Behind the scenes of virtual reality: vision and motion

The phrase "Concealing Telecommunications Networks" is first introduced as an ultimate philosophical concept in human-to-human or physically evolving "multimedia" communications by employing the same face-to-face mode that is used in natural communications. Then virtual reality (VR) technologies and their current applications are introduced, followed by an introduction of cutting-edge research on "Teleconferencing with Realistic Sensations", which is a communications system that conceals the existence of telecommunications networks. Next, research activities on "vision" and "motion", the most important underlying human functions supporting technologies such as VR, are presented. These activities consist of 1) a perception model that explains how human beings mentally reconstruct 3-D shapes from 2-D information projected on the retina, and 2) research on the close relationship between the senses, i.e., auditory and visual perception, visual information, and muscular motion stimuli. As a practical application, an example of measuring eye movements for early detection of Alzheimer's disease is briefly introduced. Finally, some fundamental problems with stereoscopic 3-D displays on 2-D screens, which can make them more fatiguing than the natural environment, are discussed.