明条件下检查产品等，并确信购买体验就像你在商店里用所有合适的感官检查产品一样。虚拟蚕茧甚至可以链接到谷歌地球，让你在计划旅行时能够调查世界另一端的餐厅的氛围。此外，有了虚拟蚕茧，你可以像家人一样参观非洲游乐园，即使有些成员分布在世界各地；在阿尔伯特音乐厅的音乐会上选择你想要的聆听位置；为新建筑或翻新设计舒适度和感官美学；探索关于遗址利用的假设，比如对史前洞穴艺术的感知；从当地全科医生的诊疗室为偏远地区的患者进行检查；在历史课或拉丁语课上参观古罗马；接受飞行员培训，在沙漠中无人驾驶的条件下降落；获得在罕见但高度危险的条件下驾驶的经验；或者模拟结合环境和地点属性的数字组织工作流程。人们将如何看待虚拟蚕茧？它们将如何改变未来的社会？我们还不能说虚拟蚕茧的确切性质是什么，才能获得广泛的采用和经济上的成功，但我们确实假设它需要低成本、易于连接和高度便携，理想的情况是你可以把它放在口袋里。这些问题也将通过一系列活动进行详细思考，这些活动将把领先的学术界和产业界聚集在一起。公众也将有许多机会通过由专家领导的公开辩论来加入这一想法，这些专家将提出相反的观点以鼓励讨论。

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..