virtual reality
Enable an AI agent to recognise a virtual reality experience, judge whether its current configuration supports its intended use, and determine which interactions or session changes are appropriate.
Bundle → Layer → Finding → Questions Filled
6 bundles · 11 layers · 11 findings · 21 questions
Experience boundary Identifies what constitutes this VR experience and how it relates to physical surroundings.
Perceptual setting
Records what surrounds the participant perceptually and how their viewpoint responds.
Surrounding virtual view
Establish whether the virtual scene functions as the participant's surrounding setting and identify supported viewpoint changes.
- What makes this experience a surrounding virtual setting rather than a conventional screen presentation? definition
- Which rotations and translations of the participant produce corresponding viewpoint changes? measurement
Physical-world composition
Separates virtual immersion from persistent or temporary presentation of physical surroundings.
Reality mode boundary
Record when physical-world content appears and whether changing presentation mode changes the applicable model boundary.
- Is physical-world imagery an awareness aid, a task object or the primary setting of the experience? boundary
- Which transitions into passthrough or mixed presentation require reclassifying the active experience? boundary
Embodied action Describes how the participant perceives a virtual body and acts within the environment.
Body and viewpoint mapping
Records the relationship between measured participant movement and represented body parts.
Tracked and inferred embodiment
Distinguish directly tracked movement from inferred poses and identify calibration limits.
- Which viewpoint, hand and body movements are tracked directly, inferred or animated independently? provenance
- How are participant height, reach and virtual-to-physical scale calibrated and checked? measurement
Locomotion and manipulation
Describes virtual travel, object handling and the physical demands of controls.
Action mapping and reach
Identify how movement and control inputs produce virtual travel or manipulation, including alternatives.
- Which actions require physical walking or reaching, and which use teleportation, artificial movement or remote selection? definition
- Which supported mappings allow the intended activity from the participant's available posture, reach and input devices? action
Perceptual runtime Captures whether tracking and sensory presentation currently sustain the intended experience.
Tracking and display response
Records the timeliness and stability of viewpoint and interaction updates.
Runtime response evidence
Characterise latency, frame delivery and tracking disruptions under the actual activity.
- What motion-to-photon latency and frame-time variation were measured for this configuration and workload? measurement
- What should the experience do when tracking is lost, becomes uncertain or recovers with a changed coordinate origin? action
Sensory and spatial coherence
Examines agreement among visual, audio, haptic and spatial cues needed for the task.
Task-relevant cue alignment
Identify sensory cues the participant relies on and evidence that their timing and placement support the activity.
- Which visual, spatial-audio or haptic cues are necessary to locate targets, judge contact or detect events? definition
- How are cue alignment, apparent scale and task-relevant visual legibility checked from the participant's viewpoint? measurement
Session viability Connects physical surroundings and participant feedback to session continuation decisions.
Physical play space
Records the physical movement envelope and its relationship to virtual activity.
Movement envelope readiness
Establish whether the current surroundings support required movement, including reach beyond the participant's standing position.
- What checked physical area and reach envelope are available, and what obstacles or other people may enter them? measurement
- When the participant approaches a boundary or surroundings change, which warning, passthrough or pause behaviour is available? action
Participant comfort and control
Records participant feedback, access needs and usable ways to interrupt immersion.
Continuation and exit
Treat continuation as an explicit session decision informed by participant reports and accessible controls.
- What discomfort, disorientation, fatigue or access difficulty has the participant reported during this session? measurement
- How can the participant pause or exit immediately, and what adjustments are available before resuming? action
Virtual-world participation Defines how virtual events, other participants and task outcomes should be interpreted.
Shared presence
Records who or what is represented and how shared interaction is coordinated.
Participant representation and authority
Distinguish live people, agents and recordings, and establish the basis for shared spatial events.
- Which visible bodies or voices represent live participants, autonomous agents or prerecorded performances? provenance
- How are shared coordinates and object-control authority established, and which interactions are restricted when synchronisation is uncertain? action
Activity evidence
Links the intended activity to observable virtual outcomes and limits on interpretation.
Virtual success and transfer
Separate completion inside the experience from broader claims about learning, capability or real-world effects.
- Which observable virtual actions and environment states count as completion of the intended activity? definition
- What additional evidence would be needed to infer real-world competence or benefit from that completion? boundary
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Kinds and varieties
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of virtual reality this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Classifiers Filled
- Family
- Thing Registry
- Category
- Activities and processes
- Entry kind
- thing
- Plane
- ACT
- Domain
- ACT.ACT
- Other names and narrower kinds
- virtual reality software, Microsoft Holoportation, Sensorama, Cinematic virtual reality, cyberspace, holographic environment simulator
What it is Filled
A computer-generated environment presented to a participant, usually through a head-mounted display with tracked movement, so that the virtual scene replaces the surrounding physical view and responds to the participant's head, hand and body motion.
In scope
- The experience's virtual environment, intended activity and degree of replacement of physical surroundings
- Participant viewpoint, embodiment and mappings between physical movement and virtual action
- Runtime configuration and observed perceptual and interaction performance
- Physical play-space constraints, participant readiness and session interruption conditions
- Shared presence, virtual interactions and evidence of task completion
Out of scope
- Headset and controller manufacturing, inventory and repair records
- General-purpose simulation models and the validity of their underlying domain theories
- Augmented reality experiences primarily organised around the visible physical world
- Ownership and production history of individual 3D assets
- Clinical diagnosis or treatment of participant symptoms
- General account management, billing and social-platform governance
Why it exists Filled
Enable an AI agent to recognise a virtual reality experience, judge whether its current configuration supports its intended use, and determine which interactions or session changes are appropriate.
Distinguishing features Filled
- Determine whether the participant experiences the virtual environment as the surrounding perceptual setting rather than as content inside an ordinary screen.
- Test whether viewpoint updates respond to tracked head or body movement; record supported axes and limitations rather than assuming full positional tracking.
- Determine whether physical-world imagery serves a temporary awareness function or remains the primary setting for the activity, which may place the experience within a neighbouring mixed or augmented reality model.
- Separate presentation from simulation: an immersive recorded scene may qualify as VR without a dynamic world model, while a desktop simulation does not qualify merely because it contains a 3D world.
- Check whether a claimed virtual presence has observable perceptual and interaction support; a VR label or avatar alone is insufficient evidence.
What robots and AI may and may not do Filled
Must not
- Collect or sell body, eye or voice data from a VR session without consent.
- Expose children to content or contact unsuitable for their age.
- Let a participant walk into real hazards while the physical view is blocked.
- Present a simulated scene as a real recording of events.
Only with a human decision
- Using VR for medical or psychological therapy.
- Allowing strangers to interact with children in a shared virtual space.
May
- Run virtual environments the participant has chosen, with clear start and exit.
- Warn participants about motion sickness, play-space limits and session length.
- Explain how the headset collects movement and eye data.
Moral aspects Filled
- VR can be immersive enough that harassment and fear feel real.
- Headsets gather intimate data about bodies and attention.
Who is affected
- Participants
- Children
- People nearby in the physical room
Owners Filled
Steward
The participant using it; platform operators answer for virtual spaces they run.
Links to other meta-models Filled
parent
- Q107307154 - registry parent class
- Q25052165 - registry parent class
- Q45045 - registry parent class
- Q659563 - registry parent class
What else AI and robots need to interact with it Filled
Identity and identifiers required Filled
- Vercy registry: vr.tr.virtual-reality
- Wikidata: Q170519 (https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q170519)
Direct properties not applicable Not applicable
- Physical-world visibility mode: virtual-only presentation | intermittent passthrough | persistent physical-world composition | other | unknown
- Tracked viewpoint freedom: orientation only | orientation and position | configuration-dependent | other | unknown
- Motion-to-photon latency: milliseconds, with measurement method, configuration and distribution
- Delivered frame timing: milliseconds per frame and missed or reprojected frame proportion over a stated interval
- Virtual-to-physical scale: virtual metres per physical metre, with calibration context
- Locomotion mapping: physical walking | teleportation | continuous artificial movement | redirected movement | stationary | combination
- Embodiment mapping: tracked participant signals mapped to virtual viewpoint, hands, body or tools, including inferred components
- Play-space readiness: unchecked | ready for specified activity | constrained | obstructed | tracking unavailable
- Participant continuation preference: not established | willing to continue | adjustment requested | pause requested | exit requested
- Shared spatial alignment: participant coordinate frames related to a shared virtual frame, with alignment status and uncertainty
Plane ACT: no invented physical properties.
Recognition optional Filled
- A typical immersive setup uses an opaque headset that replaces the participant's direct view of the surroundings.
- The displayed viewpoint changes with tracked head movement, distinguishing the experience from a fixed video presentation.
- Tracked hands or controllers may appear as virtual hands or pointers that move with the participant.
Capabilities and actions required Filled
- Classify the experience boundary and identify configuration-dependent overlaps with mixed reality.
- Check whether tracking, controls and available physical space support a proposed virtual activity.
- Calibrate viewpoint, scale, reach and embodiment mappings for a participant.
- Select supported locomotion and interaction modes based on participant needs and task requirements.
- Pause, reduce movement demands or exit when participant requests or observed session conditions require intervention.
- Assess virtual task completion while distinguishing it from evidence of real-world competence.
Hazards and failure modes required Filled
- Collisions and falls when a participant cannot see the real room.
- Motion sickness, eye strain and disorientation after long sessions.
Standards and interfaces required Filled
- The OpenXR specification, issued by the Khronos Group, defines an application interface for compatible virtual reality and augmented reality runtimes.
Context of use required Filled
- Virtual reality is used in entertainment, education, training and design review to place participants inside interactive simulated environments.
- It enables experiences of spaces or situations that may be inaccessible, costly or impractical to encounter physically.
Sources Filled
- Wikidata item Q170519: virtual reality - identity and sense of the item
- Wikipedia: Virtual reality - general description of the item
Open questions
- Does the registry intend virtual reality to denote an experience, a technology class or both, and which should be the authoritative modelling unit?
- Should immersive 360-degree recordings, projection rooms and experiences without head tracking share this entry, and what minimum recognition criteria distinguish them?
- Which task-specific methods and acceptance criteria should govern latency, tracking stability, spatial calibration and cue alignment?
- Where should ownership fall for mixed reality mode transitions, motion telemetry permissions and shared-avatar interaction controls?
- What evidence is sufficient for participant-specific continuation decisions and for claims that performance in VR transfers to real-world activity?
Machine files
Provenance
thing registry research (pass 2) · unreviewed
Built from: models/things/publications/thing-q170519/spec.json