thinman@cup.portal.com (09/01/90)
Hello- I'm hunting for sources for the following gizmos: Breath Control: there must be a MIDI synth breath-control unit, but quadraplegics use computers with these, too, so there may be another system (control + PC card?) around. Stereo LCD goggles: these have separately-controlled left and right lenses. You look through them at a standard picture tube, and which lens is opaque or transparent is synchronized with refreshing the screen from the left or right stereo screen buffer. VPL's goggle helmet is a little pricy (>$7000) for home experimentation. Thanks, Lance Norskog "Just point your finger in the direction you wish to move, and blow"
lishka@uwslh.slh.wisc.edu (a.k.a. Chri) (09/17/90)
yamauchi@heron.cs.rochester.edu (Brian Yamauchi) writes: >In article <9008311903.1.139@cup.portal.com>, thinman@cup.portal.com writes: >> >> Stereo LCD goggles: these have separately-controlled left and right lenses. >> [...] VPL's goggle helmet >> is a little pricy (>$7000) for home experimentation. >It seems like it should be possible to make an inexpensive version of >VPL's Eyephones without the Polhemus tracker -- i.e. stereo screens + >optics -- for the price of, say, two color Sony Watchmans plus a good >pair of binoculars (~$600? altogether). Why bother? Without the motion tracker, you are simply staring at two screens in front of your eyes. And the screens are likely to have less resolution than standard monitors. Sure, the screens follow you when you move your head, but without the software tracking this motion, I don't see much of an advantage (i.e. you move your head and the virtual landscape does *not* move with you). As "thinman" mentioned above, stereo LCD goggles provide a very nice solution. They also have two advantages that potential consumer eyephones don't have: (a) better resolution and (b) availability. I can go out and buy a pair of LCD goggles for my Amiga (for under $100, I believe) *RIGHT*NOW*! >It seems to me that this would be well within the price range for >hobbyists. Of course, you would lose the gaze control ability of the >Eyephones, but at least you would have a 3D full field-of-view display >which you could experiment with. Check out LCD goggles. I've tried them out at a show (a few years ago now), and they do a nice job of providing the same sort of 3D display as your consumer eyephone idea. They aren't even that expensive. Of course you will still need a monitor, a computer, and software to drive the display, but you would need most of this with consumer eyephones. Who knows? With a pair of LCD goggles, a Mattel PowerGlove, some earphones, a spiffy home computer (Amiga 3000, anyone?), and a little creative hacking, a nice little home virtual reality could be had right now! -- Christopher Lishka 608-262-4485 "Dad, don't give in to mob mentality!" Wisconsin State Lab. of Hygiene -- Bart Simpson lishka@uwslh.slh.wisc.edu "I'm not, Son. I'm jumping on the bandwagon." uunet!uwvax!uwslh!lishka -- Homer Simpson