virtualtophysical

Virtualtophysical is an emerging interdisciplinary field that examines how physical properties, behaviors, and laws are represented, transformed, and experienced within digitally simulated environments. It explores the boundaries between simulated physics and real-world physics, including how users perceive motion, forces, friction, and material properties in virtual contexts.

The term blends virtual with physical and physics, signaling a focus on the translation between virtual models and tangible phenomena. Researchers draw on computer graphics, computational physics, cognitive science, and human–computer interaction to study fidelity, stability, and perceptual plausibility of virtual physics. They employ calibration against real-world measurements, validation experiments, and digital twin concepts to link simulations with actual systems. Common tools include physics engines, real-time rendering, VR/AR hardware, and motion capture.

Applications span engineering and product development, where virtualtophysical informs virtual prototyping and performance verification; training and simulation, where realistic physical tasks are practiced safely; robotics, aiding sim-to-real transfer and controller design; architecture and urban planning, for interactive testing of material behavior under different conditions; and entertainment, enhancing realism in virtual worlds and interactive experiences.

Challenges include balancing computational cost with physical accuracy, ensuring perceptual realism aligns with objective measurements, and developing standards for validation and reproducibility. Ongoing research investigates multi-physics coupling, perceptual metrics, and methods to bridge virtual representations with diverse real-world modalities.

See also computational physics, digital twin, virtual reality, physics engines, haptics.