hlr@well.sf.ca.us (Howard Rheingold) (03/03/90)
As a company currently writing portable software to support VR (realtime 3-d) applications on a wide variety of standard platforms, we're very interested in hearing about what both developers and end users would like (and think is feasible in the short term) in this new medium. To stimulate discussion, here's our list of VR applications. Beyond the questions of "what's it good for" we are also interested in hearing about your requirements, in areas such as: - minimum acceptable scene complexity (polygons) - desired frame rate (6, 30, 60??) - display resolution requirements (for what are current LCD screens good enough) - what is the threshold of affordability of software and hardware? -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Applications of Virtual Reality Copyright 1990 Sense8 Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Permission is given to distribute this material in whole or in part, provided this notice is retained with the material. Architectural visualization The architectural design profession has a need to visualize the interior and exterior 3-d form of buildings before they are constructed. Today's computer rendering techniques and precomputed animations provide only limited visualization capabilities, and scale models are expensive, laborious to construct, and useful primarily for previewing exteriors. A head-mounted display used with realtime 3-d graphics offers unparalleled flexibility in previewing all aspects of a design directly from its CAD database. Mechanical design Many CAD users find the 3-d drafting features of design packages difficult to use, primarily because of the depth ambiguity of 3-d models when projected onto 2-d CRT screens. Successful use of 3-d features often involves extensive training. Using stereo glasses or a head-mounted display driven by graphics boards of sufficient performance to provide motion parallax, the eye-hand coordination and real world experience of working in 3-d can be brought to bear on problems of positioning and interference checking. Medical diagnosis, training, and therapy Newer forms of medical diagnostic data such as MRI and tomography are 3-d. Once a surface model is constructed, presentation in VR can assist a physician in comprehension of the data. A "surgery simulator" could be constructed in which manipulation of an instrumented virtual scalpel affects a tissue model. A VR application for physical therapy might involve modification of physical constants such as gravity or elasticity to provide tasks of graded difficulty. Telepresence and Telerobotics When the displayed world is not entirely synthetic but consists of video imagery from a remote location, VR becomes telepresence. In telerobotics, movements of the user's body are sensed and effect changes at the remote location. Much of the interface hardware and software can be shared between pure VR and telerobotic applications. Advertising, marketing, and market simulation Merchandising and test-marketing in virtual spaces is already beginning to occur, for example with video display stands. The consumer's remote shopping experience could be heightened by stereoscopic display and the ability to virtually pick up the product and look at it from all angles. Military For the presentation of complex data in a comprehensible manner, use of a VR presentation to emphasize the significant aspects is appropriate. A videogame style of interface may be the most practical control panel for the cockpit of the future. Chemistry - Molecular modelling Synthetic chemistry requires accurate visualization of 3-d molecular form. The dynamic viewpoint change and stereopsis provided by a head mounted display allows this. Inter-molecular forces can be experienced with feedback devices (as is currently done at UNC, Chapel Hill). Entertainment The arcade industry may be the first to popularize VR, which is suited to the creation of many individual and multi-player gaming situations. Hardware cost of a wireframe 3-d VR system is within the under $15,000 limit suitable for arcade videogames today. As display and sensor technologies mature, one would expect to see VR games appear on the consumer market, perhaps by Christmas of 1992. Even text-based adventure style games tend to become socially rich through interpersonal interaction. The simulacrum of "being there" through VR should heighten this. Art VR is a new and very flexible medium for the creation of a number of art forms: dynamic sculpture, participatory theatre. It could be the basis for a new interactive performance medium, and is suitable for gallery installations. Education/Research Training is an enormous industry. In many cases, such as those where the actual equipment is too expensive, dangerous, or scarce to use, training may be effectively accomplished in VR. Use of this interactive medium should be more effective than the more passive video medium now popularly applied. Visualization and interactive experimentation is possible for physics and chemistry, with the virtual world an ideal laboratory in which parameters can be varied independently. A headmounted display is also a suitably controlled environment for experimental psychology. Experiential learning as provided in museums for the study of history or foreign cultures may be undertaken in the first person by exhibits implemented on a VR platform. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Caveat: Everyone at Sense8 is currently *really busy* writing code. We are very interested in receiving email on the subject of VR applications, and just generally stimulating thought about VR, but will likely not be able to immediately reply or discuss the issues in much detail. Also, we are not at present able to discuss our research or product plans. - Eric Gullichsen Sense8 Corporation uunet!acad!fire!egullich or well!fire!egullich
pezely@cis.udel.edu (102SMI) (03/15/90)
In article <2375@milton.acs.washington.edu> jeffj@cbnewsm.att.com writes: >Daniel; > I was wondering what you are going to do your VR engine on? I heard >that it is possible to do it on a PC (probably not well 8-) ) with a >specialized video boards at 5 frames a second. Is this what you are >looking at? Hopefully I will be able to do the same thing down the road. >Thanks for any info! > > Jeff Jones For the compute engine, I was going to use Suns (Sun 3's and SparcStations). Since just one machine is not powerful enough, I was going to implement a distributed processing system. At UDel, we have lots of machines which can be used. The time of day/night might be restricted, but I'm not kepting normal hours anyway. For the display machine, it will be a sparcstation initially. (When's the sparcstation-2, -3 coming out...?) Eventually, I'd like to port this to a 486 and/or an 040 machine. There are a few IRIS's around campus, so... maybe. The evolution of the project is: a modified (for lack of a better term) CAD system, distributed/multiuser CAD, rendering system, simulator, VR system. The language will be C++, and I will make this as modular and atomic as possible. (Send mail only if you disagree or wish to flame.) I have access to gnu's g++ and the PC zortech c++ compiler, so I'll try to make most of the code compatible across a few platforms. For *my* needs as an undergraduate, the development of the tools and libraries is more important than the final application. The app will be improved upon in grad school or with my future employer (AutoDesk would be nice... (-: ), whichever route I decide to go. -Daniel -- Daniel Pezely <pezely@udel.edu> (NSFnet) 728 Bent Ln, Newark, DE 19711 Comp Sci Lab, 102 Smith Hall, U of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716; 302/451-6339