Virtual Reality Systems for Business

Virtual reality—one of the most advanced and exciting technologies to emerge in recent decades—offers businesspeople a new way to grasp information and use it quickly and effectively. By literally experiencing information in an artificially created computer generated world instead of reading, hearing, or viewing it on a screen, businesspeople can get information in a way that has proved most successful and most natural for humans. The result is saved time and money, savings that are essential to any enterprise if it is to survive and prosper in today's fast-paced, competitive business environment. The first book to explore virtual reality strictly for businesspeople, Virtual Reality Systems in Business provides essential information not only on theory and the scientific underpinnings of this new technology, but also on its methods, purposes, and day-to-day applications. Readers will learn how virtual reality applies to retailing, marketing, design, manufacturing, accounting, finance, training, human resource management, and other functions critical to the operations of any organization, public or private. They will learn the types of hardware and software currently available to develop the virtual worlds they need in their specific organizations, and how to procure them from vendors. Also covered are the methodologies by which computer professionals can develop their own virtual reality systems, and the relationship between virtual reality systems and computer databases and data communications. Explained too is the basic framework underlying business-oriented virtual reality systems and how these systems tie in with nonbusiness oriented systems. A major contribution to our understanding of today's technologies and the benefits that will accrue from them in years to come.