Mersivity: XRSC (eXtended Reality Spatial Computing) for Health, Well-Being, and Accessibility (Preprint)

Abstract

UNSTRUCTURED This paper provides an overview of Mersivity, also known as Vironmentalism or XRSC (eXtended Reality Spatial Computing) with applications in health, well-being, and accessibility. There is a growing interest in technologies that are ’mersive (immersive, submersive, or supermersive), i.e. technologies that encapsulate or enclose or surround us. Examples include “wearables”, immersive VR (Virtual Reality), and electric vehicles such as self-driving cars, vessels, and personal aircraft (ABC = Aircraft, Boats, Cars). It is widely agreed that there is a risk or danger of asymmetry of immersive technologies that can separate us, harmfully, from our surroundings. In order to support human health, well-being, and accessibility, it is essential that we can ’merse any of these technologies that ’merse us. If one can’t go for a hike in the forest or along the beach (and maybe go for a swim as well) with the technologies that claim to help us, then those technologies are actually harming us. Thus an important element of Mersivity is a connection to the physical world = the world of “atoms” = nature = the environment = sustainability = our surroundings. Mersivity therefore is at the nexus of the physical (nature/sustainability/environment), virtual, and social worlds. In this paper we provide a historical perspective on XR+SC, from the early spatial computers of the 1970s, the introduction of XR=eXtended Reality in 1991, and leading up to the latest trends such as the “Freehicle” = vehicle of freedom for those with disabilities. See Fig 1.