From: frerichs@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (David J Frerichs)
Subject: Re: Consumer Markets for VR
Date: 11 Dec 90 16:27:29 GMT
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana



I am in no way advocating the slowdown of VR research... I would (and am)
developing it for it's own sake.

My question has to do with motivating the general consumers...
with all the hype about VR in the media, promising a new age... there has been
alot of talk about 5 - 20 years down the road.  What about now?  The technology
is in our hands to produce a VR setup that is lowcost, lowend but very usable.
Compare it to the advent of the mac 512K... it is nothing compared to a 
mac IIfx but it was a very slick piece, especially for it's time.  But as with
the original mac, no one really knows what to do with a lowend VR system.
I am looking for the Desktop Publishing of VR.  DTP was almost unheard of until
someone thought of using a mac for it... now it is a mainstay of the industry.

We need some similar idea for lowend VR.
Virtual vactaions to real spots wouldn't be satifying on the first systems to
come out.  Think of it this way.  Would you want to edit a 24bit color scan
on a Mac Classic?  Not if you don't want it done half assed.

The education idea is a good one, teach geometry, trig, volume integrations
using VR.  You don't need alot of fine visual detail for those sorts of things.
More ideas like that are what would seem to be appropriate.

[dfRERICHS
 University of Illinois, Urbana         Designing VR systems that work...
 Dept. of Computer Engineering
 IEEE/SigGraph                          Looking for cyberspace?
 frerichs@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu              Well stop your snivelin', son,
 frerichs@well.sf.ca.us                 you've been in here all along!     ]
-- 
[dfRERICHS
 University of Illinois, Urbana         Designing VR systems that work...
 Dept. of Computer Engineering
 IEEE/SigGraph                          Looking for cyberspace?