This document identifies ergonomic or human-systems issues and guidance for the development and use of systems involving immersive environments, augmented reality and virtual reality. This includes:

a)      

environments where the user is provided with a perception of being physically present in a virtually-created world;

b)      

environments where the user is represented virtually and can interact in a real-world environment;

c)       

environments involving artificial reality, augmented reality, virtual reality, mixed reality and similar simulated realities;

d)      

computer-generated environments where the user interacts with simulated objects in a manner similar to how the user would interact with the real-world counterparts of these objects.

This document is not an exploration of the philosophical, ethical or political issues surrounding the use of immersive environments.

This document limits its treatment of the technologies used to create immersive environments to focusing on their interactions with users and does not investigate other aspects of these technologies.

The target audience for this document is decision-makers, designers and engineers who would benefit from the consideration of human-systems issues of immersive environments. Futurists, researchers, technology developers, regulators and legislators could also find this document useful.