**5. Metaphors for systems based on virtual reality**

Virtual reality environments were initially used for aviation and space simulation training systems. They gained widespread use in entertainment systems and computer games. They are also used in medicine and psychology for therapeutic purposes. We are interested in virtual reality as a basis for computer visualization systems development. The imagery used in virtual reality systems can be adopted from the imagery inherent to a certain computer model. However, for software visualization, systems based on virtual reality metaphors are typically used. Such systems can benefit from (or even require) fairy tale features described above. In this respect, we are interested in interface metaphors which are applied in virtual reality.

metaphor. Note that the use of the time machine metaphor does not require any knowledge of the source (science fiction novels). We have developed a prototype of a visualization component for a parallel process control and representation system. This system can be used for debugging parallel programs. We use 3D imagery to visualize processes. Processes are represented by color cylinders connected with each other by thin "threads" (similarly to visual representations in the VisuaLinda system [32]). Globules representing data move along these threads. The states of processes are depicted by colors. A user may navigate along the time axis and change the processes'states. The time machine metaphor may be considered similar to a traditional record player metaphor. However, in the case of a time machine, there is a possibility of event changes described by the well-known butterfly effect metaphor, which is connected with the situation when a small change of initial

*Sources of Computer Metaphors for Visualization and Human-Computer Interaction*

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.89973*

A time machine metaphor seemed promising for software visualization of parallel computing. However, after analyzing its implementation, this impression may change. In this case further development of fully fledged debugging and visualization facilities for parallel programs is needed, for example, trapping events, online visualization, and other tools similar to those implemented in the debuggers of the 1990s, such as [33, 34]. These metaphors may also be applied in the systems of

**7. Visualization texts: From interactive comics to motion pictures**

Present-day comics and manga may be described in terms of visual texts. You can describe rich and complex languages of pictorial art based on natural imagery, but in this case, the task of a detailed language description is rather complex and often uncertain. One can also describe complex and weakly formalizable dynamic languages of cinema and animation. Similarly, one can define graphical texts associated with computer visualization. The examples of those visualization texts are:

• Dynamic, logically related shot changes with the inclusion of interaction

The goal of visualization is to leverage the existing scientific methods by providing new scientific insight into visual methods. Virtual reality environments are actively used to practice leaping into a new quality of cognitive visualization. Virtual environments are characterized by such features as egocentric points of view and user-centered, often multisensory, interactions. Virtual reality environments are dynamic, rather than static. The user's experience of the virtual world may combine a visual channel with auditory or haptic feedback. Immersion and sense of presence (the feeling of "being there") are factors which define virtual reality. The sense of presence distinguishes virtual reality from "traditional" 3D computer graphics. Users "immersed" in virtual reality control the graphics output. Users may also participate in adaptive control of the application system. The essence of virtual reality is in the interaction between the user and the virtual environment. The interpretation principle for graphical texts was formulated as follows: interpretation of such texts is possible only if the "readers" of the text have external information.

conditions causes significant and often unpredictable effects.

software visualization based on virtual reality [31].

• Animations also with the inclusion of interaction

**with immersion**

• Isolated displays

**99**

The role of interface metaphor is to promote the best understanding of interaction semantics and to determine the visual representation of dialog objects and a set of user manipulations with them. A metaphor, considered as a basis of the sign system, in turn underlies a dialog language. A user articulates the problem with the help of this language and achieves solution from the computer. The metaphor helps to describe abstraction and provide structural understanding of a new applied area but also assigns dialog [visual] language objects. Interface metaphors may be considered a special case of scientific metaphor used for generating new or additional senses to understand new facts and phenomena.

Virtual reality is characterized by a set of specific states, above all, presence, involving a human perceiving themselves inside a virtual environment with various features. Due to experiencing presence, a person finds themselves in situations similar to those of fairy tales and science fiction, even if no magic metaphors were applied (e.g., finding oneself inside a brain or a molecule). In such conditions, the use of magic features described above is reasonable, both for navigation and movement in a virtual environment and for interaction with the objects of this environment.

A project of a virtual environment designed for modeling visual search in large space may use either emerging magic signs or talking objects to facilitate user navigation. In virtual reality systems, a magic wand may be useful as an interface metaphor to point at objects and interact with them. The idea of teleportation is interesting in virtual reality systems for movement organization, as it provides the possibility of instant movement to a new virtual scene.
