Event-based causality in virtual reality

Abstract

In this paper, we describe such an environment, in which the user can be presented in real-time with an alternative range of consequences for a given interaction with virtual world objects, thus inducing various perceptions of causality. From a systemic perspective, we can adopt a pragmatic approach, inspired from human philosophy, which considers that causal relations are established by the user in response to certain event cooccurrences. To control causal perception in VR, the system comprises the following components: a visualisation engine, an event recognition system (together with its specific event formalism that supports event modification), and a causal engine as an event modification system, which selects co-occurring events on a rule-based manner. A search process, evaluates alternative consequences using semantic and spatio contiguity information, such as comparison between candidate objects on which the action consequences should be applied. A first prototype has been fully implemented and is described together with an example real-time simulation