From: bellcore!walter.bellcore.com!news@uunet.uu.net (All the News - Period)
Subject: Bellcore/BCC Symposium Summary
Date: Wed, 20 Nov 91 20:58:31 GMT
Organization: Bell Communications Research, Morristown NJ



	Note: The following summary should not be taken to 
	describe official opinions of either Bellcore, nor 
	any of its owners.


SUMMARY OF EVENTS AT THE "ADVANCED INTERFACE TECHNOLOGY" SESSION OF
THE 2ND BELLCORE/BCC SYMPOSIUM ON USER-CENTERED DESIGN.

The symposium was a three day affair hosted by Bellcore, intended to
promote user-centered design at Bellcore and in the regions, but also
dealing with various other CHI-related issues and subjects. The
session in question focused on Virtual Reality, and business and
research issues surrounding the field, with emphasis on
telecommunications.

Co-chairs for the "Advanced Interface Technology" session were: 

	Rory Stuart (stuart@nynexst.com, NYNEX Science and Technology) 
	Laurence Brothers (quasar@bellcore.com, Bellcore)

The session ran as a one and a half hour track in the main auditorium
on the third day of the symposium, and was quite well attended. The
session was divided into two halves.

The first half was an audio-video presentation by James Elias,
Executive Director for Technology Assessment at U S West
Communications.

Mr. Elias presented an introduction to Virtual Reality technology, and
showed an edited version of the video presented at the 1st Industrial
Symposium on Virtual Worlds, earlier this year in Seattle. The main
thrust of Mr. Elias' presentation was that Virtual Reality would be an
inevitable part of the telecommunications world of the future, and
that the US telecommunications industry shouldn't miss the boat, as so
many other US industries have done in the last quarter century. In Mr.
Elias' opinion, education will be one of the key areas in which VR
technology will show big wins. He gave anecdotal evidence regarding a
recent experiment in VR in the classroom which seemed to indicate that
the technology was deeply engaging and educationally rewarding.

The second half of the session was a panel discussion by a number of
BCC and Bellcore representatives. Participating in this panel were:

	James Elias, U S West
	Arnold Lund, Ameritech
	Jakob Nielsen, Bellcore
	Barry Schwartz, Bellcore
	Lanny Smoot, Bellcore
	Loren Sylvan, U S West
	John Thomas, NYNEX

The panel was very informal in nature, but participants were encouraged to
respond to the following questions:

* What potential do you see for Virtual Reality and related technologies
  within the telecommunication industry?

* What should the BCC's and Bellcore be doing in the area of Virtual
  Reality and related technologies? (What should the roles of each be?)

* What negative factors do you see weighing against Virtual Reality and
  related technologies R&D? What if anything should be done to overcome
  these factors?

* What are the major research issues in Virtual Reality and related
  technologies?

* What opportunities do Virtual Reality and related technologies provide
  for new research methods?

The panelists turned out to provide a very animated discussion. In
fact, the panel ran overtime. There was no real consensus in answer
any of the questions, but several items received at least plurality
approval:

* VR will be an important and useful technology in the future.

* It is somewhat doubtful as to exactly how valuable VR will be in the very
  near future.

* Near-term arenas in which VR will probably do well include education
  and entertainment.

* Different BCC's are more or less prepared to perform research in VR;
  opinions as to the value of the area differ greatly among the different
  companies.

* The current state of the field is probably too immature for most BCC's 
  to consider introduction of VR technology to their customers.

* VR definitely needs some "killer" application to provide a big win in
  an area which it currently has not been applied (ie, not flight simulators).

* Bellcore and the BCC science and technology organizations should at the
  least actively monitor developments in the field.


There was a good deal of discussion of related areas, like fiber to
the home, whether there were VR applications the BCC's would want to
use themselves (as opposed to selling as a service), and so on. The
panelists uniformly demonstrated a great deal of knowledge about the
field, as well as broad experience with the telecommunications
industry in general, and computer science research in particular.


To capture the general tone of the panel, it would be fair to say that
the panelists were optimistic about the eventual prospects of VR for
the telecommunications industry, and for the field in general, but
were somewhat dubious about immediate and near-term prospects for
widespread deployment of VR systems either within or outside the
telecommunications industry.


Report submitted by:


	      Laurence R. Brothers (quasar@bellcore.com)
	 Bellcore -- Computer Graphics and Interactive Media
   "There is no memory with less satisfaction in it than the memory
       of some temptation we resisted." -- James Branch Cabell
	      Laurence R. Brothers (quasar@bellcore.com)
	 Bellcore -- Computer Graphics and Interactive Media
   "There is no memory with less satisfaction in it than the memory
       of some temptation we resisted." -- James Branch Cabell