ABSTRACT

Virtual Reality in Geography covers "through the window" VR systems, "fully immersive" VR systems, and hybrids of the two types. The authors examine the Virtual Reality Modeling Language approach and explore its deficiencies when applied to real geographic environments. This is a totally unique book covers all the major uses and methods of virtual reality used by geographers. The authors have produced a CDROM that comes with the book of virtual reality images that will be a fascinating companion to the text. This book will be of great interest to geographers, computer scientists and all those interested in multimedia and computer graphics.

chapter 1|4 pages

Virtual reality in geography

An introduction

part |2 pages

Part I Introduction to VR and technology

chapter 2|10 pages

Geography in VR

Context

chapter 3|18 pages

Virtual archaeologies and the hyper-real

Or, what does it mean to describe something as virtually-real?

chapter 5|11 pages

Virtual reality and GIS

Applications, trends and directions

part |2 pages

Part II Virtual landscapes

chapter 13|15 pages

Providing context in virtual reality

The example of a CAL package for mountain navigation

chapter 14|19 pages

A Tour of the Tors

part |2 pages

Part III Virtual cities

chapter 17|18 pages

Virtual world heritage cities

The ancient Thai city of Ayutthaya reconstructed

chapter 19|23 pages

Virtuality and cities

Definitions, geographies, designs

part |2 pages

Part IV ‘Other’ worlds

chapter 20|10 pages

‘Other’ worlds

Augmented, comprehensible, non-material spaces

chapter 21|27 pages

Explorations in AlphaWorld

The geography of 3D virtual worlds on the Internet

chapter 23|21 pages

‘There’s no there there’

Virtual reality, space and geographic visualization

chapter 24|20 pages

Virtual reality

An exploratory tool for investigating the cognitive mapping and navigational skills of visually-impaired people