From: mg@godzilla.cgl.rmit.OZ.AU (Mike Gigante)
Subject: Re: VR Videotapes (including those from 1990 Meckler/SF VR conference)
Date: 21 Mar 91 21:37:46 GMT
Organization: RMIT Computer Centre, Melbourne Australia.



I guess I should post my micro-review of the Meckler VR conference that
was held in SF last Dec. It was from this conference that the videotapes
was produced.

Personally, I found it very dissappointing - I shouldn't have been there
as the intended audience seemed to be middle-level managers who didn't
know much about VR. (I think - it was hard to work out exactly who was the
target audience) There were a couple of interesting talks but they were
in the minority. There was a *lot* of flakey stuff and rampant speculation
and very little opportunity for discussion. (so much so that there was *no*
question time for most talks)

It seemed that most of the important players were *not* there, tho' a few
research and commercial groups put in a brief appearence.

Most of the exhibition was "Mystics & Magic", tho' the following were in
the exhibition:

        Reflection Technologies (Private Eye)
        Spatial Systems (Spaceball)
        Sense 8 (WorldKit and the Intel DVI board for RT texture)
        Beyond Technologies/Virtual Technologies (a CAD (solid modelling
                package (3Form) that has an interesting user interface and 
                can optionally interface to Virtual Technology's CyberGlove)

The rest of the stuff was "flakey" I think (hope I haven't forgotten anyone).
VPL were noatable for their absence from the exhibition (no attendees either).

As for the talks, well I think you walk on shaky ground if you rely on
a chairperson to select all the speakers. The chairperson was Sandra Helsel
(editor of MultiMedia Review). The speakers were fairly diverse,
but as I indicated, many important groups were not even represented (even
as attendees). Every opportunity was taken to promote the chair's publications
(multimedia review and virtual reality report) - this got on my nerves
as the meeting progressed...

The speakers were: (I have succumbed and grabbed the program now)
        Myron Krueger (keynote)
        Joseph Henderson (Dartmouth Medical College)
        Natalie Stenger (alias Nicole), MIT Center for Advanced Visual Studies
        Michael Spring, Dept. Info Science, U of Pittsburgh
        Michael Helm, Dept. Philosophy, Cal State Long Beach
        Brenda Laurel, Telepresence
        Allucquere Roseanne Stone, Dept. of Sociology, UC Santa Cruz
        Randal Walker, Autodesk
        Suzanne Weghorst, HIT Lab, U of Washington
        Eric Gullichsen, Sense8
        Tom Barret, EDS
        David Traub, Center Point Communications
        John Thomas, NYNEX AI Labs
        Michael Benedikt, School of Architecture, UT at Austin


My personal opinion is that I would *not* buy the videotapes, nor would
I attend any more of these conferences.

If anyone would like me to be more comprehensive in my review, send me mail.
Sufficient response may motivate me to write an overview of the talks.

BTW, I believe that most of the authors had an article in the first issue
of the Virtual Reality Report. This was the closest thing to a set of
proceedings.

Mike Gigante
Advanced Computer Graphics Centre at RMIT
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
Melbourne, Australia

mg@godzilla.cgl.rmit.oz.au