From: cyberoid@u.washington.edu (Bob Jacobson)
Subject: INDUSTRY: Ono-Sendai -- Is this cyberdeck for real?
Date: Thu, 6 Feb 92 09:41:16 -0800



The following thread is crossposted from alt.3d.  What do you think?


Article: 57 of alt.3d
Newsgroups: alt.3d
From: rowlands@ra.ti.com (Jon Rowlands)
Subject: Re: 3D statements to stimulate discussion.
Message-ID: <1992Feb3.212133.14976@csc.ti.com>
Sender: rowlands@ra (Jon Rowlands)
Organization: Texas Instruments Computer Science Laboratory, Dallas
References:  <1992Jan23.032638.28049rodent@netcom.COM>
Date: Mon, 3 Feb 1992 21:21:33 GMT

In article <1992Jan23.032638.28049rodent@netcom.COM>, rodent@netcom.COM 
(Ben Discoe) writes:

|>   There is a small startup in San Francisco called Ono-Sendai that plans to
                                                      ^^^^^^^^^^
Wasn't this the name of one of the companies that made cyberspace decks in
William Gibson's cyberpunk novel "Neuromancer"?

|> create a VR deck for around $300.  I'm not joking.
                                      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
No, but are they?

Jon
-- 
  _  ,                                               _
 / `- \ Jon Rowlands         phone: 1-214-995-3436 _| "--_ People say I sound
 \_--_/ rowlands@ra.csc.ti.com fax: 1-214-995-0304 \_  __/ like a corporation,
     ~ `-> Texas Instruments CSL, Dallas, TX <-?!-'  \_|  but I ain't no body.


Article: 58 of alt.3d
From: bsanders@mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu (Barry Sanders)
Newsgroups: alt.3d
Subject: Re: 3D statements to stimulate discussion.
Message-ID: <1992Feb4.001517.14911@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 4 Feb 92 00:15:17 GMT
References: <1992Jan23.032638.28049rodent@netcom.COM> <1992Feb3.212133. 
 14976@csc.ti.com>
Sender: usenet@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Lines: 27

rowlands@ra.ti.com (Jon Rowlands) writes:

>rodent@netcom.COM (Ben Discoe) writes:
>|>   There is a small startup in San Francisco called Ono-Sendai that plans to
>                                                      ^^^^^^^^^^
>Wasn't this the name of one of the companies that made cyberspace decks in
>William Gibson's cyberpunk novel "Neuromancer"?

>|> create a VR deck for around $300.  I'm not joking.
>                                      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>No, but are they?

My belief, Jon, is that they are quite serious.  There have been numerous 
ongoing discussions in the last several years about the geographic and 
mathematical nature of a cyberspace 'standard.'  

As for the technology:  A close friend of mine has co-deped a working 
prototype of a stand-alone portable VR deck which could easily be marketd in
the aforementioned price range.  I wish I could divulge detai, but I am sworn
to secrecy.  Suffice it to say that I was impressed, and that was 7 months ago.
Since then, there have been numerous hardware offerings which could further 
escalate the likelihood that a small company might make such a device.
I would be very interested to know more about Ono-Sendai and their VR device.

Barry
bsanders@mars.ncsa.uiuc.edu <OR> bsanders@mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu


Article: 61 of alt.3d
Newsgroups: alt.3d
From: rodent@netcom.COM (Ben Discoe)
Subject: Re: 3D statements to stimulate discussion.
Message-ID: <1992Feb04.031828.15829rodent@netcom.COM>
Date: Tue, 04 Feb 92 03:18:28 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
References: <1992Jan23.032638.28049rodent@netcom.COM> <1992Feb3.212133.14976@csc.ti.com>

rowlands@ra.ti.com (Jon Rowlands) writes:

>In article <1992Jan23.032638.28049rodent@netcom.COM>, rodent@netcom.COM 
(Ben Discoe) writes:
>
>|>   There is a small startup in San Francisco called Ono-Sendai that plans to
>                                                      ^^^^^^^^^^
>Wasn't this the name of one of the companies that made cyberspace decks in
>William Gibson's cyberpunk novel "Neuromancer"?

  Sheesh, I figured that anyone reading this group would recognize the name
immediately (anyone that hasn't read _Neuromancer_, DO IT NOW.)

>|> create a VR deck for around $300.  I'm not joking.
>No, but are they?

  I met the president and a technical person.  They didn't divulge any
technical details, but they seem to be VERY serious about it.  I'm
definately curious, and I've got many low-end VR ideas of my own,
mostly hinging on radical parallelization of custom logic.
 
 Of course, hyping VR is very dangerous (you get people expecting brain-
computer interfacing, and they're GOING to be disappointed.)

----------
Ben Discoe, young net radical