Immersive virtual reality and spatial analysis

Based on significant technological advances in computer graphics and stereo-enabled immersive platforms, immersive virtual reality (IVR) provides a transformative technology capable of supporting advanced visualization and analytical capabilities that extend well beyond traditional 2D display devices and media forms. Virtual Reality applications in the entertainment industry are commonplace but have yet to common in educational settings. IVR enables a perceived artificial reality to be generated and streamed to users through a Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE) or, increasingly, head-mounted display devices who experience a profound sense of immersion in a scene and a neuropsychological sense of 'being there' and of 'presence'. During this psychophysical experience the user is stimulated to suspend belief about their actual physical space and are drawn into a simulated and virtually rendered world which is experienced as being real. Human cognition and human consciousness are critical to the immersive experience which draws heavily on human pareidolia and apophenia and the willingness of the creative mind to seemingly disengage from the physical reality of the projection space itself and to move seamlessly within the projected virtual world. This visuo-cognitive and seeming out-of-body experience separates the conscious self and the internal self-imagination from the surrounding physical world and differentiates IVR from more traditional 2D cartographic mapping and other graphical representations. Through highly interactive human-computer interfaces, considerable dynamic interaction occurs between the user, the system, and the virtual scene and conscious effort to interact with the data essentially 'disappears' as the user is unconsciously enveloped within the virtual scene. This experiential involvement provides a powerful, intuitive, and visceral experience that positions the user not as an external observer of data with limited visual dimensionality but as an active analytical agent embedded within a 3D world of data analytics capable of exploring multidimensional data and create new insights not previously deemed possible.