Real Virtuality was a term that Mark Weiser used to contrast his idea of ubiquitous computing with the then popular notion that we would all spend a lot of time in virtual reality environments. In his influential article "The Computer for the 21st century",[1] he discredited this idea. He claimed that as computers would get ever cheaper and smaller, it was only logical that, instead of us entering the virtual world of the computer, it would be the computer that entered ours. This took the form of computers and sensors embedded in objects and more generally 'in the woodwork'.
Real virtuality was later used by Castells, M. in 1996 within his trilogy entitled The Rise of the Network Society. He intended the term to show how the Internet has entered the tissue of society to the extent that there is no virtual reality to talk about; the virtual has become real in its consequences. He writes that “it is not virtual reality, because when our symbolic environment is, by and large, structured in this inclusive, flexible, diversified hypertext in which we navigate every day, the virtuality of this text is in fact our reality, the symbols from which we live and communicate”(Castells. 1996. p. 403).
Castells, M. (1996). The rise of the network society. Blackwell Publishers. Yus, Francisco. (2005). The linguistic-cognitive essence of virtual community. IBÉRICA 9 [2005]: 79-102 Universidad de Alicante, Spain.
Although Castells definition is still used it seems it has later been added upon from a techno-centric angle resulting in the less common definition:
Real virtuality is defined as a true high fidelity multi-sensory virtual environment that evokes the same perceptual response from a viewer as if he was actually present, or "there", in the real scene being depicted.[2] Also known as "there-reality",[3] such environments are interactive and based on physics. All five senses are concurrently stimulated to deliver real world modalities naturally and in real time.
The primary delivery mechanism of Real Virtuality is termed a virtual cocoon. This helmet-like device contains high quality visuals, 3D audio headphones, smell and tasting technology, and temperature, humidity and wind simulation devices.