richard@ucf-cs.ucf.edu (12/05/89)
Virtual Reality at the University of Central Florida (UCF) Michael Moshell (moshell@ucf-cs.ucf.edu) Richard Dunn-Roberts (richard@ucf-cs.ucf.edu) 1 December 1989 UCF hosts the Institute for Simulation and Training (IST) which presently has around 70 employees and specializes in technology (e.g. simulators) for training; most of our customers are military. Michael Moshell (assoc. prof., UCF Computer Science) has organized the Visual Systems Laboratory (VSL) at IST to explore issues in visual database construction for realtime simulators. Richard Dunn-Roberts is VSL's first full-time employee (of 3). VSL has IRIS and Sun workstations, and will receive (12/89) an Evans & Sutherland ESIG-500 two channel image generator. We also use the IGs in IST's other labs, to wit: IST's Networking & Communications Laboratory (NCL) has two SIMNET installations. SIMNET is a DoD project to construct low-cost simulators for M-1 tanks, A-10 aircraft, etc. and network them together for largescale team training. The current contract with BBN calls for about 235 SIMNET units. A typical (e.g. the M-1) SIMNET unit has 8 video channels (3 for driver, 3 for commander, 1 each for gunner & loader) of 320 x 128 x 15 hz video, looking into a database of 1600 square km of Fort Knox, KY. Presently about 60 SIMNETS are online at Ft. Knox, and all 60 are networked; you can see the other tanks (and shoot them and be shot by them!) from your tank, aircraft, etc. Long-haul demos have been conducted, and it is intended to field the majority of the SIMNET units in Europe, and to fight combined trans-Atlantic training exercises via telecommunications link. UCF's link into the net is on order. That's a pretty heavy-duty virtual reality, all designed to develop team skills so as to win WW III in central Europe. We may have to find other uses for it, as things develop. Who knows, maybe WW III will happen in the simulators. Seriously, we are interested in all of the aspects of virtual reality that are mentioned in your call for a new newsgroup, as well as some that you did not. Has anyone considered deliberate synesthesia? VSL has a pending Army contract to explore "head-out-the-hatch" extensions to SIMNET. We plan to buy some EyePhones, hook them up to our SIMNETS and our Irises (and later to the ESIG), and evaluate them for training effectiveness. We also have a host of other intended applications for the tools, of course. We're working with the UCF Film Program to teach a cadre of film-makers how to use software tools such as ElectroGIG and NeoVisuals; and developing ideas on how to use the ESIG for real-time rough drafting of cartoons. We will move into interactive fiction of various sorts, when the hardware is here. This looks to be the fun goal of virtual reality. Care to spend an hour on the holodeck, anyone? We'd be happy to show any of you SIMNET when you're in the Central Florida area; and will circulate ideas about how its networking technology can be used to make your virtual reality a part of ours, via relatively low-bandwidth channels such as the in-place NSFnet. (56 kbaud is plenty for the Army's SIMNET WW III world; we might get by with less for small spaces.) Maybe this newsgroup can meet in cyber-space, face to face, as it were. We've noticed that most of the discussion about this newsgroup centers on what we should name it. We're interested in the information that will be exchanged on this newsgroup, and feel the name is really a secondary matter. We'd participate if it ends up being named aaa.aaa or zzz.aaa. We do believe that there are benefits to be gained from moderation (reduction of argumentum ad hominem, etc.). That's why we think a new newsgroup is appropriate. At the same time, there needs to be a newsgroup with complete freedom. alt.cyberpunk works fine for this. Whatever you decide, please let us know where we can join in the conversation. We look forward to hearing from the Group and getting to know you-all. Michael M; Richard D-R.