Virtual Reality
Scientific and Technological Challenges
Despite widespread popular and professional interest in virtual reality, research and development efforts in synthetic environments (SE) - the field encompassing virtual environments, augmented reality, and teleoperation - have remained fragmented. Virtual Reality is the first serious, integrated treatment of the topic, presenting current knowledge from several disciplines along with thought-provoking vignettes about a future in which 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 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 charts directions for development of improved SE technology, needed studies of human behavior and evaluation of SE systems, and government policy and infrastructure.
Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.
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What the reading experience may hold
A fuller profile for choosing with more confidence—not just another copy of the preview.
Nonfiction
Use these as starting points rather than limits; the most memorable books often stretch beyond their catalog labels.
No specific content concerns can be confirmed from the available English catalog information. Consult a publisher or reader-supplied guide when detailed warnings matter.
These notes are inferred from available catalog information and may not be complete. Check a publisher or reader-supplied guide if you need comprehensive warnings.
Balanced tone · Steady pace
Best when you want to settle into a longer reading experience.
A good fit if…
Readers looking for a substantial, immersive commitment with room for a world or argument to unfold.
This book's DNA
A visual estimate based on this edition's categories, description, and length. Select a star to explore the signals.
This signal is descriptive, not a rating. It helps compare the kind of reading experience this edition may offer.
Spoiler-Free Emotional Arc
A broad estimate of the book’s emotional rhythm, shown without story events or outcomes.
This visualization is an interpretive estimate based on catalog description, categories, tone, pace, and content signals. It does not describe specific scenes.
A quick reading snapshot
Edition facts and catalog signals to help you decide whether this book fits what you want to read next.
- ISBN-13
- 978-0-3090-5135-4
- Language
- English
- Edition record
- OL10357379M
A more thoughtful way into this book
This guide uses the edition details and category signals above to help you choose deliberately. It does not replace the author's work or a full review.
Best when you want to settle into a longer reading experience.
Begin with its place in Nonfiction, then notice where the book resists that label.
Read for connection, not completion.
Mark one passage that sharpens the book's central concern and one that complicates it. That tension often reveals more than a quick summary.
Three questions to carry with you
- Whose perspective organizes the story, and whose perspective remains outside it?
- Which sources or lived experiences carry the author’s central argument?
- How does the book change the way you understand its larger subject?
Editorial framework by Wesley Bryan, BookenDeX Founder and Editor.
More Nonfiction books
These matches combine shared categories with author, publication-era, and reading-length signals.
A Journey from This World to the Next
by Henry Fielding
Why it fits: shares Nonfiction, a similar publication era.
Monuments of Progress
by Claudia Agostoni
Why it fits: shares Nonfiction, a similar publication era.
New Faiths, Old Fears
by Bruce B. Lawrence
Why it fits: shares Nonfiction, a similar publication era.
Prudence (Historical Romance)
by Elizabeth Bailey
Why it fits: shares Nonfiction, a similar publication era.
Science (Curious Kids Guides)
by Barbara Taylor
Why it fits: shares Nonfiction, a similar publication era.