The networked reality is defined to be the virtual reality used in networks and using networks. The paper describes several levels of the networked reality and their applications.

This paper focuses on Mixed Reality (MR) visual displays, a particular subset of Virtual Reality (VR) related technologies that involve the merging of real and virtual worlds somewhere along the virtuality continuum" which connects completely real environments to completely virtual ones. Probably the best known of these is Augmented Reality (AR), which refers to all cases in which the display of an otherwise real environment is augmented by means of virtual (computer graphic) objects. The converse case on the virtuality continuum is therefore Augmented Virtuality (AV). Six classes of hybrid MR display environments are identified. However, an attempt to distinguish these classes on the basis of whether they are primarily video or computer graphics based, whether the real world is viewed directly or via some electronic display medium, whether the viewer is intended to feel part of the world or on the outside looking in, and whether or not the scale of the display is intended to map orthoscopically onto the real world leads to quite different groupings among the six identified classes, thereby demonstrating the need for an efficient taxonomy, or classification framework, according to which essential differences can be identified. The obvious' distinction between the terms real" and virtual" is shown to have a number of different aspects, depending on whether one is dealing with real or virtual objects, real or virtual images, and direct or non-direct viewing of these. An (approximately) three dimensional taxonomy is proposed, comprising the following dimensions: Extent of World Knowledge (how much do we know about the world being displayed?"), Reproduction Fidelity (how realistically' are we able to display it?"), and Extent of Presence Metaphor (what is the extent of the illusion that the observer is present within that world?").

We have developed a Virtual Playground," which allows various activities such as virtual playground and virtual visiting areas for hospitalized children who can not usually go outside. A Virtual Playground system is composed of TV monitors, joysticks, cameras, video transmission devices, and a graphics workstation. In a Virtual Playground environment, children can experience what is impossible or difficult during their stay in a hospital. We have completed a couple of experiments already and discussed its effects.^* In our recent work, we also introduced a simple version of the Cave display to the Virtual Playground system.

In current teleteaching systems, video conferencing systems have been used to transmit a motion video from a teacher's site. A video that captures a teacher or his or her chalkboard is transmitted to a remote site through a communication channel. Since the resolution of the video is not very high, a camera captures either a teacher or a chalkboard, but not both at the same time. Thus, remote students have difficulty in obtaining realistic sensation. Another approach to realizing teleteaching is to use a computer-based desktop conferencing system that supports a motion video and a computer-based shared chalkboard. In this approach, a teacher has to use a mouse or a handwriting tablet for input, and therefore cannot use a real chalkboard. Moreover, the teacher cannot use gestures to remote students. This paper presents a multimedia teleteaching system that integrates an electronic whiteboard with a multimedia desktop conferencing system for providing realistic sensation to remote students. The system provides two-way communication of a video and a computerized chalkboard. A teacher uses an electronic whiteboard as a real whiteboard using direct manipulation, and transmits his or her gestures to remote students by using video communication. The system provides dual views; one view is for teacher's gestures and the other is for chalkboard contents. By providing the dual views, the system can transmit teacher's gestures all the time. Since chalkboard contents are processed and displayed as computer data, students can see them clearly. With the computerized chalkboard, a teacher or a student can zoom contents, input data written on a paper using a scanner, or add annotation.

The many-user networked virtual world system InterSpace" is described. This system's main purpose is to enhance the user's communication activities. In InterSpace, the real world information is embedded in the shared virtual world as a combination of video and CG images. Users can ovserve and access this information by simply looking and approaching embedded images. The concept of InterSpace and a prototype system of this service are introduced.

This paper proposes the concept of Tool-Based Direct Deformation Method (TB-DDM) which supports networked CAD (Computer Aided Design) systems with virtual reality technologies. TB-DDM allows designers to sculpt free forms directly with tools; each tool has its deforming characteristics, such as, the area and the shape of deformation. TB-DDM's direct deformation interface is independent of form representations because the system automatically calculates appropriate deformation according to its form representation when a tool pushes" a form. The deformation with TB-DDM is concisely described by the initial shape, types of tools, and thier loci; the description enables cooperative CAD systems with narrow bandwidth network to share design process rapidly and to distribute computational load.

Video compression technologies such as MPEG have enabled the efficient use of video data in the computer environment. However, the compressed video information still has a huge amount of data compared with the other media such as text, audio, and graphics. Therefore, it is very important to handle the video information in a networked database for the efficient use of resources like storage media. Furthermore, in the networked database, its retrieval methods including search and delivery become the key issues especially for the video information which requires a large network bandwidth. In this paper, a video browsing method using an automatic fast scene cut detection for networked video database access is described. The scene cut is defined as the scene change frame and is detected by temporal change in interframe luminance difference and chrominance correlation which are obtained from spatio-temporally scaled image directly extracted from the MPEG compressed video without any complex processing of video decoding. The detected scene change frames are further investigated to exploit the relationship between the scene cuts and are classified in order to make a hierarchical indexing. These results of detection are stored as an scene index file using the MPEG format. The simulation results are also presented for several test video sequences to show that these methods have enabled the efficient video database construction and accessing.

The Hyper Hospital" is a novel medical care system which will be constructed on an electronic information network. The human interface of the Hyper Hospital based on the modern virtual reality technology is expected to enhance patients' ability to heal by providing computer-supported on-line visual consultations. In order to investigate the effects and features of on-line visual consultations in the Hyper Hospital, we conducted an experiment to clarify the influence of electronic interviews on the talking behavior of interviewees in the context of simulated doctor-patient interactions. Four types of distant-confrontation interviews were made with voluntary subjects and their verbal and non-verbal responses were analyzed from the behavioral point of view. The types of interviews included three types of electronic media-mediated interviews and one of a live face to face interview. There was a tendency in the media-mediated interviews that both the latency and the duration of interviewees' utterances in answering questions increased when they were compared with those of live face to face interviews. These results suggest that the interviewee became more verbose or talkative in the media-mediated interviews than in the live interviews. However, the interviewee's psychological tension was generally augmented in the media-mediated interviews, which was suggested by the delay of the initiation of conversations as compared to the conventional face-to-face interviews. We also discuss the applicability of media-mediated interviews by an electronic doctor which we are studying as a functional unit of our Hyper Hospital, a network based virtual reality space for medical care.

In the modern hospital, the physical or chemical therapeutic procedure is regarded as paramount and psychological or spiritual care is quite frequently put aside. The goal of the Hyper Hospital" is to correct this. The Hyper Hospital is constructed in the computer based electronic network using an alternate reality system, such as the virtual reality system, as the human-machine-human interface. The nodes of the Hyper Hospital belong to a patient and also to a variety of medical care facilities; for example, the out patient office, the nursing care center, the medical examination unit, the operating theater, etc. The Hyper Hospital space consists of various kind of spaces including the alternate reality space owned and exclusively controlled by the patient himself or herself, and even the real space as well. Most of the physical contact, such as the visit to the out patient office by the patient, is actualized by the electronic connection of the patient private space and the public space of the hospital system. Prescription drugs, special care, and even the admission to the ward will be integrated into the distributed electronic network. To realize such a system, we need to solve many problems, such as the research on the network oriented architecture of the alternate reality, the development of human-machine interface particularly fitted to various disabilites, the study of the behavior of normal and diseased people, etc. The concept of the Hyper Hospital we are proposing is believed to be a new paradigm of the next generation of medical care.

We are studying a novel concept of the on-line hospital system using a virtual environment called Hyper Hospital," the Hyper Hospital" is a medical care system which is constructed in a distributed manner to the electronic information network using virtual reality (VR) as a human interface. In the present report, we studied the physiological and psychological responses of healthy subjects induced by the usage of the VR in terms of fatigue. Twenty healthy young male subjects were exposed to the virtual reality system and they performed some psychological tasks with a virtual nurse for 30 minutes. Several parameters of physiological, psychological, and subjective fatigue were measured. None of the physiological or psychological parameters such as urinary catecholamine release, ECG, etc. showed significant fatigue induced by our VR system. However, by using a standard questionnaire, some kinds of subjective fatigue were noted and they were thought to be indicating a direction of improvement for our VR system.

When we design a human interface of a computer-mediated communication (CMC) system, it is important to take a socio-behavioral approach for understanding the nature of the human communication. From this point of view, we conducted experimental observations and post-experimental questionnaires to investigate communicative characteristics in a teleconference using Fujitsu Habitat" visual telecommunication software. We experimentally held the following three kinds of small-group conferences consisting of five geographically distributed participants: (a) teleconference using a visual telecommunication system (Fujitsu Habitat"), (b) teleconference using a real-time keyboard telecommunication system of NIFTY-Serve and (c) live face to face physical conference. Analyses were made on (1) effects of the media on utterance behaviors of conference members, and (2) satisfaction of conference members with communicative functions of the media. Satisfaction was measured by a seven-level rating scale. We found that participants in a telconference held by using Habitat showed significant differences in contents of utterances and the rating of satisfaction with nine communicative functions compared with those of conferences held by using a real-time keyboard telecommunication system and a live face-to-face conference. These results suggest some features that could facilitate multi-participant on-line electronic conferences and conversations.

In real life, our sence of social reality is supported by the institutional basis, group/interpersonal basis, and belief/schema basis. In networked life, in contrast, these natural and ordinary bases are not always warranted because of a lack of institutional backup, the fragility of the group or interpersonal environment, and the noncommonality of our common sense. In order to compensate for these incomplete bases, networkers ar seeking adaptive communication styles. In this process, there emerge three types of communication cultures. One is the name-card exchange" type. This type is realized by communicating our demographic attributes verbally, which is useful for reality construction of the institutional basis. The second is the ideographization" type. In this type, the content of customary nonverbal communication is creatively transformed into various pseudo nonverbal or para-linguistic expressions, which strengthen fragile interpersonal relationships. The last type is the verbalian" type. This type never depends on the interpersonal or institutional basis. The networked reality is constructed solely in the attempt for common sense development among members. By analyzing the content of messages exchanged in four public groups called Forums," the author found that patterns of communication are transformed in a manner adaptive to each Forum's reality. Thier adaptation modes are different and depend on the types of communication culture every Forum pursues. This is contrarty to the psychologists' tendency to assume that there must be common characteristics or rules valid throughout all of the electronic communication situations.