From: Michael Almquist Subject: Re: INDUSTRY: FLASH! "VPL is dead, long live VPL . . ." Date: Wed, 09 Dec 92 09:44:28 -0800 I received the following eloquent and thought provoking mail. I figured (with the authors permission) I'd share it with you. I hope St. Jaron is not down for the count and that he'll be remembered for more than VPL - time will tell. Yes, we all agree that VPL's goggles and gloves suck by todays standards and desires but this wasn't the case a few years back. VPL has done some great things and some bad things. All in all I think VPL has been a positive factor. Anyways . . . - mike Date: Fri, 4 Dec 92 11:52 EST From: DXZ102%psuvm.psu.edu@hitl.washington.edu To: squish@hitl.washington.edu Subject: Re: INDUSTRY: FLASH! "VPL is dead, long live VPL . . ." Hey, I liked your post. I'm a history of science & technology scholar, studying the history of electronic media. Right now I'm into the development of wireless radio, and I can tell you the same exact thing happened to Lee De Forest (the inventor of the prototype vacuum tube) -- his company went under, and he lost control (the name, especially) of it. His work fell into the hands of his investors, who tried to make up for lost capital by "going after" patent infringers. The technology De Forest developed (stole, actually) bobbed around the legal world and changed ownership a number of times until it was applied to broadcasting. The development of technology is completely dependent on the economy. The reason for De Forest's "fall" was the recession between 1902-1907. New technologies only seem to enter society successfully during boom periods, when there is an abundance of holistic capital to throw around. No new investors came knocking on De Forest's door; his prototypes had little commerical value. The only other wireless inventors to survive the recession were Guglielmo Marconi and Reginald Fessenden, both of whom had stable companies and a base market for their wireless products. Fessenden went under a few years later, just like De Forest. I think there is a parallel between wireless development and VR development. Although St. Jaron named the industry and developed the DataGlove and the RB2 systems, he did so initially during the boom period of the 1980's -- esp. the boom in investment in California. Like De Forest, he depended on that holistic capital (the sum of invested dollars) to develop and market-stratagize VR. With the recession, beginning in California esp. 2 years before it hit nation- ally, and the negative press (and Timothy Leary association to it), he lost the market and the capital base. Also, his systems, although superior in many ways to, say, Eric Gullichson's at the time, were incredibly expensive with very few commercial applications. Wireless went corporate; so will VR. This isn't necessarily bad. Although interactive wireless became reactive broadcasting, VR's charm (its whole purpose) is interaction, so that fundamental aspect shouldn't disappear. The video game industry is hopping on VR, and this is good because ultimately, with market direction, the technology will become cheaper, smaller, and, thus, more available and applicable for educational/mind expanding uses.Jaron, as the namer of the industry will not be forgotten, like De Forest and Fessenden, nor will his dreadlocks. I'll make sure of that when I teach my classes next spring.