JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

The reality-virtuality continuum is a concept introduced by Paul Milgram and Fumio Kishino in 1994. It describes a spectrum that ranges from a pure physical reality (the real world) to a pure virtual reality (a completely computer-generated environment), with various degrees of mixed reality in between. This continuum is “realized” by different types of displays to encompass different levels of immersion and interaction, allowing for a classification of different types of environments and experiences. What is often overlooked in this concept, is diminishing real objects (or persons, animals, etc.) from reality, rather than augmenting the reality with virtual things. Hence, we propose an update of the reality-virtuality continuum with an own “diminishing” branch that will help to get a better understanding of the whole Extended Reality (XR) topic, but also assist in the decision making for hardware (devices) and software that are needed for new diminishing applications. However, we also propose another, more sophisticated directional and layer-based taxonomy for the reality-virtuality continuum that goes beyond the mediated and multimediated realities.