Skip to main content

Abstract

What is a virtual environment? To start with, it can be designed for a single user, or multiple users. For a single user virtual environment, the design may focus on the use of a metaphor, the construction of the environment, and how a single user can interact with the virtual environment. On the other hand, for a multiple user virtual environment, the focus may be devoted to the support of communication and social interaction. Another aspect of a virtual environment is its role in providing resources for people to access computer networks.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 74.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Bibliography

  • Argyle, M (1976). Personality and social behaviour. In: Harre R (ed.), Personality, Blackwell (Oxford).

    Google Scholar 

  • Benford, S, Snowdon, D, Colebourne, A, O’Brien, J, and Rodden, T (1997). Informing the design of collaborative virtual environments. Proceedings of the international ACM SIGGROUP conference on Supporting group work: the integration challenge (GROUP 97), pp. 71–80.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benford, S, Snowdon, D, Greenhalgh, C, Ingram, R, Knox, I, and Brown, C (1995). VR-VIBE: A virtual environment for co-operative information retrieval. Computer Graphics Forum, 14(3):C349–C360.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bly, SA, Harrison, SR, and Irwin, S (1993). Media spaces: bringing people together in a video, audio, and computing environment. Communications of the ACM, 36(1):28–46.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bowers, J, Pycock, J, and O’Brien, J (1997). Talk and embodiment in collaborative virtual environments. Proceedings of CHI97, ACM Press. Available: http://www.acm.org /sigchi/chi97/proceedings/jb_txt.htm.

    Google Scholar 

  • Canter, D, Rivers, R, and Storrs, G (1985). Characterizing user navigation through complex data structures. Behaviour and Information Technology, 4(2):93–102.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Canter, D, West, S, and Wools, R (1974). Judgments of people and their rooms. British Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology, 13:113–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Card, SK, Robertson, GG, and York, W (1996). The WebBook and the Web Forager: An Information workspace for the World-Wide Web. Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 96) (Vancouver, Canada, April 1996), ACM Press. Available: http:// http://www.acm.org/sigchi/chi96/proceedings/papers/Card/skcltxt.html.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carlsson, C, and Hagsand, O (1993). DIVE: A platform for multi-user virtual environments. Computer Graphics, 17(6):663–9.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen, C (1998a). Bridging the gap: The use of Pathfinder networks in visual navigation. Journal of Visual Languages and Computing, 9(3):267–86.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen, C (1998b). Generalised Similarity Analysis and Pathfinder Network Scaling. Interacting with Computers, 10(2):107–28.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen, C (1999). Visualising semantic spaces and author co-citation networks in digital libraries. Information Processing and Management, 35(3), 401–419.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen, C, and Carr, L (1999). Trailblazing the literature of hypertext: Author co-citation analysis (1989–1998). Proceedings of the Tenth ACM Conference on Hypertext (Hypertext 99) (Germany), ACM Press, pp. 51–60.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen, C, and Czerwinski, M (1998). From latent semantics to spatial hypertext: an integrated approach. Proceedings of the Ninth ACM Conference on Hypertext and Hypermedia (Hypertext 98) (Pittsburgh, USA, June 1998), ACM Press, pp. 77–86.

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen, C, Thomas, L, and Chennawasin, C (1999). Representing the semantics of virtual spaces. IEEE Multimedia, 6(2) (April-June 1999).

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen, SE (1995). QuickTime VR: An image-based approach to virtual environment navigation. Proceedings of the Twenty-second Annual ACM Conference on Computer Graphics (SIGGRAPH 95), pp. 29–38.

    Google Scholar 

  • Curtis, P, and Nichols, DA (1993). MUDs grow up: Social virtual reality in the real world, Xerox PARC.

    Google Scholar 

  • Damer, B (1998). Avatars! Exploring and Building Virtual Worlds on the Internet, Peachpit Press (Berkeley, USA).

    Google Scholar 

  • Dieberger, A (1997). Supporting social navigation on the World-Wide Web. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 46:805–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dillon, A, McKnight, C, and Richardson, J (1993). Space — The final chapter or why physical representations are not semantic intentions. In: McKnight C, Dillon A,and Richardson J (eds.), Hypertext: A Psychological Perspective, Ellis Horwood, pp. 169–91.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dourish, P, and Chalmers, M (1994). Running out of space: Models of information navigation. Proceedings of HCI 94. Available: ftp:// parcftp.xerox.com/pub/europarc/jpd/hci94-navigation.ps.

    Google Scholar 

  • Drew, P, and Heritage, J (eds.) (1992). Talk at Work: Interaction in Institutional Settings. CUP (Cambridge, UK).

    Google Scholar 

  • Erickson, T (1993). From interface to interplace: The spatial environment as a medium for interaction. Proceedings of the European Conference on Spatial Information Theory, Springer-Verlag, pp. 391–405. Available: http://http://www.pliant.org/personal/Tom_Erickson/Interplace.html.

    Google Scholar 

  • Erickson, T (1996). The World-Web Web as social hypertext. Communications of the ACM, 39(1):15–17.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Erickson, T (1997). Social interaction on the net: Virtual community as participatory genre. Proceedings of the Thirtieth Hawaii International Conference on Systems Science (Hawaii), IEEE Computer Society Press, pp. 23–30. Available: http://www.pliant.org /personal/Tom_Erickson/ VC_as_Genre.html.

    Google Scholar 

  • Erickson, T, and Salomon, G (1991). Designing a desktop information system: Observations and issues. Proceedings of CHI 91, ACM Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Forgas, JP (1979). Social Episodes: The Study of Interaction Routines, Vol. 17, Academic Press (London).

    Google Scholar 

  • Forgas, JP, Bower, GH, and Krantz, SE (1984). The influence of mood on perceptions of social interactions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 20(6):497–513.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gaver, WW, Smets, G, and Overbeeke, K (1995). A Virtual Window on media space. Proceedings of CHI 95, ACM Press, pp. 257–64.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giddens, A (1984). The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration, Chicago, Polity Press (Chicago).

    Google Scholar 

  • Goffman, E (1974). Frame Analysis, Harper and Row (New York).

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenhalgh, C, and Benford, S (1995). MASSIVE: A virtual reality system for tele-conferencing. ACM Transactions on Computer Human Interaction, 2(3):239–61.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gumperz, J (1982). Discourse Strategies, CUP (Cambridge, UK).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Haake, J, and Wilson, B (1992). Supporting collaborative writing of hyperdocuments in SEPIA. Proceedings of Hypertext 92, ACM Press, pp. 138–46.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harrison, S, and Dourish, P (1996). Re-place-ing space: The roles of place and space in collaborative systems. Proceedings of CSCW 96, ACM Press, pp. 67–76.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hill, WC, Hollan, JD, Wroblewski, D, and McCandless, T (1992). Edit wear and read wear. Proceedings of CHI 92 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Monterey, USA, May 1992), ACM Press, pp. 3–9.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hill, W, Stead, L, Rosenstein, M, and Furnas, G (1995). Recommending and evaluating choices in a virtual community of use. Proceedings of CHI 95, ACM Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hjorland, B (1997). Information Seeking and Subject Representation: An Activity-Theoretical Approach to Information Science, Greenwood Press (Westport, USA).

    Google Scholar 

  • Jeffrey, P, and Mark, G (1998). Constructing social spaces in virtual environments: A study of navigation and interaction. Proceedings of Workshop on Personalised and Social Navigation in Information Space (Stockholm, March 1998), pp. 24–38. Available: http://www.sics.se /humle/ projects/persona/web/workshop/proceedings.html.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, N, and Moulthrop, S (1994). Where no mind has gone before: ontological design for virtual spaces. Proceedings of ECHT 94, pp. 206–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kling, R (1980). Social analyses of computing: Theoretical perspectives in recent empirical research. ACM Computing Serveys, 12(1):61–110.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kraut, R, Egido, C, and Galegher, J (1988). Patterns of contact and communications in scientific research collaboration. Proceedings of CSCW 88 (September 1988), ACM Press, pp. 1–12.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kraut, R, Egido, C, and Galegher, J (1990). Patterns of contact and communication in scientific research collaboration. In: Galegher, J, Kraut, R, and Egido, C (eds.), Intellectual Teamwork, Lawrence Erlbaum (Hillsdale, USA), pp. 149–73.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mantei, MM, Baecker, RM, Sellen, AJ, Buxton, WAS, Milligan, T, and Wellman, B (1991). Experiences in the use of a media space. Proceedings of CHI 91, ACM Press, pp. 203–8.

    Google Scholar 

  • McCahill, M, and Erickson, T (1995). Design for a 3-D spatial user interface for internet gopher. Proceedings of the World Conference on Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia (ED-MEDIA 95) (Graz, Austria). Available: http://www.pliant.org /personal/Tom_Erickson/GopherVR.html.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pedersen, ER, and Sokoler, T (1997). AROMA: Abstract representation of presence supporting mutual awareness. Proceedings of CHI 97 (Atlanta, March 1997), pp. 51–8.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rao, R, Pedersen, JO, Hearst, MA, Mackinlay, JD, Card, SK, Masinter, L, et al. (1995). Rich interaction in the digital library. Communications of the ACM, 38(4):29–39.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robertson, GG, Mackinlay, JD, and Card, SK (1991). Cone trees: Animated 3D visualizations of hierarchical information. Proceedings of CHI 97 (New Orleans, April/May 1991), pp. 189–94.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rooney, SM, and Schmelkin, LP (1996). Social episode cognition. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 18(1):97–110.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tang, JC, Isaacs, EA, and Rua, M (1994). Supporting distributed groups with a montage of lightweight interactions. Proceedings of CSCW 94, ACM Press, pp. 23–34.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tolva, J (1996). Ut pictura hyperpoesis: Spatial form, visuality, and the digital word. Proceedings of Hypertext 96 (Washington, DC), ACM Press, pp. 66–73.

    Google Scholar 

  • Toomey, L, Adams, L, and Churchill, E (1998). Meetings in a virtual space: Creating a digitial document. Proceedings of the Thirty-first Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (Hawaii, HA), IEEE Computer Society, pp. 236–44.

    Google Scholar 

  • Vygotsky, LS (1962). Thought and Language, MIT Press (Cambridge, USA).

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Whittaker, S, Frohlich, D, and Daly-Jones, O (1994). Informal workplace communication: what is it like and how might we support it? Proceedings of CHI 94 (April 1994), ACM Press, pp. 131–7.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 1999 Springer-Verlag London

About this chapter

Cite this chapter

Chen, C. (1999). Virtual Environments. In: Information Visualisation and Virtual Environments. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-3622-4_6

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4471-3622-4_6

  • Publisher Name: Springer, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4471-3624-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4471-3622-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics