What are the different types of immersive interfaces?
Dede: I’ve been studying immersive interfaces for about 15 years now, and I’ve found that they range in the degree of immersion. At the FETC I’ll discuss three such interfaces, one of which is the Alice in Wonderland type, which is characteristic of Internet games where you have an avatar operating in a world that you become immersed in. The second interface is even more profound and known as virtual reality. You wear either a head-mounted display or are located in a cave-like room with monitored surfaces that create a visual, digital environment. Finally, the least immersive interface is known as “augmented reality,” and involves the use of a cell phone or mobile wireless device. You’re in the “real world,” and using the device to superimpose a virtual world that includes virtual characters and objects.
