ABSTRACT
Virtual reality's (VR) final destination may well be as a multipurpose communication medium - a combination of the television and telephone wrapped delicately around the senses. Even NASA scientists like Steven Ellis (1991 a) admit that "Virtual environments . . . are communication media" (p. 321). Introductory VR books often describe virtual reality as the next logical step in the history of communication media (e.g., Hamit, 1993; Rheingold, 1991). A Delphi panel survey predicts that communication applications of virtual reality will amount to more than 60070 of the marketplace when the technology matures (Miller, Walker, & Rupnow, 1992).
