Virtuals

The general term Virtual interchangably refers to various technologies used to provide a 3-dimensional virtual experience to users, and those virtual experiences themselves.

Implementation

Stereoscopy

There are two primary realizations of the concept. The most commonly used form uses specialized displays mounted in front of the user's eyes to project high-resolution stereoscopic images, an approach commonly called External Stereoscopy Virtual or ESV. This requires precise optics and position-tracking to ensure the image feels natural. The ESV approach is the cheapest and can be relatively easily shared between multiple users with minor adjustments of the optics (automatic on many modern models) to match optical parameters of the user's eyes.
A variation of the head-mounted display approach, commonly called Internal Stereoscopy Virtual or ISV, uses corneal microdisplay implants to eliminate the need for an external display, though this causes issues with bleed through of real-world light in bright environments. This approach is commonly favored by people who use corneal microdisplay implants for other reasons already.

Direct Neural Virtual

The major drawback of Stereoscopy Virtual is that the experience is only audiovisual, meaning that the user is not fully fully immersed and cannot move their body as if they were in the Virtual. This led to the development of the experimental Direct Neural Virtual (DNV) technology, which uses cybernetics technology originally developed for use in treating paraplegy and similar conditions to reroute nerve signals and construct a full virtual environment, essentially connecting the user's brain to the Virtual controller instead of their body. While the base technology has been approved for medical use, DNV technology is not legally available in most UDSA jurisdictions. Despite this, some people choose to travel to areas where it is legal in order to undergo DNV implantation.

Applications

Virtuals are used for various purposes, most commonly for communication, education and entertainment.
ESV is sometimes offered as a service by so-called Virtual Salons, where users may pay a fee to use a small room with appropriate facilities for a limited time. While Virtual Salons are primarily intended for entertainment use, they are typically AN-connected to allow the download of externally hosted programs and can therefore also be used for Virtual communication.