One of the most tantalizing ideas for the human imagination has always been virtual reality. Though it has yet to become as immersive or interactive as actual reality, it holds a facinating amount of promise, and seems to be one of the many directions that media will be headed in the 21st century.

If you'd like to check it out for yourself, Brown has its very own slice of the virtual world, the Virtual Environment Navigation Lab (VENLab), here on campus. Experiments are going on all the time; email vrparticipants [AT] yahoo [DOT] com if you want to participate in one and check it out.

Once inside, you'll see that the possibilities for technology like this seem almost limitless. Virtual historical reenactments, 3D news, even interactive documentaries all would be logical extensions of the technology as it evolves.

[Full disclosure alert: I work in the VENLab, and am presently in the midst of a thesis there. If you're feeling super awesome and want to help me out, my experiment is cleverly titled "BenMaze," and can be signed up for at the email address above.]