The Committee on Virtual Reality Research and Development was established by the National Research Council in 1992 at the request of a consortium of federal government agencies: the Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the Human Research and Engineering Directorate of the Army Research Laboratory, the Crew Systems Directorate and the Human Resources Directorate of the Armstrong Laboratory, the Army Natick RD&E Center, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, the National Security Agency, and the Sandia National Laboratory. As a group, these agencies sought guidance and direction regarding the federal investment in research and development in the area of virtual reality.

This report constitutes the committee's response to the charge to "recommend a national research and development agenda in the area of virtual reality" to guide government research and development over the next generation. Although the charge refers only to virtual reality systems (systems in which the world the human operator interacts with is generated by a computer), the committee has also considered teleoperator systems. Such an extension is required not only for logical and scientific reasons, but also because many of the examples cited in the charge are teleoperator systems.

The purpose of the agenda is to provide a technical rationale to federal agencies for the allocation of their resources in support of research and technology development—and thereby to help define and shape the field. In keeping with this purpose, the recommendations in this report