What's real about virtual reality?

The author presents a personal assessment of the state of the art of VR. In 1994, he surveyed the field of VR. His assessment then was that VR almost worked, but that we were not yet there. There were lots of demos and pilot systems, but except for vehicle simulators and entertainment applications, VR was not yet in production use doing real work. This year he was invited to do an up-to-date assessment of VR, with funding to visit major centers in North America and Europe. Every one of the component technologies has made big strides. Moreover, I found that there now exist some VR applications routinely operated for the results they produce.