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Reference Terms
from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Virtual reality

Virtual reality (VR) is a technology which allows a user to interact with a computer-simulated environment, be it a real or imagined one. Most current virtual reality environments are primarily visual experiences, displayed either on a computer screen or through special stereoscopic displays, but some simulations include additional sensory information, such as sound through speakers or headphones. Some advanced, haptic systems now include tactile information, generally known as force feedback, in medical and gaming applications. Users can interact with a virtual environment or a virtual artifact (VA) either through the use of standard input devices such as a keyboard and mouse, or through multimodal devices such as a wired glove, the Polhemus boom arm, and/or omnidirectional treadmill. The simulated environment can be similar to the real world, for example, simulations for pilot or combat training, or it can differ significantly from reality, as in VR games.

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Computers & Math News

September 9, 2026

A more realistic quantum model has revealed evidence that strange, nearly immobile quasiparticles called fractons could exist in solid materials. Their inability to move freely could make them promising building blocks for unusually robust quantum ...
Scientists have devised a new way to switch magnetic computer memory while using far less energy than today's leading technologies. By mathematically optimizing the pulses used to flip digital bits, ...
Princeton researchers have tested an AI system that can monitor and control fusion plasma in milliseconds, reacting far faster than a human operator. In one experiment, it predicted a damaging instability about 200 milliseconds before it appeared ...
Harvard researchers have transformed ordinary knitting into a platform for creating fabrics that can snap between different shapes and perform useful functions. Using elastic yarns and industrial knitting techniques, the team engineered thick ...
MIT researchers have created bacterial “transistors” that can be wired together into living circuits capable of performing calculations and directing chemical signals. One day, these biological computers could coat plant roots or leaves, ...
Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University have discovered an unexpected form of the Hall effect, overturning the long-held assumption that this electrical response only appears when a magnetic field points perpendicular to a material. Beyond ...
Scientists have uncovered hidden complexity inside two ultrathin superconductors that seemed much simpler than they really are. Niobium diselenide and tantalum disulfide appeared to have a single superconducting state, but highly sensitive ...
Physicists have demonstrated a new way to entangle distant quantum bits without the constant measurements and active control normally required. The team created a “quantum bath,” a shared environment filled with correlated microwave photons that ...
IBM and University of Chicago researchers have completed a quantum computation that leading classical methods could not practically reproduce. The system used 70 error-corrected logical qubits and finished the task in roughly 15 minutes while also ...
Researchers used AI to search through more than 100 million possible settings for 3D-printing a high-performance NASA alloy. After only 40 experiments, the system identified six successful ...
Scientists have found a surprising way to potentially switch on an unusual form of magnetism in ruthenium dioxide, a material that normally appears nonmagnetic. When the material was made into an ...
NASA has successfully tested a system that allows satellites to navigate without GPS by using other spacecraft and debris as landmarks in orbit. In just three days, FALCON also improved the known orbits of more than 200 space objects completely ...

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