hibbett@prcs3.decnet.philips.be (05/02/91)
Bill writes... > INTO THE 21ST CENTURY >Keywords: seminar, Doug Engelbart >Message-ID: <1991Apr22.180049.23440@informix.com> >Lines: 256 > [Vast amounts of Engelbart trumpet blowing removed] > >REGISTRATION: > > $900 rcvd by Jun 4, $975 after Jun 4, includes continental break- > fast, lunch, & refreshments Tue/Wed/Thu, reception & dinner > Tue/Wed, plus all seminar materials. Refund requests must be made > by Jun 4. > Wow! Brilliant advert! I'll buy one! Bob - How much does sci.virtual_worlds charge for adverts? Seriously though, I was a bit peeved. If I want ads, I'll buy Byte. I thought this news group was for comment, and find the link between virtual_worlds and this money making exercise a bit tenuous. Am I a minority? If so, I'll stop complaining. Mike. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mike Hibbett | Philips Radio Communication Systems Ltd Tel: INT + 44 223 358985 Ext.3310 | St Andrews Road, Cambridge, CB4 1DP, England ----------------------------------+--------------------------------------------- Philips DECnet: PRCS3::HIBBETT | EUnet: hibbett@prcs3.decnet.philips.be -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- [THE MODERATOR RESPONDS: Mike's complaint is in the minority but deserves consideration nonetheless. Why post a commercial announcement in the newsgroups? There are several reasons which persuaded me to post this one. [First, much of what is discussed here is commercial. As this is a general newsgroup and not an academic cloister, I feel it is valid to hear what is going on in the professional and business worlds, as well as in the academic and corporate laboratories. In fact, from the reports we are seeing posted, which may give a distorted impression, that is where most of the action is. [Second, any activity of Doug Englebart, in my opinion, merits the attention of the community. It certainly ranks up there with the doings of Timothy Leary, another significant contributor to the lore of our field. Englebart is the Father of Interactivity. How he blows his horn is as interesting to me as the fact that he does it at all. Also, if you look through the propaganda, you will find many interesting intellectual tidbits indicative of Englebart's current thinking. That's worth the read. [Third, on the matter of cost: the SRI seminar taking place later this year, if one signs up for the optional VR training, almost equals the Englebart session in cost, yet it raised no objections. Ours is a pricey field because the level of interest is so high. Englebart commands a high price because he's shown what he can do. [Fourth, if the level of promotion gets turned up too high, there's always the k command to dispatch the unworthy messenger! [My policy will be to permit and encourage the posting of materials that portray progress in our field or in cognate fields. Unless there is an obvious scam being perpetrated or an "advert" is strictly that and contains no substance of worth -- a difficult call, as students of the sociology of advertising will tell you, postings such as this one will continue. However, if they are long, I do request that they be so annotated in the Subject: header. [Finally, I should note that Englebart did not post the message to this newsgroup; I did. Now you know the reasons why. Comments are welcome. -- Bob Jacobson]
franza@cell (Bob Franza) (05/18/91)
Hi, A group of biologists/computational scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory are working together to build an advanced computational/ communication system for biological research. We follow developments in congress on NREN, HPC, etc. A few questions: 1. Do any of the members of congress involved in pertinent legislation receive email? If so, can you provide their email addresses. We would like to lobby electronically. 2. What specific info can we get on the demonstration that VPL Research presented to Senator Gore, et al., on virtual reality? Thank you in advance for any help you can give us. Regards, Bob Franza
hibbett@prcs3.decnet.philips.be (05/21/91)
>From: lance@motcsd.csd.mot.com (lance.norskog) >As for tracking, this Polhemus stuff is for the birds. It should >be easy to put a few ultrasonic or infrared transmitters in the >corners of the room, and place 2 receivers each on your head and hands. I dont know about infrared, but I have developed a simple system for detecting location and orientation of two objects (ie, head & hand) using ultra-sonics. It consists of 3 transmitters (in my case, fixed to a wall) and three receivers per object to give x-y-z and orientation. You are welcome to the circuits diagrams; They are very simple to build. Contact me if you'r interested. At the moment the system comprises of a master clock which provides the 40KHz signal to drive the transmitters, and a synchronous 5ms pulse every 30ms to enable each transmitter in turn. When a transmitter is enabled, 6 counters are enabled (1 for each receiver) running at 500KHz. Each counter stops when the coresponding receiver get the signal. When all 6 counters have stopped, the control system (a microcontroller) is informed that new time-of-flight values are available. This is then repeated for the other two transmitters. This information allows the control system to calculate x-y-z values for each receiver, and to determine the orientation of the object (The 3 receivers must, of course (IMHO), form a rightangled triangle). Reaching for a calculator, one finds that this system takes 30ms x 3 for each set of x-y-z values; This allows for only 11 samples to be made each second. Now, due to the inevitable jitter on the signal, it would be nice to take n samples and produce an average. If we took 5 samples per update, we will only be able to generate 2 updates every second. Not bad, but not good. Lance mentioned multi-frequency transducers. Does anyone know if alternatives to 40KHz transducers are available? ____ /\ /\ \ \ / \ / \/ \ \ \/_ \___ / \ \ \ -_ \____ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mike Hibbett Software engineer | Philips Radio Communication Systems Ltd Tel: INT + 44 223 358985 Ext.3310 | St Andrews Road, Cambridge, CB4 1DP, England ----------------------------------+--------------------------------------------- Philips DECnet: PRCS3::HIBBETT | EUnet: hibbett@prcs3.decnet.philips.be --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
B645ZAW@UTARLG.UTA.EDU (STEPHEN TICE) (05/29/91)
> From: galt@dsd.es.com (Greg Alt - Perp) > > [...] find a suitable low-cost > alternative to eyephones, we can finally get down to programming... Greg writes about the possibility of using an LCD tv, especially over an Eyephone. I see no problem if your willing to pan a document or close-up of a scene with your head vice your eyes. An inherent problem with tv's is their bandwidth, your just not going to get sufficient resolution for details. The Eyephone would seem to support a higher resolution. Now if your willing to pan with head motion, then a window onto an apparently oversize document should be do-able with the LCD. So now we have a virtual newspaper :-} Regards All __ Stephen T. __ (b645zaw@utarlg.uta.edu ) (life's a stage ... W.S.)