Published by Australian Academy of Science
Useful sites | Virtual reality bytes – military uses of VR

Introducing virtual environments (National Center for Supercomputing Applications, University of Illinois, USA)

Provides a brief overview of virtual reality and covers some aspects in more detail. For example, click on 'VR: Technology' for a description of devices such as head-mounted displays that are used to create simulated environments. Includes illustrations.
http://archive.ncsa.uiuc.edu/Cyberia/VETopLevels/VR.Overview.html

Virtual reality: What is the state of play in education? (Australian Journal of Educational Technology, 14 (1), 1998)

Covers the nature and capabilities of virtual reality devices and how they can be used in education.
http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet14/macpherson.html

Games soldiers play (IEEE Spectrum Online, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc, USA)

Describes how computer games and virtual reality are altering the way the military prepares for war.
http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/WEBONLY/publicfeature/mar02/mili.html

Simulation Industry Association of Australia

This organisation is a point of contact for information about simulation technology in Australia. Click on 'Hot news' for recent local developments in simulations.
http://www.siaa.asn.au/

Virtual reality for surgical training (CSIRO, Australia)

Describes how virtual reality technologies can be used to augment teaching practices.
http://www.csiro.au/index.asp?type=activity&id=VirtualSurgery&stylesheet=aboutCSIROActivity

How augmented reality will work (How Stuff Works, USA)

Describes the components needed for augmented reality (a system composed of 3-D virtual objects superimposed with their real world counterparts so the user cannot tell the difference between the real world and the virtual) and how it could be used.
http://www.howstuffworks.com/augmented-reality.htm

Virtual reality 'gets real' in the automotive industry (Intelligent Systems Report, June 1998)

A supplier of 3-D immersive visualisation systems describes how virtual reality can create stereoscopic models of cars, test car safety and simulate the factory floor. Also discusses how the military uses virtual reality.
http://www.lionhrtpub.com/ISR/isr-6-98/interview.html

The virtual sky is not the limit: Ethics in virtual reality (Blay Whitby, Cognitive and Computer Sciences, University of Sussex, UK)

Discusses the potential applications of virtual reality and the moral problems that may arise as the technology becomes more generally used in training, entertainment and advertising.
http://www.cogs.susx.ac.uk/users/blayw/VRethics.html

Some Australian virtual reality resources

• VESL – The Virtual Environments and Simulation Laboratory (School of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering, Australian Defence Force Academy, University of New South Wales, Canberra)
  http://www.itee.adfa.edu.au/research/vesl/

• The Sydney Regional Scientific Visualisation Laboratory (University of Sydney, New South Wales)
  http://www.vislab.usyd.edu.au/

• Virtual Environments Program (Cooperative Research Centre for Advanced Computational Systems, Australian National University, Canberra)
  http://acsys.anu.edu.au/virtual.html

• Visualisation and Advanced Computation Laboratory (ViSAC) (University of Queensland, Brisbane)
  http://www.uq.edu.au/uqresearchers/facility/visac.html

• ANUSF VizLab (Australian National University Supercomputing Facility, Canberra)
  http://anusf.anu.edu.au/Vizlab/

• The Wearable Computer Lab (University of South Australia, Adelaide)
  http://wearables.unisa.edu.au/news.php

• The WEDGE Virtual Reality Theatre (Australian National University, Canberra)
  http://wedge.anu.edu.au/