GENOL%UCCMVSA.BITNET@uccvma.ucop.edu (Genevieve Engel) (05/29/91)
> > One of the largest classes of computer applications is database > management systems. As a database manager I'm interested in what > can virtual reality bring to database management and how will > virtual reality change how we conceptualize data. > Never occurred to me that a VR interface would affect the organization of the data itself. I would have expected, in the case of the database here for example, that our existing DBMS and files would remain in place, but the whole superstructure of code and screens that we now use for an interface would be replaced by a VR approach. I can see your point about this whole thing being difficult to accomplish with a relational database, but I'm not sure it's impossible. Depending on how you set things up, you could conceivably retain all the same records and get all the information for presenting them in your VR shell from somewhere else -- a separate database, one would hope, otherwise from the interface code itself (blaaarrghh). (The weird thing about our data is we don't own it so we're hesitant to go throwing lots of new stuff into the record. We don't even edit errors as it is. So if we wanted to keep VR-related information around we would have to keep it anywhere but in the record itself, probably.) I guess a great big problem for our database is that we have over 6 million records in it -- actually, we have several databases and that's the biggest one; the others also have multi-millions of records -- and we get up to 400 concurrent users on our system, so response time is already a problem. I just don't see any way the major portion of the VR interface could reside centrally with the database without bringing the system to a near halt. We would probably have to decentralize the user interface completely. I'm glad to see you asking these questions about the design of databases for use with VR systems, but if this really becomes an issue for database designers, then the even bigger issue will be how to fit existing databases into a VR shell. This is going to have to be pretty modular or it will never get anywhere. Disclaimer: I just goof around with the interface and stay completely uninvolved with the database itself, so a lot of this is sheer speculation. Genevieve Engel GENOL@UCCMVSA.BITNET MELVYL System User Services University of California
almquist@brahms.udel.edu (Squish) (05/30/91)
VR will change a lot of things. Most profoundly touched will be the way in which we visualize. Lets throw textual relational databases out the window and visualize our data and the relations/connections within. A good example of the potential (and perhaps a potential way of implementing) would be to look at the work being done on CYC. CYC is a large scaled, knowledge database system (some refer to it as a monsterous database, others expert system, and others still a sort of knowledge network - like semantic nets). There have been, I believe, two books about this project and work accomplished in addition to many technical articles. In order to build this large knowledge system (we're talking millions+ of facts) they have created an interesting way to visualize data and the links within. To my knowledge, this is the most far reaching project currently in existence that may bring insight and ideas. If you have problems finding the book(s) I can post further info. - Mike Almquist
lamont@convex.com (Bradley Lamont) (05/31/91)
An interesting possible implementation is presented in the book Neuromancer and the other books in the series. It defines an electronic Cyber-Matrix where all the data would reside. This data would be in essence another world. Take a look at the books. They show an interesting way to represent abstact data in physical terms. Later, Brad Lamont