ABSTRACT
Virtual reality is an exciting new technology with increasing application in industrial and educational settings. However, as the technology is still in its evolutionary stage, virtual environment (VE) developers are faced with many technical limitations when designing VR applications. These result in the VE including less detail or fewer features than the real world which it represents. Therefore the developer is required to decide what level of detail and which features to include. Previously these decisions have tended to be made on the basis of size of objects, ease of programming, individual programmer’s preferences, or arbitrarily. in psychological and ergonomic research, theories that explain the ways in which humans behave in certain situations already exist. This paper discusses utilising an existing theory to consider the VR user’s role in participation within a VE, with a view to aiding the VE development process.
