From: deering@deering.Eng.Sun.COM (Michael F. Deering) Subject: Re: SCI: Vr and Psychology Date: 2 Nov 1992 19:39:10 GMT Message-ID: Organization: Sun Microsystems, Mt. View, Ca. In article <1992Nov2.094343.8477@u.washington.edu> copley-devon@CS.YALE.EDU (Devon Copley) writes: > > >The tendancy to exhibit physical responses (i.e., leaning forward/back >while moving through a virtual world) to visual stimuli seems to be >very robust, and occurs in many situations. In particular, avoidance >of looming objects (something coming at your face quickly) has been >demonstrated in infants as young as two weeks, and even in _blind_ >subjects fitted with "prosthetic vision" devices. (These devices use >a digital camera system to produce a bitmap of vibrating pixels which >contact the blind subject's skin.) Has anyone experienced the >avoidance response (ducking, raising hands to protect the face) in VR? >It should be reasonably easy to evoke. > >Devon >copley-devon@cs.yale.edu Yes, we have seen this recently with my virtual lathe. The lathe is a six inch cylinder floating in front of a head tracked stereo screen. You touch the tip of a 3D wand to the cylinder, and it chops into the material (complete with flying sparks and a grinding sound). The bigest complaint with this was that you couldn't cut all the way through the material. Well, now having recieved a waver from CAL-OSHA, when you cut through the pieces go flying appart, one torward your head. Several people when first seeing this (not knowing about the new feature) ducked when this happened, and thereafter flinched whenever cutting deeply into the lathe again. (Side note: for several years I worked at the lab that built the blind prosthetic vision device that caused the looming object avoidance, this actually did happen, although before my time there.) -- Michael Deering Email: Michael.Deering@Eng.Sun.COM Sun Microsystems Phone: (415) 336-3017 MS UMTV18-211 FAX: (415) 336-1525 2550 Garcia Avenue ---------------------------------- Sun Microsystems | | Mountain View, CA 94043 ----------------------------------