20+ nonfiction virtual and augmented reality books to expand your mind
The best books to feed your curiosity on virtuality
1.Apocalyptic AI: Visions of Heaven in Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, and Virtual Reality by Robert M. Geraci
“Drawing on interviews with roboticists and AI researchers and with devotees of the online game Second Life, among others, Geraci illuminates the ideas of such advocates of Apocalyptic AI as Hans Moravec and Ray Kurzweil. He reveals that the rhetoric of Apocalyptic AI is strikingly similar to that of the apocalyptic traditions of Judaism and Christianity. In both systems, the believer is trapped in a dualistic universe and expects a resolution in which he or she will be translated to a transcendent new world and live forever in a glorified new body.”
2. Augment’s Essential Guide to Augmented Reality by Dennis Williams
“This book by Augment, a venture-backed AR enterprise software, is written as an overview of what augmented reality truly is, how it works, and the way it will revolutionize business.”
3. Coming of Age in Second Life: An Anthropologist Explores the Virtually Human by Tom Boellstorff
“Bringing anthropology into territory never before studied, this book demonstrates that in some ways humans have always been virtual, and that virtual worlds in all their rich complexity build upon a human capacity for culture that is as old as humanity itself. Now with a new preface in which the author places his book in light of the most recent transformations in online culture, Coming of Age in Second Life remains the classic ethnography of virtual worlds.”
4. Communication in the Age of Virtual Reality edited by Frank Biocca and Mark R. Levy
“This volume addresses virtual reality (VR) — a tantalizing communication medium whose essence challenges our most deeply held notions of what communication is or can be. The editors have gathered an expert team of engineers, social scientists, and cultural theorists for the first extensive treatment of human communication in this exciting medium.”
5. Defying Reality: The Inside Story of the Virtual Reality Revolution by David Ewalt
“A fascinating exploration of the history, development, and future of virtual reality, a technology with world-changing potential, written by award-winning journalist and author David Ewalt, stemming from his 2015 Forbes cover story about the Oculus Rift and its creator Palmer Luckey.”
6. Entering the Metaverse: A Guide to Joining the Virtual Reality Industry by Liv Erickson
“Entering the Metaverse provides a high-level view of what it looks like to work in VR in its new wave by providing an overview of designing, developing, and understanding today’s VR devices, the tools available to create experiences, and advice on building a portfolio and community around immersive technology.”
7. How We’ll Listen Next: The Future of Music From Streaming to Virtual Reality by Cortney Harding
“In this collection of essays, Cortney Harding asks the big questions about the future of music consumption. Will we one day do all our listening as part of immersive VR experiences? Will the streaming music model collapse under the weight of too many competitors? Why do so many music startups fail to gain traction, and what’s behind some of the biggest music startups flops in recent history? Going beyond reporting on current music tech events, this book seeks to figure how we’ll all listen five, ten, and even twenty years down the road.”
8. Imagining an AR Future: A Glimpse into the Future of Augmented and Virtual Reality by Jason N Garland
“There are a few highlights that come to mind when imagining an AR world. Apps will run in parallel in a layered landscape, as opposed to the one-app-at-a-time app landscape that we are used to now. AR participants will find themselves with a much bigger workspace, no longer confined to the small screen of a smartphone that must also fit in their pocket, or a computer screen that can display only a few windows at once.”
9. The Age of Virtual Reality by Thomas Hohstadt
“Through provoked discoveries, engaging artistic journeys, and creative dialogues with the “language” of virtual reality, this book explores both the pre-digital history of VR and its sobering-yet inspiring-future. Readers will learn to test, discern, and ground the “evidence” of their experience. In “The Age of Virtual Reality,” they will discover where we’re going by confronting where VR is going. More important, they will engage the skills necessary to participate constructively and creatively in an increasingly “virtual” world-a world that demands their participation.”
10. The Fourth Transformation by shel israel and Robert Scoble
“Robert Scoble and Shel Israel have written this book in the hope that it will serve as a business thinker’s guidebook to the near-term future. They hope readers will walk away understanding the massive changes rapidly arising, so that they will navigate a successful course through the changes they will be facing sooner than they — or their competitors — may realize just yet.”
11. In touch with the future: The sense of touch from cognitive neuroscience to virtual reality by Alberto Gallace
“The book shows how the cognitive neuroscience approach to the study of touch can be applied to help improve the design of many real-world applications/products as well as to many of our everyday experiences, such as those related to the appreciation of food, marketing, packaging design, the development of enhanced sensory substitution systems, art, and man-machine interfaces.”
12. Infinite Reality: The Hidden Blueprint of Our Virtual Lives by Jim Blascovich and Jeremy Bailenson
“How achievable are the virtual experiences seen in The Matrix, Tron, and James Cameron’s Avatar? Do our brains know where “reality” ends and “virtual” begins? In Infinite Reality, Jim Blascovich and Jeremy Bailenson, two pioneering experts in the field of virtual reality, reveal how the human brain behaves in virtual environments and examine where radical new developments in digital technology will lead us in five, fifty, and five hundred years.”
13. Sex, Drugs and Tessellation: The truth about Virtual Reality, as revealed in the pages of CyberEdge Journal by Ben Delaney
“Did you ever wonder who built the first head-mounted display? Who first detailed a coherent theory of Cyberspace? Who wrote about cybersex and the challenges it creates? Who worried about addiction to VR? Did anyone ever cure cyber-sickness? From 1991 to 1996, CyberEdge Journal covered these stories and hundreds more.”
14. Surgical Scene Generation for Virtual Reality-Based Training in Medicine by Matthias Harders
“This reference book is for anyone involved in generating surgical training scenarios, as well as in VR-based training in general. It examines the main components required to define a scenario, in the context of surgical scene generation: Generation of the scene geometry; modelling of organ appearance; definition of biomechanical parameters.”
15. Oculus Rift in Action by Bradley Austin Davies
“Oculus Rift in Action introduces the powerful Oculus Rift headset and teaches you how to integrate its many features into 3D games and other virtual reality experiences. You’ll start by understanding the capabilities of the Rift hardware. Then you’ll follow interesting and instantly-relevant examples that walk you through programming real applications using the Oculus SDK.”
16. Virtual Reality Headsets — A Theoretical and Pragmatic Approach by Philippe Fuchs
“The purpose of virtual reality is to make possible a sensorimotor and cognitive activity for a user in a digitally created artificial world. Recent advances in computer technology leads to a new generation of VR devices such as VR headsets. Accordingly Virtual reality creates many new scientific challenges for researchers and professionals. The aim of this book, a manual meant for both designers and users of virtual reality, is to present the current state of knowledge on the use of VR headsets in the most complete way possible.”
17. Virtual Reality Analytics: How VR and AR Change Business Intelligence
“This dossier is co-authored by industry experts to allow you a first deeper look into the brave new world of Virtual Reality Analytics and beyond by Carsten Frisch, Chuck Gordon, Krzysztof Izdebski, Petr Legkov, Max Maschmann, Joerg Osarek, Alexander Scholz, Frank Sommerer, Kevin Williams.”
18. Virtual Reality Insider: Guidebook for the VR Industry
“VR Insider is an overview and guidebook for consumer virtual reality. For the industry veteran, it is the perfect book to stir up new ideas and see how the big picture fits together. For newcomers to VR, it is the fastest way to catch up on what is happening and figure out how to apply your skills. Affordable virtual reality hardware finally exists, and this book will help you create its content. Best of all, this book is readable in 1–2 hours!”
19. Virtual Reality: The Revolutionary Technology of Computer-Generated Artificial Worlds — and How It Promises to Transform Society by Howard Rheingold
“In Virtual Reality, Howard Rheingold takes us to the front lines of this revolutionary new technology that creates computer-generated worlds complete with the sensations of touch and motion, and explores its impact on everything from entertainment to particle physics.”
20. Virtual Reality (Opposing Viewpoints) by Susan Henneberg
Virtual reality might seem like the stuff of science fiction, but it has been in use in various forms since the 1950s. The technology is being developed for use in education, professional and military training, therapy, entertainment, and design. But is a simulated world a better world? Experts caution that virtual reality could be physically and emotionally debilitating. They predict that society could go into decline. Is this simply fear of progress, or is it something to take seriously? Readers will learn the hot-button issues associated with virtual reality and whether we should be excited or afraid of this incredible technology.
21. Virtual Reality: Representations in Contemporary Media by Melanie Chan
The idea of virtual realities has a long and complex historical trajectory, spanning from Plato’s concept of the cave and the simulacrum, to artistic styles such as Trompe L’oeil, and more recently developments in 3D film, television and gaming. However, this book will pay particular attention to the time between the 1980s to the 1990s when virtual reality and cyberspace were represented, particularly in fiction, as a wondrous technology that enabled transcendence from the limitations of physical embodiment.
22. Understanding Augmented Reality: Concepts and Applications by Alan B. Craig
“Understanding Augmented Reality addresses core conceptual issues regarding the medium of augmented reality as well as the technology required to support compelling augmented reality. By addressing AR as a medium at the conceptual level in addition to the technological level, the reader will learn to conceive of AR applications that are not limited by today’s technology. At the same time, ample examples are provided that show what is possible with current technology.”
23. Fundamentals of Wearable Computers and Augmented Reality by Woodrow Barfield
“Data will not help you if you can’t see it where you need it. Or can’t collect it where you need it. Upon these principles, wearable technology was born. And although smart watches and fitness trackers have become almost ubiquitous, with in-body sensors on the horizon, the future applications of wearable computers hold so much more. A trusted reference for almost 15 years, Fundamentals of Wearable Computers and Augmented Reality goes beyond smart clothing to explore user interface design issues specific to wearable tech and areas in which it can be applied.”
24. Mixed Reality: Merging Real and Virtual Worlds by Yuichi Ohta and Hideyuki Tamura
“Published as the proceedings of the first International Symposium on Mixed Reality and written by an interdisciplinary group of experts from all over the world in both industry and academia, this book provides an in-depth look at the current state of mixed reality technology and the scope of its use in entertainment and interactive arts, as well as in engineering and medical applications.”
25.Game Changer: How Augmented Reality Will Transform the World of Sports by Matthew Busel
“Augmented reality (AR) technology will soon shape the future of our society and specifically the world of sports. After countless interviews with some of the field’s most knowledgeable experts, Matthew Busel has distilled years of work and research to provide an easy-to-read primer on this emerging technology and its effect on the sports industry. Game Changer covers the startups and Fortune 500 companies poised to transform sports, delivering an inside look at the future of athletics. This cutting-edge book illuminates a path for athletes, coaches, broadcasters, advertisers, fans, and technologists looking for an edge.”
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