ABOUT RESEARCH
Abstract Distance Education systems have been developed and put in avtual use throughout the world. The objectives are that high quality lectures can be shared among participants who are a different locations. In this system, lectures are sent to each site through the communication links while questions or comments are sent back to a teacher. We are, however, developing a more advanced platform for distance education. In this system, participants who are at different locations, in reality their images, are brought together through HyperReality(HR) in the Hyper World and can receive lectures as well as carry out experiments jointly. HR plays an important role to achieve this system. HR is a new concept of merging Physical Reality and Virtual reality. In this paper, VR and HR are described and HyperClass is introduced. HyperClass HyperClass is a class where a teacher and students, in reality their images, are brought together through the communication network, heve lectures and do cooperative work as if they were gathered in a same place. The conventional video conference system provides a video conferencing, not a cooperative work. However Hyper- Class provides not only a conferencing but a cooperative work. In the HyperClass, a 3D virtual space is created and then viewers can enter into and handle a virtual object by hand gestures, mouses and keyboards. Each peaple there can handle it jointly.It is not necessary for them to get together actually. They can have an experiment cooperati- vely while they are at different places.
