BKVRRLTY.RVW 940620 Academic Press, Inc. 955 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge, MA 02139 Josh Mills, Marketing, jmills@acad.com publisher@igc.org "Virtual Reality", Wexelblat, 1993, 0-12-745045-9 wex@media.mit.edu The quality of material in a book on a current "hot" topic is often questionable. The more so in a collection of essays. One tends to expect sensational accounts of new toys, dry "work in progress" reports, or incomprehensible opinion pieces. This work, then, comes as a delightful surprise. Every piece comes from an author (or two) with real, practical experience, and some of the projects have significant impact. All the reports are readable; most are very well written, indeed. And, along with the wide- ranging overview of this broad topic, come thoughtful and incisive analyses of where we are, and where we need to go, by folks who have been there. The essays are grouped into three parts dealing with computer science, the arts, and the world. Chapter one discusses data visualization and extends the view expressed in the foreword that virtual reality, in other forms, has been around for a long time. This thread is also present in Wexelblat's own contribution on computer-supported cooperative work (elsewhere hyped as "groupware"). Chapter three returns to visualization, with some examination of the user interface. Chapter four examines the meaning of literacy in a visual and sensory environment. "The Creator's Toolbox," in chapter five, points out the increasing technical demands of authorship where the reader/viewer is being provided multiple levels of input. Chapter six is a series of reports on the experiences with the Mandala system of video interaction with an artificial environment. Part three is not as easily categorized as the other two, but, then, that realistically mirrors a messy "real world". The four chapters cover initial experiments with limited virtual reality systems, the use of simulations in study of remote or dangerous areas, educational study and use of VR, and modelling of organizations and their function. A well chosen, well written and well founded introduction to the topic. For those who want more than a "National Enquirer" presentation of the field, this is well worthwhile. copyright Robert M. Slade, 1994 BKVRRLTY.RVW 940620 ====================== DECUS Canada Communications, Desktop, Education and Security group newsletters Editor and/or reviewer ROBERTS@decus.ca, RSlade@sfu.ca, Rob Slade at 1:153/733 Author "Robert Slade's Guide to Computer Viruses" (Oct. '94) Springer-Verlag