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Proteus, the mythical sea god who could alter his appearance at will, embodies one of the promises of online games: the ability to reinvent oneself. Yet inhabitants of virtual worlds rarely achieve this liberty, game researcher Nick Yee contends. Though online games evoke freedom and escapism, Yee shows that virtual spaces perpetuate social norms and stereotypes from the offline world, transform play into labor, and inspire racial scapegoating and superstitious thinking. And the change that does occur is often out of our control and effected by unparalleled-but rarely recognized-tools for controlling what players think and how they behave. Using player surveys, psychological experiments, and in-game data, Yee breaks down misconceptions about who plays fantasy games and the extent to which the online and offline worlds operate separately. With a wealth of entertaining and provocative examples, he explains what virtual worlds are about and why they matter, not only for entertainment but also for business and education. He uses gaming as a lens through which to examine the pressing question of what it means to be human in a digital world. His thought-provoking book is an invitation to think more deeply about virtual worlds and what they reveal to us about ourselves.

Understanding Augmented Reality addresses the elements that are required to create augmented reality experiences. The technology that supports augmented reality will come and go, evolve and change. The underlying principles for creating exciting, useful augmented reality experiences are timeless. Augmented reality designed from a purely technological perspective will lead to an AR experience that is novel and fun for one-time consumption - but is no more than a toy. Imagine a filmmaking book that discussed cameras and special effects software, but ignored cinematography and storytelling! In order to create compelling augmented reality experiences that stand the test of time and cause the participant in the AR experience to focus on the content of the experience - rather than the technology - one must consider how to maximally exploit the affordances of the medium. 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. Explore the different techniques, technologies and approaches used in developing AR applications Learn from the author's deep experience in virtual reality and augmented reality applications to succeed right off the bat, and avoid many of the traps that catch new developers and users of augmented reality experiences Some AR examples can be experienced from within the book using downloadable software

With the explosive growth in mobile phone usage and rapid rise in search engine technologies over the last decade, augmented reality (AR) is poised to be one of this decade's most disruptive technologies, as the information that is constantly flowing around us is brought into view, in real-time, through augmented reality. In this cutting-edge book, the authors outline and discuss never-before-published information about augmented reality and its capabilities. With coverage of mobile, desktop, developers, security, challenges, and gaming, this book gives you a comprehensive understanding of what augmented reality is, what it can do, what is in store for the future and most importantly: how to benefit from using AR in our lives and careers. Educates readers how best to use augmented reality regarless of industryProvides an in-depth understanding of AR and ideas ranging from new business applications to new crime fighting methods Includes actual examples and case studies from both private and government applications

haXe is the universal programming language that is completely cross-platform and provides a standard library that remains the same – regardless of platform. haXe 2 Beginner's Guide will get you up and running with this exciting language and will guide you through its features in the easiest way possible. haXe has filled the gap in creating multi-platform applications, and haXe 2 Beginner's Guide will fill the gap in learning all you need to know about haXe – even if it's the first time you have heard of it. This book will enable you to fully realize haXe's potential for translating code from a haXe program into different languages. Start with learning how to install haXe, work your way up to templating, and finally learn exactly how to make the same code work for multiple platforms. In between, find heaps of tricks and techniques and work with haXe's typing system. Learn about inheritance, go from learning what a parameter is to creating your own parameterized classes, and find out what the fuss is all about regarding the dynamic type. By the time you are done with this book, you'll find yourself writing efficient haXe code for multiple platforms in less time than you can say \"compatible\".

Virtual reality is in the news and in the movies, on TV and in the air. Why is the technology-or the idea-so prevalent precisely now? What does it mean-what does it do-to us? Digital Sensations looks closely at the ways representational forms generated by communication technologies-especially digital and optical virtual technologies-affect the “lived” world. Ken Hillis’s penetrating perspective on the cultural power of place and space broadens our view of the interplay between social relations and technology.

A unique manual providing current virtual reality oncepts and technologies, including mathematics and modelling techniques, allowing the reader to formalize, conceptualize and construct a virtual reality project from original thought to application.

A step-by-step guide to identifying and defending against attacks on the virtual environment As more and more data is moved into virtual environments the need to secure them becomes increasingly important. Useful for service providers as well as enterprise and small business IT professionals the book offers a broad look across virtualization used in various industries as well as a narrow view of vulnerabilities unique to virtual environments. A companion DVD is included with recipes and testing scripts. Examines the difference in a virtual model versus traditional computing models and the appropriate technology and procedures to defend it from attack Dissects and exposes attacks targeted at the virtual environment and the steps necessary for defense Covers information security in virtual environments: building a virtual attack lab, finding leaks, getting a side-channel, denying or compromising services, abusing the hypervisor, forcing an interception, and spreading infestations Accompanying DVD includes hands-on examples and code This how-to guide arms IT managers, vendors, and architects of virtual environments with the tools they need to protect against common threats.

VMware vCloud Director Cookbook will adopt a Cookbook-based approach. Packed with illustrations and programming examples, this book explains the simple as well as the complex recipes in an easy-to-understand language.\"VMware vCloud Director Cookbook\" is aimed at system administrators and technical architects moving from a virtualized environment to cloud environments. Familiarity with cloud computing platforms and some knowledge of virtualization and managing cloud environments is expected.

haXe is a new programming language whose features are mainly coming from object-oriented languages such as Java. Other features are taken from more dynamic Scripting languages as well as from Functional languages. It is a language, a complier, and a framework of classes designed to help developers write clean code. It opens up the world of application development and reduces the learning curve while minimizing potential roadblocks. It is difficult to write a book on haXe because there are so many possibilities that the language can provide. It is able to target three platforms: JavaScript, Flash, and Neko. It opens a lot of doors for web developers. The combination of these different technologies makes it possible to create things today that were hard to imagine yesterday. haXe makes it possible to develop applications targeting multiple platforms very quickly. Neko is a cross-platform virtual machine and it acts as one of the targets of the haXe complier. It is lightweight, fast, and flexible. It can be embedded and requires a small footprint that makes it practically invisible. When combined with haXe, it can open a lot of doors to pure web development (e.g., real-time servers and console and desktop applications). This book is for web developers who would like to work with a unified environment while at the same time reducing the number of languages required to produce a single software solution. Although you don't have to be a veteran programmer to utilize the information in this book, it helps if you have already programmed in ActionScript, Java, or another ECMA standard language. The material in this book is split into three parts based on the content that each part is discussing. The first part of the book focuses mainly on the basics of the haXe programming language. Details are given about the language structure, standard libraries, and programming practices. If you are an experienced haXe programmer you can probably skip this section. Those who are familiar with programming but are new to haXe can go through the first section easily and look mainly at the code examples and tables that detail the classes and commands required to develop in haXe. The second part of the book covers the practical uses of haXe, including the production of Flash movies and dynamic content for websites. This part is useful to programmers of any skill level. This section also contains references to platform-specific classes defined in the standard library (the core framework that comes with the haXe base installation). The third part of the book is dedicated to the advanced developer who wants to use haXe for all it has to offer. It also discusses how to extend haXe with existing libraries or how to use haXe outside of the conventional web environment. In order to use this book you need to have a computer that operates on Windows, Linux, or either type of Apple Macintosh. All of the tools described in the book are open source and are available for download on the internet (for free!). Franco Ponticelli graduated with a degree in architecture with a specialization in industrial design. Within the Information Technology area, he was involved in many different activities ranging from 3D Computer Graphics to software development. He discovered haXe through his research to find the perfect development environment. Lee-McColl Sylvester is an expert in ActionScript developing and is knowledge about in systems integrations. He studied visual communications and supplemented his career by specializing in advanced graphical interface development and information management systems.