From: bcsaic!chrise@cs.washington.edu (Chris Esposito)
Subject: Re: 3-D Sound imaging systems (a clarification)
Date: 6 Dec 91 21:31:58 GMT
Organization: Boeing Research & Technology



Alan Wexelblatt writes...

>By "Alan" I assume you're talking about my comments on Focal Point.  I also
>have not had the chance to use them side-by-side on the same application,
>but I did go from the Boeing VR setup (using a VPL/Convolvatron rig) to the
>Focal Point setup at CHI'91's Interactive Experience.
>
>The Focal Point demo may have sounded better because it had only sound so
>there were not as many distractions.  But I liked the fact that I could hear
>the sound of a chopper taking off and the sound appeared to "rise" from my
>point of hearing.  By contrast, the virtual airplane in the Boeing demo had
>engine sounds that I could locate to the left and right, but didn't appear
>to move "down" when I flew my viewpoint above the aircraft.

Alan-
	just a small point, for accuracy's sake.  While 3D sound is something
we very much wanted to add to our demo, Boeing didn't have a convolvatron at
that time, and I don't think HITL had one either, so the only helicopter sounds
in the demo were virtual virtual reality. Of course, had we sold just one more 
747-300, we could have bought everyone in the company a convolvatron, but 
that's a different story :-).

"You don't want to get locked into Open Systems"  - anonymous IBM sales rep.
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Chris Esposito                            | Internet: chrise@atc.boeing.com
Boeing Research & Technology, Comp. Sci.  | uucp: ...!uw-june!bcsaic!chrise