Artificial Life and Virtual Reality Author:Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann, Daniel Thalmann The technology which once produced the first synthetic human today includes the simulation of human behaviour processes, associated with consciousness and the emotions. When a computer creates artificial life, its synthetic creatures demonstrate the behaviour patterns of real living beings. This book investigates the technological advances which... more » allow artificial life to be placed within a virtual setting, where the human user can meet and interact with synthetic beingspeople, animals or plantsin a complete simulation of the real world. It introduces new concepts such as artificial consciousness, artificial presence, artificial autonomy and artificial perception; and discusses important results in the development of immersive and auditory virtual environments, and co-operative work.« less