From: gay@duggan.enet.dec.com (My name is...)
Subject: EVENT: Boston Computer Museum (Was Re: Virtual reality in Boston
Date: 20 AUG 92 16:46:03    
Organization: Industrial Research



>Are there any virtual realities I can try in the Boston area?  Thank
>you! -John

John, You betcha!  There's a v.r. exhibit at The Boston Computer
Museum.  It's part of the "Tools or Toys?" exhibit showing all sorts
of neat applications that run on small computers (PCs, Macs,
Amigas..).

The v.r. exhibit uses Sense8's WorldToolkit running on a Digital 486
PC with sound provided by an Amiga (connected over the parallel port).
The interface is unusual.  Goggles and gloves would not survive the
steady stream of people.  The museum has a Virtual Reality Swivel
Chair designed and built by William Tremblay.  This is basically a
monitor mounted on an industrial grade swivel chair so that when you
turn the chair the monitor stays in front of you and the view is what
you would see in front of you in that virtual world.  There are
handlbars on the monitor for forward/backward/up/down/tilt/roll.

There are a number of virtual worlds.  It starts in the room that the
exhibit is in.  From there you can go to a fractal landscape or to the
yard of a house (with a dog that plays ball with you).  You can go
inside the house and you can go out to a whimsical universe of strange
things.

I'm rather familiar with the exhibit because I built the worlds and
wrote the program that uses WorldToolkit to display them.

The Computer Museum is on Museum Wharf in the same building as the
Children's Museum, near the Tea Party Ship.

Yours

Eben Gay

gay@bitbkt.enet.dec.com
Virtual Reality Consultant
"That's the trouble with Reality. It's taken far too seriously" Emotional Fish