Virtual Reality Technology [Hardcover]

Grigore C. Burdea (Author), Philippe Coiffet (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0471086320 | ISBN-13: 978-0471086321 | Publication Date: June 20, 1994 | Edition: 1

This in-depth review of current virtual reality technology and its applications provides a detailed analysis of the engineering, scientific and functional aspects of virtual reality systems and the fundamentals of VR modeling and programming. It also contains an exhaustive list of present and future VR applications in a number of diverse fields. Virtual Reality Technology is the first book to include a full chapter on force and tactile feedback and to discuss newer interface tools such as 3-D probes and cyberscopes. Supplemented with 23 color plates and more than 200 drawings and tables which illustrate the concepts described.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“…one of the best books available on the subject…I would recommend this as a great reference book. The authors have done an excellent and remarkable revision and update…” (Computer Animations and Virtual Worlds, December 2005)

"This comprehensive textbook describes the history of virtual reality technology from its beginnings about forty years ago, through present and future uses." (Medical Reference Services Quarterly, Fall 2004)

"…a must-have book. A textbook of this caliber is a welcomed asset for researchers, universities, and others in the field." (Annals of Biomedical Engineering, April 2004)

"Listing in the "More to Explore" section of an article entitled "Virtual-Reality Therapy" (Scientific American, August 2004)

"Instructors…students…persons interested in knowing something about the current state of virtual reality, and practitioners, researchers, and business involved in VR, will all find this a must-have book. A textbook of this caliber is a welcomed asset..." (Annals of Biomedical Engineering, Issue 32:04)

“...a well written introductory book on the subject...a fascinating book on a subject that everyone in medical technology will be using more of in coming years...” (Biomedical Instrumentation & Technology, January/February 2004)

“...a second edition that builds on the success of the first...well written and researched...an ideal introduction to a student or researcher...Burdea and Coiffet have taken a strong book and made it even better...tailored to the needs of students and would make an outstanding textbook for an introduction to virtual reality course...a must have for any student or researcher seriously interested in virtual reality.” (Presence, Vol. 12, No. 6, December 2003)

"...provides an excellent overview of the field...a fine textbook.... I would recommend highly." (Real Time Graphics, August 2003)

"...excellent....a fine addition to the bookshelves of readers..." (CyberPsychology and Behavior, Vol. 6, No. 6)

"...this second edition was well overdue, but it has to be said that it has been worth the wait...a must-have book." (Assembly Automation, Vol 24(1), 2004) --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: French

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Interscience; 1 edition (June 20, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471086320
• ISBN-13: 978-0471086321
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,139,368 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A highly useful textbook on virtual reality., October 5, 2003

By 

Dr. Veronica S. Pantelidis (Greenville, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Virtual Reality Technology, Second Edition with CD-ROM (Hardcover)

Dr. Grigore Burdea and Dr. Philippe Coiffet have years of experience in the field of virtual reality, and Virtual Reality Technology reflects their combined expertise, to the benefit of all. I used the first edition as a required textbook in my undergraduate and graduate virtual reality courses for many years, almost from the time it was published in 1994. I am now going to use the second edition in my classes.

Instructors in need of a textbook for undergraduate or graduate introductory virtual reality courses, students looking for a guide to the field of VR, persons interested in knowing something about the current state of virtual reality, and practitioners, researchers, and businesses involved in VR, will all find this a must-have book.

Like the first edition of Virtual Reality Technology, the second edition is a book that provides an enormous amount of information. Because of its coverage of all the important areas of VR, it is the perfect textbook. The inclusion of a CD-ROM, which contains well-chosen video clips and a laboratory manual with programming assignments, adds to the book's usefulness for students. The manual uses VRML and Java 3D languages, which are free and thus reduce the cost of creating VR teaching laboratories in connection with the book.

The book includes mathematical and technical background and explanations, for courses that need that information. As a further aid to instructors and students, this textbook edition has review questions at the end of each chapter. Rounding out the list of valuable teaching aids, there is a companion website for instructors at http://www.vrtechnology.org with additional teaching material, such as sample term projects, quiz and exam examples, and lecture notes.

As a highly satisfied user of the first edition with many VR classes, I can wholeheartedly recommend the second edition of Virtual Reality Technology.

Dr. Veronica S. Pantelidis, Distinguished Professor, Co-Director, Virtual Reality and Education Laboratory, East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina USA

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Burdea and Coiffet DID IT AGAIN!, August 24, 2003

By 

"max13477" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Virtual Reality Technology, Second Edition with CD-ROM (Hardcover)

I am honored to review "Virtual Reality Technology," Second Edition by Dr. Grigore Burdea and Dr. Philippe Coiffet.

I was so impressed with both editions of this textbook that I adopted it for courses I've taught at several universities. Since introducing the text to my students, I've received positive comments and feedback. I have also used the authors' techniques in my research. Their work has helped lay the pioneering groundwork for much of the research being done to advance the field of Virtual Reality Therapy.

Because of my personal commitment to the field of Virtual Reality Therapy, I think it is fitting to acknowledge that one of the simplest and most powerful working definitions of virtual reality is offered by the authors in the second edition of their book, gives the three "I"s of virtual reality. The three "I"s make a triangle of Immersion, Interaction, and Imagination. Most virtual reality researchers and enthusiasts are familiar with the first two "I"s, essentials to a virtual reality system. The introduction of the third "I" by Burdea and Coiffet makes their interpretation and philosophy of virtual reality unique and innovative. This insight is inspiring and is complemented by empirical data that supports the belief that imagination (or what the user brings to the environment), compared to immersion and interaction, is the most important feature of any virtual reality system. This brilliant view is a tremendous contribution to our field.

Although the first edition was written as a research review rather than a textbook, the second edition has tremendously enhanced the field. It has developed into a textbook as well as a major resource reference for researchers and practitioners. Such a textbook is valuable in structuring and integrating virtual reality technology. A textbook of this caliber is welcomed asset for researchers, universities and others in the field. My specific comments are as follows:

---The organization of this edition is well done, logically organized and presented with clarity.
---In general, this edition seems to cover most of the important topics in the field.
---An impressive manual for the VRML/Java 3D Lab in helping organize the very necessary VR Teaching Laboratories as companions to teaching a VR class.
---The authors' writing style cleverly accommodates undergraduate readers and researchers from other fields.
---The materials in this edition are technically valuable and up-to-date.
---The authors provide additional, appropriate diagrams and photographs, which allows a wider range of readers to grasp the concepts presented.
---This new edition allows many students, researchers and others the opportunity to acquire state-of-the-art knowledge about virtual reality technology not provided in other books.

Dr. Max North, Pioneer of Virtual Reality Therapy

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most comprehensive VR texts yet ..., July 8, 2003

By 

R J Stone (Birmingham, UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Virtual Reality Technology, Second Edition with CD-ROM (Hardcover)

Greg Burdea and Philippe Coiffet have, in essence, done it again. At a time when Virtual Reality is experiencing something of a comeback, and is delivering real results and benefits, they have produced a timely tome that will be of immense value to practitioners and students alike. This is the second edition of a book that "broke the mould" almost a decade ago - a time when the entertainment VR industry was experiencing its last major fortunes and industry was just about beginning to wake up to the fact that VR might - just might - bring them competitive advantage in the future. The Burdea & Coiffet partnership worked for the VR community then, and it will certainly work for that same community again. OK, ignore the initial preoccupation with the "three I's" of Virtual Reality - Immersion, Interaction and Imagination. VR is not actually about immersion, as you will conclude by reading the book. Immersion is still the "Holy Grail" of VR, as anyone who has tried a head-mounted display or CAVE will (if they're being truthful) admit. Imagination is a nice idea (and you certainly need a lot of it to feel immersed using today's technology!), but the term doesn't really reflect what happens in the VR development community at the present time. However, Interaction - real-time human interaction, that is - is the most important facet of VR. Fortunately, the book is very focussed on real-time interaction and this focus outweighs some of the flights of fancy in the opening chapter.

The technical sections of the book - Chapters 2 to 6 - are excellent. Illustrations are used extremely effectively and I must applaud the authors for their efforts in extracting information from the VR hardware and software suppliers and delivering what is otherwise marketing hype in a meaningful and independent way. Unlike previous texts, the authors also devote sections of the text to PC architectures as well as those underpinning their graphics "supercomputer" counterparts. The advent of low-cost, high-performance graphics capabilities for PC platforms has been a major stimulus in the resurrection of interest in VR and these systems are given a satisfactory level of attention. Indeed, despite the fact that the graphics cards covered in the book have been superseded since publication, the authors have defined the key features and benchmarks to be aware of so well (eg. graphics pipeline characteristics, rendering terminology, etc.), that the reader will be able to make his or her own judgements with regard to post-publication developments in this rapidly expanding field.

The book has been designed to enable readers to "dip in" and read about different facets of the VR community - hardware, software, 3D design, applications, and so on - without too much trouble. Even so, some of the chapters assume the reader is au fait with certain mathematical principles, from inverse kinematics to physical modelling. This may put some readers off, but I would recommend they stick at it, as some of the concepts are well worth delving deeper into, even if you are not particularly mathematically minded!

As has often been the case in VR texts (Lawrence Erlbaum's Virtual Environments Handbook, edited by Kay Stanney, is one example), a bias towards the US side of the Atlantic is evident, from both an historical perspective and in the applications examples quoted. True, VR was born in the US, but there are many international applications of the technology well worth covering that have been omitted from this book - particularly those that have "migrated" from the academic or corporate research labs into real world settings. Another chapter I found lacking was Chapter 7 - Human Factors in VR. Certainly, the collection of user performance studies is valuable, but the coverage of how to execute a human-centred approach to the design of VR systems for (for example) real-world applications needs more detailed attention, especially as it is now known that such an approach carries with it a high probability of success, not only in the development of meaningful VE content and the selection of appropriate display/interaction technologies, but also in post-delivery cost-benefit and human performance analyses.

Despite these minor criticisms, overall Burdea and Coiffet have done an excellent job at revising the first edition of their book. The inclusion of a CD with video excerpts of technologies and applications, not to mention the VRML/Java laboratory examples represents a major step towards bringing the concept of real-time interaction in VR to life - two-dimensional book pages (no matter how hard one tries) always fail to achieve this. Without doubt, I will be adopting this book as the prime reference for my University courses in VR and related technologies.