From: "Robert L. Miller" Subject: MEDIA: Video Journal of Virtual Reality Date: Thu, 30 Apr 92 14:27:02 PDT The Video Journal of Virtual Reality 2330 Williams Street Palo Alto, California 94306 Attn: Robert Miller (415) 856-8497 The Video Journal of Virtual Reality stems from a 90-hour videotape archive on virtual reality. This archive assists the research and production of a documentary on virtual reality. Tape sales from the archive go to support the documentary and the taping of additional VR events which might otherwise evaporate without record. To purchase a video from the journal, send a check payable to The Virtual Reality Film Documentary (or VR FILM DOC) at the above address with a note for videos desired. Allow 4 weeks for delivery. (Speakers appearing on these tapes are entitled to a complimentary copy if they have not received one already. Abstracts are by the producer, not the speakers. All lectures/presentations are beginning-to-end without editing and usually include question and answer sessions.) Each videotape: Domestic California Foreign --------------------------------------------------------------- tape: 30 30 30 shipping & handling: 5 5 15 Tax (Cal. res. only) 2.50 --------------------------------------------------------------- TOTALS: $35 $37.50 $45 All tapes are VHS and NTSC. PAL VHS is an additional $60 per tape hour. Checks with orders are required. Purchase orders are acceptable from universities, state and federal government, and large corporate institutions. Donations of VR-related videotape to the archive is very appreciated. Please contact Robert Miller, producer of the video journal and documentary, at the above address for more information. ******************************************************************* THE VIDEO JOURNAL OF VIRTUAL REALITY TAPE: U.S. Senate Hearing on Virtual Reality - Panel 1 Virtual Reality Technology as a National Asset SPEAKERS: Senator Albert Gore, Senator Larry Pressler, Jaron Lanier (VPL), Frederick Brooks (Univ. of North Carolina), Thomas Furness (Univ. of Washington) #VJ-100 2 hours ABSTRACT: Senator Albert Gore and Senator Larry Pressler of the Subcommittee on Science, Technology and Space, explore virtual reality technology as an American asset. Sen. Gore argues for its support by the U.S. Government and fears Japan is already investing in marketable applications. Jaron Lanier, in rare suit and tie, testifies that VPL is dependent upon international trade. He cites customers in Japan and Germany and after showing his most recent video, goes on to discuss VPL's research and applications. Prof. Frederick Brooks of the Univ. of North Carolina, in good perspective and humor, provides a history of VR and then elaborates on the fundamental pursuits of VR research. Prof. Brooks shows video and slides about virtual world projects at UNC and concludes with observations on American competitiveness, government funding, and where he and UNC sees this technology going. Prof. Thomas Furness of the Univ. of Washington (formerly with the U.S. Air Force) addresses the problems of interfacing a person to a complex machine. Through slides and first hand knowledge, he provides the example of a pilot and a fighter jet and then speaks about work at the Human Interface Technology Lab. at the Univ. of Washington. He concludes with thoughts about migrating this technology from American research labs to American industry. ------------------------------ TAPE: U.S. Senate Hearing on Virtual Reality - Panel 2 U.S. Government Support of Virtual Reality Research SPEAKERS: Senator Albert Gore, Dr. Charles Brownstein (NSF), Dr. Lee Holcomb (NASA) #VJ-101 50 minutes ABSTRACT: How should the U.S. Government support virtual reality? Dr. Charles Brownstein, Acting Asst. Director of Computer and Information Sciences and Engineering at the National Science Foundation (NSF), and Dr. Lee Holcomb, Director of Information Sciences and Human Factors Division, Office of Aeronautics, Exploration and Technology (NASA), testify to Senator Albert Gore about the current state of governmental support for virtual reality programs and make their recommendations. As on most videotapes here, a question and answer session follows. ---------------------------------- TAPE: Jaron Lanier: Report From the Field, and Group World Design SPEAKER: Jaron Lanier, VPL Research #VJ-102 105 minutes ABSTRACT: Jaron Lanier of VPL Research provides an overview of what is going on in the field of virtual reality. Speaking at the SRI International/VPL Conference on Virtual Worlds, Lanier provides a global perspective on the VR system market and speaks about how these systems (mainly VPL's) are being put to use. He elaborates on the current and future issues of VR system development and shows videotape of current applications in entertainment, architecture and art. In the last part of the tape, Jaron sits down to the controls of a VPL VR system and, with requests from a notedly excited audience, builds an elaborate virtual world in which a person is actually sent into. Through large projected screens the audience (and our camera) is able to witness him create the virtual world on a computer screen and then literally bring it to life. ---------------------------------- TAPE: Virtual Reality and Learning SPEAKERS: Barbara Means (SRI), Lawrence Scadden (Electronic Industries Foundation), Ann McCormick (Nueva Media Lab), and students from the Nueva Center for Learning. #VJ-103 2 hours ABSTRACT: This panel, moderated by Barbara Means at the SRI International/VPL Conference on Virtual Worlds, examines the possibilities of virtual reality applications in education. Lawrence Scadden speaks about the application of VR to science education, the need to improve education as a whole, and programs to fund such development. Ann McCormick describes the application and benefits of VR in her school, and her students--in age from 10 to--describe how they designed their own virtual worlds and then, with a great deal of excitement, put on computerized goggles and gloves and went into them. ---------------------------------- TAPE: System Architectures and Networks for Virtual Environments SPEAKERS: Michael Moshell (Univ. of Central Florida), Herbert Taylor (Sarnoff Research), Warren Robinette (Univ. of North Carolina), Larry Koved (IBM, Watson Research Center). #VJ-104 2 hours ABSTRACT: Michael Moshell speaks about the issues and applications of networked virtual environments. He illustrates this with videotape footage of his work at the Institute for the Simulation of Training, Univ. of Central Florida. He also highlights the uses of large databases, real time modeling, and communication protocols; Simnet is touched on. Herbert Taylor speaks about virtual visualization as the ability to witness problems by being in the wrong place at the right time. He focuses on architectures connecting real time instruments to computers. Warren Robinette begins his talk with a videotape showing virtual world work at the Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He goes on to propose a class of virtual environment operations that are linked to the real world. An example is a doctor broadening his sense of a patient's physiology by examining their body with a head-mounted display and various sensors available today. Larry Koved speaks about industrial strength virtual worlds. In particular, he speaks about the behavior of virtual worlds, interfacing which creates and sustains a mental model of the world in the mind of the user, and finally, the support of collaboration among participants. An example is information provided to the user when designing a virtual building. If the user removes a load-bearing wall, the underlying system should inform him or her of structural loss. ---------------------------------- TAPE: Art and Artistry in Virtual Reality SPEAKERS: Brenda Laurel and Scott Fisher (Telepresence Research). #VJ-105 1 hour ABSTRACTS: Laurel and Fisher provide a well-founded perspective on the kinds of experiences and interaction people might want to have or create in artistic virtual environments. Fisher speaks about the shift from the science of telepresence to the the art of presence: going beyond simulation. He draws upon his work at NASA Ames which dealt with human factors in virtual environments, and his collaborations with various artists. Many slides and videotapes are shown. Laurel speaks about the issues of artists and control of their work--the nature of interaction and user autonomy. She covers artistic notions of action, empathy, images and important effects between high resolution and ambiguity. Laurel speaks from experience in dramatic theater, the video game business, and consulting in the interactive media business. ---------------------------------- TAPE: Application Development Toolkits SPEAKERS: Chuck Blanchard (VPL), Randal Walser (Autodesk), Eric Gullichsen (Sense8), David Levitt (VPL) #VJ-106 2 hours ABSTRACT: This tape concerns the underlying technology (principally software) of how virtual systems work and how virtual worlds are made. Chuck Blanchard, Director of Software Engineering at VPL, speaks about the design and workings of Body Electric (VPL's software environment) and presents a number of supporting slides of the software. David Levitt speaks about VPL's acoustic simulation and also fields a number of questions. Eric Gullichsen demonstrates Sense8's WorldTool Kit, running on a 486 based computer, and speaks about areas such as texture mapping and PC, or desktop-level, VR. Randal Walser speaks about what he terms adaptable cyberspace programming. He presents the system and (in part) code of Autodesk's TRIX, an interactive shell programming language used to extend a cyberspace developer's toolkit. One of the key features of this tape is the extensive question and answers section. The audience is very knowledgeable at this technical session of the SRI/VPL Conference on Virtual Worlds. ---------------------------------- TAPE: Cyberspace, Power and Culture SPEAKERS: Brenda Laurel, Alluequere Stone, Jean-Claude Guedon, Scott Bukarman, Scott Fisher, John Perry Barlow, Kathleen Biddick, Michael Benedikt, Barbara Joans, Eric Gullichsen, and Nicole Stenger among others. #VJ-107 2 hours ABSTRACT: This is a lively, humorous, philosophic, and at times near-brawling panel discussion at the Second International Conference on Cyberspace, held at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Topics include the governmental control and use of Virtual Reality, Virtual Reality used in the Gulf War, and how society may be shaped by VR technology. Among the many questions discussed are: Will reality be bought and sold? Will there be virtual real estate? What will the common man use Virtual Reality for? What other fields should virtual reality development draw experience from?