From: rick@hanauma.Stanford.EDU (Richard Ottolini)
Subject: synthetic reality
Date: Sun, 27 Jan 91 20:59:05 GMT
Organization: Stanford University, Department of Geophysics



There have been a number of names for the subject area of this newsgroup
appearing in this newsgroup including:
        virtual-worlds
        virtual-reality         (VPL's trademark)
        artificial-reality      (translation of the Japanese term).
I suggest that the adjectives "virtual" and "artificial" have meanings
saying the result we are trying to produce isn't as good as the
original.   I contend a long-term goal of VR is realism--a perceptual
experience indistinguishable from the external world.  Therefore the
term "synthetic-reality" may be a more accurate naming of this goal.