Virtual worlds are the next great information frontiers. Today’s primitive environments will quickly be replaced with more realistic versions of the real world (i.e., 3D Internet) for an enhanced user experience and a virtual environment that is tightly integrated with the real world. As with any environment, users can exploit it in both a positive and negative way. As usual, the bad guys are f...

The rapid development of complex virtual worlds (most notably, in 3D computer and video games) introduces new challenges for the creation of virtual agents, controlled by Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems. Two important sub-problems in this topic area that need to be addressed are (a) believability and (b) effectiveness of agents’ behavior (i.e. human-likeness of the characters and high abil...

The rapid development of complex virtual worlds (most notably, in 3D computer and video games) introduces new challenges for the creation of virtual agents, controlled by artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Two important subproblems in this topic area which need to be addressed are (a) believability and (b) effectiveness of agents’ behavior, i.e. human-likeness of the characters and high abil...

In the rapidly developing area of User Interface Design (UID), the existing knowledge and understanding of UID serves as a basis for further research and study of factors affecting users as they interact with interfaces that utilize the technology of multimedia, virtual reality and intelligent agents. Navigation is one of the factors that is being investigated to help designers develop user int...

To improve the performance of current discrete event simulation technology as applied to manufacturing as well as supply chain, the integration of 3D visualization technology is a feasible and effective strategy. The use of Virtual Reality technology upgrades the present simulation package from simple 2D icons to realistic 3D worlds. It helps users to understand the simulation system more effec...

3D Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVEs) or virtual worlds have been widely used in educational settings for the purposes of simulation and demonstration of scientific concepts, art and historical events that for practical reasons may be complicated in real-life classrooms. This paper describes an experience of recreating a central event in Norwegian history, adoption of Norwegian constitut...

Advances in network technologies have resulted in the emergence of virtual worlds designed to facilitate synchronous communication between users. Of the many network technologies now being utilized in computer-assisted language learning (CALL), immersive virtual environments appear to hold great potential as learning tools. This paper reports the findings of a preliminary study on non-native sp...

The explosion of interest in online gaming and virtual worlds is leading many universities to investigate possible educational applications of the new environments. In this paper we explore the possibilities of 3D online worlds for teacher education, particularly the field experience component. Drawing upon two pedagogical examples, we suggest that virtual simulations may, with certain limitati...

Buying or creating a virtual reality (VR) software is very costly. A less expensive alternative could be to modify already existing 3D computer games. The goal of this study is to assess the effectiveness of in virtuo exposure in the treatment of arachnophobia using modified 3D games. Participants were 10 women and 1 man. Virtual worlds were created using the game editor of a 3D computer game (...