A virtual environment system includes an acoustic localizer for detecting the location of sound sources in a local environment, a user data I/O device, a remote data I/O device in a remote world, and a system controller in data communication with the acoustic localizer, user data I/O device and remote data I/O device. Control of the remote data I/O device within the remote world is commanded by the system controller in response to movements of a user as detected by the acoustic localizer, and data acquired from the remote world by the remote data I/O device is transmitted to the user.