ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of the many issues which need to be understood if people are to develop the capability to directly manipulate a virtual object. These issues include the strategy for improving technology, the nature of human behaviour, human sensory systems, the processing of different senses into integrated perceptions, and the control of our responses. The developers of virtual reality can attempt to overcome the temporary technological limitations by using human factors research to enhance existing technology. Until technology can provide the required perceptual information in virtual reality, people should perhaps in the meantime be making better use of the knowledge acquired to enhance performance in the real world when conditions are sub-optimal. Major types of ‘sensory-motor’ feedback for manipulation include cutaneous and kinaesthetic receptors, vestibular apparatus, vision and audition.
