Artificial Life and Virtual Reality

The technology which once produced the first synthetic human today includes the simulation of human behaviour processes, associated with consciousness and the emotions. When a computer creates artificial life, its synthetic creatures demonstrate the behaviour patterns of real living beings. This book investigates the technological advances which allow artificial life to be placed within a virtual setting, where the human user can meet and interact with synthetic beings—people, animals or plants—in a complete simulation of the real world. It introduces new concepts such as artificial consciousness, artificial presence, artificial autonomy and artificial perception; and discusses important results in the development of immersive and auditory virtual environments, and co-operative work.