Virtual Reality Telecommunication Systems (VRTS) will transmit human verbal and nonverbal communication messages, therefore human to network interface considerations are essential. The VRTS will attempt to capture the entire human body by a set of sensors at the transmitting end and will convey these feelings to the human body at the receiving end with actuators. This book provides a broad overview of the current research in the area of creating future VRTS as well as presenting developments in closely-related areas. While many excellent articles have been written on specific applications of Virtual Reality in general, there is little at present that covers the scope of the entire telecommunications network. This book describes the role that VRTS will play in the telecommunications networks of the future. It offers not only a high-level overview of undergoing research, but also a detailed analysis of prototype implementations. * The first comprehensive book that covers the full scope of VRTS in the context of telecommunications and offers a guide to employing Virtual Reality in telecommunications networks * Offers an in-depth discussion of this hot topic * Considers the emergence of both new network architectures and the trend toward convergence between the public switched telephone network and the Internet * Features the shared knowledege and latest findings of top researchers from companies/universities such as NTT Cyber Space Labs (Japan), Lucent Technologies (USA) and QMW (GB) Essential reading for experienced researchers and network planners, engineers and visualisation engineers, as well as advanced undergraduate/graduate students studying electronic engineering, communications technology and computer science.

Despite widespread interest in virtual reality, research and development efforts in synthetic environments (SE)â€"the field encompassing virtual environments, teleoperation, and hybridsâ€"have remained fragmented. Virtual Reality is the first integrated treatment of the topic, presenting current knowledge along with thought-provoking vignettes about a future where SE is commonplace. This volume discusses all aspects of creating a system that will allow human operators to see, hear, smell, taste, move about, give commands, respond to conditions, and manipulate objects effectively in a real or virtual environment. The committee of computer scientists, engineers, and psychologists on the leading edge of SE development explores the potential applications of SE in the areas of manufacturing, medicine, education, training, scientific visualization, and teleoperation in hazardous environments. The committee also offers recommendations for development of improved SE technology, needed studies of human behavior and evaluation of SE systems, and government policy and infrastructure.

Inspired by MPEG-I and JPEG-PLENO standardization activities, this book is for readers who want to understand 3D representations and multi-camera video processing for novel immersive media applications. The authors address new challenges that arise beyond compression-only, such as depth acquisition and 3D rendering.

Like virtual reality, augmented reality is becoming an emerging platform in new application areas for museums, edutainment, home entertainment, research, industry, and the art communities using novel approaches which have taken augmented reality beyond traditional eye-worn or hand-held displays. In this book, the authors discuss spatial augmented r

"This book provides a comprehensive treatment of collaborative GIS focusing on system design, group spatial planning and mapping; modeling, decision support, and visualization; and internet and wireless applications"--Provided by publisher.