jimmosk@eniac.seas.upenn.edu (Jim J Moskowitz) (03/12/91)
What follows is a press release from the Franklin Institute Science Museum
in Philadelphia. We're going to be hosting Myron Krueger's VIDEOPLACE
exhibit, along with Myron himself, at the end of March. I'd like to post
this announcement on s.v-w, if I may. Thanks a lot!
-Jim Moskowitz
The Franklin Institute
STEP INTO AN ARTIFICIAL REALITY AT THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE SCIENCE MUSEUM
MARCH 22 -31, 1991
Philadelphia, PA March 8, 1991 -- If you're hip you call it
"virtual reality." The sci fi crowd named it "cyber-space."
Myron Krueger, who invented it, says it is "artificial
reality." What they are all talking about is a technology
that allows users to enter a computer-generated world. Few
people have ever tried it, but Alexander Singer, a Hollywood
director who is planning a movie about virtual reality says,
"It is like an out-of-body electronic experience."
For ten days beginning March 22, Myron Krueger's state-
of-the-artificial-reality-art computer system, called
Videoplace, will be installed in The Franklin Institute's
Futures Center. Dr. Krueger will be at the Institute until
Monday, March 25. After he leaves, staff members trained by
Krueger will demonstrate to visitors how we can begin to
cross the line that separates reality and the human
imagination.
In Myron Krueger's Videoplace you can interact with
objects, characters, and other people on a projection screen
in two dimensions, without extraneous equipment like gloves
and goggles. A camera "views" the participant against a
backlit area and projects him or her as a silhouette on the
screen. Videoplace's 50 variations on reality are then
generated by a computer system the size of a phone booth.
Krueger's breakthrough, described as "real-time perceptions
of and response to the actions of an unencumbered human" in
his U.S. Patent No. 4,843,568, is in getting a computer to
instantly respond to humans' gestures - without touching a
keyboard, mouse, joystick or other apparatus. What can you
do? Play with a graphic creature who seems alive and aware
of your presence. "Critter" will dance a jig on your head
or slide down your arm. Hang by a thread from a giant hand
or float across a computer graphic landscape suspended by
colorful balloons. Draw by simply using your finger to make
lines. In two-way interactions, people who may be in
different locations can work together as if they occupied
the very same space.
Myron Krueger has a Ph.D in computer science and has
been working for 20 years to eliminate the barriers between
human and computer interaction. While many of the
scientists working on virtual reality concentrate on
developing data gloves and video goggles to facilitate the
communication between the computerized virtual world and the
participant, Krueger disdains cumbersome head and hand gear.
For one thing, they fail to match his achievement of "real-
time" verisimilitude which is critical if virtual reality is
Artificial Reality, first published in 1983, and recently
updated and re-issued, began as his doctoral thesis. Today,
his laboratory is in a quiet corner of the natural history
museum at the University of Connecticut in Storrs.
Corporations, car designers, architects, and even
physicians are jumping on the virtual bandwagon. Krueger
has worked with AT&T and Mitsubishi on business applications
of his hardware and software. "Artificial reality," he
says, "is as inevitable a product of computers as color
television was of the first telegraph. "The Nintendo "Power
Glove," unveiled last Christmas, is the first popular
commercialization of virtual reality research. NASA's Ames
Research Center in California is working on a technique it
calls "telepresence" that will enable robots to make repairs
to orbiting space stations by mimicing human movements
relayed from Earth. At the University of Washington, they
are building virtual aircraft together with Boeing and
surgeons at Stanford are investigating using virtual reality
as a way to develop increasing delicate and complex
procedures. Like the computers and fax machines and
microwave ovens that we can't seem to live without today,
futurists believe that one hundred years from now entering
another reality just be another vital part of everyday life.
#
The Franklin Institute Science Museum is located at 20th
Street and Benjamin Franklin Parkway. Admission packages
start at $8.50 for adults and $7 for senior citizens and
children ages 4-11. Prices vary according to time of visit
and attractions attended. The Franklin Institute opens every
day at 9:30 a.m. The Futures Center and Omniverse Theater
are open every evening until 9 p.m. except Monday and
Tuesday. For program information, call (215) 448-1200.