From: hsr4@vax.oxford.ac.uk
Subject: Re: Definition of Virtual Reality
Date: 18 Oct 91 19:19:17 BST
Message-ID: <1991Oct18.191917.2367@vax.oxford.ac.uk>
Organization: Oxford University VAXcluster



In article <1991Oct17.065359.16044@milton.u.washington.edu>, chris@ug.cs.dal.ca (chris d robertson) writes:

> In article <1991Oct15.213242.17387@watserv1.waterloo.edu> dstamp@watserv1.
> waterloo.edu (Dave Stampe-Psy+Eng) writes:
> 
> For whatever defining an already healthy term is worth, I think it
> would be important to include interactive simulations for other senses
> as well.  A simulation of reality (or otherwise!) has only the test of
> perception to pass, but perhaps it is only an accident of evolution
> that for us, the sense of vision seems most friutful in effecting the
> illusion of presence, and so it is easy over-emphasize the importance
> of this one particular sensory mode.
> 
> I recall hearing of an Amiga-driven system which used (i think) tv cameras
> to track the motions of two drumsticks held by the user.  The virtual
> drumkit could be played just by flailing your arms in the direction of the
> appropriate pre-preprogrammed "zone" (air drumming).  Of course, it could
> drive MIDI gear, so you could trigger whatever sounds you liked.
> 
> Now there is a 1:1 relationship of events between what the user does and
> what the user experiences; as far as the ear is concerned, there might as
> well _be_ a drum in that area your poking ...
>

I recall that a couple of years ago, a TV science & technology program in
the UK called "Tomorrow's World" featured a similar system whereby overhead
lights shone down onto sensors beneath a translucent floor.  Dancers who
whirled and twirled could interrupt the beams of light and generate any number
of sounds or combinations of sounds.  The effect was not too bad, but I felt
that more attention was being paid to the dance than to creating any kind of
rhythmic pattern of sounds, since the overall effect (from the point of view
of sound rather than vision) was halting and slightly unsettling, and had more
in common with music concrete than with anything else.
  
> Also there is the system (i think from MIT Media Labs) that allows one
> to "conduct" a computerized orchestra.
> 
> Were asked for my 2e-37 cents worth, I think I would include these
> systems as VR, or at the very least a clear component of a more
> complete VR.
> 
>         - Chris
> 
> PS - Imagine olfactory VR, or even <sense_of_taste_adjective> VR!
> 
>                                        ^-- culinary?  palettal?  ;)

I think the word you're looking for is gustatory :-& (not to mention
tactile and auditory).  Can you imagine having to wear the kit that's going
to fill all your orifices with sensation, let alone the rest of you ?

Who's going to do the laundry ? :-)


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| Peter G. Q. Brooks HSR4@OX.VAX.AC.UK |                                       |
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