From: diego@minerva.st.dsi.unimi.it (Diego Montefusco)
Subject: PHIL: Where is the interaction with a VW? (Was Re: MISC: Videos...)
Date: Mon, 8 Feb 93 12:01:05 CET



In <9302022143.AA23371@ghost.dsi.unimi.it>, on Feb 2, you wrote:

> I always considered TRON to be a VR movie. The human-machine interface
> just took a more advanced form than an HMD.

This is a point I am thinking about a little, lately. It is often
cited Carrol's "Alice" and "Through the looking glass" as VR... the
same with TRON. I can accept this to a certain extent, but I also
think that those examples are quite misleading, since those are
episodes in which a "user" ENTERS a virtual world. I see VR more like
the virtual world GETTING OUT and surrouning the user. It is a matter
of where the interaction goes on.

I think the difference is subtle but quite relevant.

Maybe this could be also the difference between the Krueger's approach
and the "cumbering" VR. Krueger gives the computer some "senses" to
perceive the user, and is therefore more like the laser which "scans"
the main character of Tron INSIDE the computer. In the "cumbering"
approach, you are asked to WEAR the computer itself (at least its
"tentacles") and therefore you are trying to get IT out, AROUND you...

Diego