Last Update: 5/22/95
temerson@hitl.washington.edu
scivw-request@hitl.washington.edu
Compilation Copyright © 1993,1994
Aaron Kaleva Pulkka, HITLab
Since sci.virtual-worlds (scivw) was created by Robert "Bob"Jacobson and Howard Rheingold early in 1990, its estimated worldwide readership has grown to well over fifty thousand ["USENET Readership report for Nov 93", news.lists]. Rheingold, the first moderator, saw sci.v-w as a
...scientific newsgroup for discussing research and development in virtual reality on a less formal, more frequent, more highly distributed basis than the welter of professional organizations, conventions, conferences, and journals that served as communication media for the individualdisciplines that were converging on VR. [199-200, Chapter 9: Reality on Your Retina, "Virtual Reality"]
From the beginning, the Human Interface Technology Laboratory(HITLab) has sponsored the newsgroup by providing the necessaryresources to facilitate and archive its discussions. The director of the HITLab, Tom Furness, has been eager to foster the exchange of information between VR researchers and to develop an on-line database of VR information.
As the newsgroup's scope and readership have grown,administration has progressed from the single moderatorships of Howard Rheingold and Steve Aukstakalnis to the moderating group that serve it today. The switch to co-moderation occurred when Bob Jacobson promoted Mark DeLoura from the resident moderation software hacker to full co-moderator, in charge of the archive and FAQ construction. A personal reflection on the history of sci.virtual-worlds , by Mark DeLoura, can be found in the HITLab Knowledge Base:
In 1992, Sci.virtual-worlds.apps was created as a spin-off of sci.virtual-worlds, "...for the discussion of pending and actual applications of virtual worlds technology in industrial, commercial,educational, and entertainment settings" [Bob Jacobson, RFD for sci.virtual-worlds.apps]. This group was active until 1994.
In 1993, the Scivw Moderating Group was created. The staff included seven members of the HITLab team (a balance of staff and students) led by the HIT LabResearch Consultant, Toni Emerson . Gregory B. Newby at UIUC,has been maintaining the newsgroup's email redistribution list since 1991. The group was disbanded later that year,nas the majority of the group left the HIT Lab and homogenous moderation was difficult.
The current Moderator is Toni Emerson , with the assistance of Dr. Gregory Newby.
Toni Emerson
GREGORY B. NEWBY
Newsgroup submissions should be sent to:
scivw@hitl.washington.edu
Questions, comments, or suggestions should be sent to:
scivw-request@hitl.washington.edu
Snail-mail may be sent to:
Scivw Moderating Group
c/o Toni Emerson , HITLab
University of Washington, FJ-15
Seattle, WA, 98195
USA
We may reformat articles so that each line contains less than 71 characters
and ends with a carriage-return/line-feed [you can save us some time by doing
this before submitting].
Oversized signatures may be truncated [please respect the general Usenet
guideline of 4 lines, maximum].
We may edit the subject-line for clarity and consistency [see section 2.4].
We may edit the comment portion of followups to previous postings, if it is too
long or not pertinent to the reply.
We will not post:
- articles that are not coherently related to virtual reality
- flames (any posting that directly attacks person and/or idea without
objective, analytical content)
- comments directed to the moderators (unless of general interest)
-multiple postings expressing essentially the same idea, the first posting will
be accepted the others will be rejected.
-postings considered to be personal comments, not of group interest.
ANYTIME we decide not to post a submission, we will send a message to the
author indicating why it is not being posted.
We do not allow cross-posting of copyrighted material (such as articles from
the ClariNet News Services) without proper permission. You may, however, submit
a summary of, review of, or pointer to such material. Since we are unable to
check the copyright authority of each submission, we rely on you to use good
judgement when posting.
ANNOUNCE: Miscellaneous.
CONF: Conference descriptions, dates, deadlines, etc.
CFP: Call for papers (for conferences/journals).
EDUC: Description of educational opportunity.
EPUB: Electronic publications, reports, papers, etc.
EVENT: Descriptions of various, non-conference events.
JOB-OFFERED: Employment opportunities.
JOB-WANTED: Shameless self-promotion.
NEW-PROD: New product announcements (commercial ads).
ONLINE: Online services, ftp sites, etc.
PUB: Books, journals, etc.
DESIGN: Human factors, standards, and other design issues.
ENTERTAIN: Entertainment/game applications.
INDUSTRY: Where the industry is, or is heading.
MISC: Items that don't fit into any other category.
PHIL: Philosophical musings about reality, etc.
PROD: Discussion of products
REV-PROD: Non-commercial reviews and evaluations of products.
REV-APPS: Review of experience with an application.
REV-CONF: General review or report on a conference.
REV-ENTERTAIN: Review of experience with an entertainment app. REV-EVENT:
General review or report on an event.
REV-ONLINE: Reviews of online services, publications, etc.
REV-PUB: Review of books, journals, etc.
SCI: Scientific issues such as health, physics, etc.
SOC: Social phenomena and culture.
TECH: Hard technology, data, software, hardware, etc.
DIGEST: Virtual Interface Marketplace
FOR-SALE: Products/items for sale/re-sale.
MARKETING: General marketing announcement.
WANTED: Entities wanting to obtain hardware/software.
DIGEST: Virtual-worlds Info Booth
INFO: General information requests/answers.
TERMS: Questions and answers about terminology.
WHO: Searching for people involved in the field.
Now the individual posts will appear as if they are separate mail
messages, and can be treated as such. The subject lines will coincide
with those on the posts and can be used to determine which ones to
delete and which ones to read.
To respond to an author directly:
reply as you would with e-mail.
To post a follow-up:
change the "To: " header in your reply, replacing the author's address with
"scivw@hitl.washington.edu"
There are many Usenet newsgroups which contain information relevant to
various aspects of the diverse virtual-worlds community.
To subscribe to VIRTU-L, send an e-mail message to the automated list
server listserv@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu,
with the following text in the body of the message:
"subscribe listname Your Full Name"
(of course you need to replace "listname" with "virtu-l"
and you need to replace "Your Full Name" with your actual name, do not use
quotes and do not use your userid).
For more information consult the lists' FAQ in the sci.virtual-worlds.
The actual PowerGlove Mailing list is nonactive. To quote the administrator,
"The PowerGlove mailing list is dead. (It fell on its head)."
However, there is a great HTML doc available..a current Glovelist FAQ .
According to J. Eric Townshend,
For additional (albeit dated) information, consult the Glove-list FAQ in the sci.virtual-worlds' ftp site.
.
To simply subscribe to either list, send e-mail to the automated list server
"Majordomo@sunee.uwaterloo.ca", with either or both of the following
lines in the body of the message:
The Homebrew-VR mailing list is a listserv maintained on
sleepless.acm.uiuc.edu by Jonathan Stark (jks@uiuc.edu). The purpose
of the list is to promote the development of homebuilt virtual reality
devices and applications. Through this list, people can exchange ideas
and questions, and hopefully everyone will end up the better for
it.
Subscribing to the Homebrew-VR mailing list is very easy. Simply send
mail to homebrew-vr-request@acm.uiuc.edu with a subject of
"Subscribe". You will automatically be added to the list, and will
receive all mail that is sent to the group.
To post, send mail to homebrew-vr@acm.uiuc.edu. Your mail will then be
resent to all of the people on the list. A copy of your message will
also be sent back to you (since you are on the list!).
Homebrew-VR FAQ is available as an HTML Document:
Hot Off The Tree -- is a FREE monthly electronic newsletter featuring
the latest advances in computer, communications, and electronics technologies.
Each issue provides article summaries on new & emerging technologies,
including VR (virtual reality), neural networks, PDAs (personal digital
assistants), GUIs (graphical user interfaces), intelligent agents, ubiquitous
computing, genetic & evolutionary programming, wireless networks, smart
cards, video phones, set-top boxes, nanotechnology, and massively parallel
processing.
To subscribe send e-mail to: listserv@ucsd.edu and leave the "Subject" line
blank. In the body of the message input: SUBSCRIBE HOTT-LIST. If at any time
you choose to cancel your subscription input: UNSUBSCRIBE HOTT-LIST
If you have questions, you should send mail to PGSI Team
"pgsi@uiuc.edu"
A mailing list for information about RenderWare If you want to join
the list send mail to listproc@canon.co.uk with the first line:
"subscribe RW-LIST [Full Name]".
Ftp site
in the body of the message.
Moderator: Thomas Edwards. Newsgroup for discussion of uses of VR
interfaces for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatial information
support systems. To subscribe e-mail listserv@uwavm.bitnet with
message "Subscribe VIGIS-L [Full Name]".
VIRTPSY is open to researchers, practitioners, and students of
psychology who are interested in the social contracts and interactions
within the enviroments known as Virtual Reality. It shall explore the
impacts of both text and graphic based enviroments on these new
avenues of interpersonal relations. VIRTPSY is available by free
subscription. To subscribe, send an email message to:
LISTSERV@SJUVM.BITNET or LISTSERV@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU.
To join the VRML standards discussion, please subscribe to the
www-vrml mailing list. Send mail to:
The vworlds-list is an unmoderated list with the
charter to discuss the aesthetic and artistic aspects of virtual
worlds freed from technical constraints. To subscribe, send mail to
vworlds-list-request@netcom.com for instructions. List Owner: Kevin
Goldsmith (kevin@unitcircle.org).
For more information you can mail to: majordomo@best.com
With this in the body:
info vworlds-biz
see maddog's home page
For more information on these and more, consult the latest issue of the
Information Resources in Virtual Reality (IRVR) on the HITLab WWW server.
Real Time Graphics. Newsletter 10/year. CGSD Corporation [Email:
roywlatham@cup.portal.com].
VR News - The Virtual Realty Newsletter. Mike Bevan, editor. Published
ten times per year. Cydata Limited, PO Box 2515, London N4 4JW, England; Tel
& Fax: (44) 81-292-1498.
Virtual Reality Monthly - Joe Dysart, Editor and Publisher, Virtual Reality Monthly. Voice: (805) 498-2013, Email: dysart@delphi.com, Fax: (805) 499-7014
VR World:
Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments. Journal 4/year. Cambridge,
MA: The MIT Press. [Email: hiscox@mitvma.mit.edu; unsurpassed technical
resource.] ISSN 1054-7460.
Jacobson, Linda (ed.). (1992). "Cyberarts: Exploring Art & Technology."
San Francisco, CA: Miller Freeman, Inc.
Pimentel, Ken and Teixeira, Kevin. (1993). "Virtual Reality: Through the New
Looking Glass." New York, NY: Intel/Windcrest/McGraw Hill. ISBN:
0-830-64064-9.
Rheingold, H. (1991). "Virtual Reality: Exploring the Brave New Technologies."
New York, NY: Simon & Schuster Trade. ISBN: 0-671-69363-8.
Sheridan, Thomas B. (1992). "Telerobotics, Automation, and Human Supervisory
Control." Cambridge, MA & London: The MIT Press. ISBN: 0-262-19316-7.
Shneiderman, Ben. (1992). "Designing the User Interface: Strategies for
Effective Human Interaction." 2nd Edition. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. ISBN:
0-201-57286-9.
Stampe, Dave and Roehl, Bernie and Eagan, John (1993). "Virtual Reality
Creations." Waite Group Press. ISBN 1-878739-39-5 [includes Rend386 on a
PC-disk].
Gibson, William. (1984). "Neuromancer." New York, NY: ACE Science Fiction.
ISBN: 0-553-28174-7.
Gibson, William. (1993). "Virtual Light." New York: Bantam Books. ISBN:
0-553-07499-7.
Jacobson, Karie (ed.) (1993). "Simulations: 15 Tales of Virtual Reality." New
York, NY: Citadel Press.
Stephenson, Neal. (1992). "Snow Crash." New York: Bantam Books.
Vinge, Vernor. (1987). "True Names...and Other Dangers." New York, NY: Baen.
For a list of citations of specific articles on VR, consult one of the
Knowledge Base Guides to the Literature in VR
Many of the terms listed in this glossary do not have a single,
universally accepted definition. The definitions listed below have been
compiled over years of discussions and borrowed from other more comprehensive
glossaries.
Virtual Reality Terms (1993), compiled by Joe Psotka and Sharon Davison.
Another useful collection of definitions, called the "Virtual Reality
Glossary" (July 1992), was compiled by L. Jacobson for the Virtual Reality
Special Report of AI Expert [see section 3.3.2].
Artificial Reality:
This term was coined by Myron Krueger in the mid-1970s to describe his
non-immersive "computer-controlled responsive environments." The full body
motion of the participant effects the computer generated environment, displayed
on a screen. For more information, see "Artificial Reality II" (1991).
Augmented Reality:
The use of transparent HMDs to overlay computer generated images onto the
physical environment. Precisely calibrated, rapid head tracking is required to
maintain the illusion.
Cyberspace:
This term was originally coined by William Gibson, in "Neuromancer" [see
section 3.4.3], to describe the shared virtual universe of the world's computer
networks, where both participants and data could be seen, heard, and touched.
This term has come to describe the more familiar global information space. Our
telephone conversations, Usenet discussions, and ATM transactions all take
place in cyberspace.
MUD:
Multiple User {Domain, Dungeon, or Dialogue}. These are typically
text-based environments which allow many users to communicate and build worlds
in "real-time." There are many different types of MUDs: discussion, fantasy
adventure, science-fiction adventure, and others.
For more information, consult the three-part FAQ on Muds and Mudding in the
HITLab Knowledge Base:
Presence:
Projected Reality:
Teleoperation:
Virtual Reality (VR):
Virtual World:
CyberMan:
DataGlove:
A gesture recognition device developed by VPL Research.
HMD:
A Head mounted display strictly refers to a graphical display device,
although it is usually coupled with position tracking and earphones for 3d
sound.
PGSI:
PowerGlove:
Out of production interface device developed for the Nintendo
Entertainment System by Abrahms/Gentile Entertainment and licensed to Mattel
Toys.
REND 386:
Shutter Glasses:
Spaceball:
VEOS:
VRD:
CAVE Automatic Virtual Environment is the name of the "virtual reality
theater" in the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of
Illinois at Chicago.
Human Interface Technology Laboratory in Seattle, Washington (HITL)
UIUC:University of Illinois at Urbana Champagne:
UNC-CH:
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
directory hierarchy:
/public/virtual-worlds/
There is an HTML document designed to access the site, if you have access to an
information browser such as Mosaic or Netscape.
The intial efforts to organize this information was by Bob Jacobson of
WorlDesign and Mark A. DeLoura of the University of North Carolina, Chapel
Hill. Many thanks for their efforts. This archive is now being reconstructed
by the Toni Emerson , moderator. The contents and organization of this archive
will be changing on a daily basis, please forgive us for any inconvenience this
may cause.
The site listed above is the only one maintained by the Scivw
Moderating Group. For a list of other sites, try the "VR Sites List" in the
HITLab Knowledge Base:
/public/virtual-worlds/faq/other/vr_sites.yy.mm
1.3 Addresses
Section 2.0: Posting Policy
2.1 Editing
2.2 Rejecting
2.3 Cross-posting
2.4 Subject-line Tags
2.4.1 Announcements
ADMIN: Related to newsgroup administration.2.4.2 Discussions
APPS: Applications of virtual worlds in various
domains.2.4.3 Digests
DIGEST: Weekly digests containing related messages.2.5 Digests
The first part of each digest will include a list of the subject lines from
the posts contained in the digest, allowing for a quick check to see if the
digest contains anything of specific interest to you.
These digests may be plodded through on your newsreader or you
may use your mailreader to read each message in the digest
separately (assuming your mailreader can read folders in 'mailbox
format'). Reading a digest in mailbox format requires these simple
steps:
Section 3.0: Suggested Readings
3.1 Newsgroups
3.2 Mailing Lists
3.2.1 VIRTU-L
VIRTU-L is the mailing list mirror of
sci.virtual-worlds. Greg Newby
gbnewby@vmd.cso.uiuc.edu OR gbnewby@uiucvmd.bitnet is the list
administrator and can be contacted if you experience problems
with the automated system.3.2.2 Glove-list
The glove-list was created in 1991 to provide a rapid
communication channel to hackers adapting the Power Glove for use in
low-cost VR systems. J. Eric Townsend, jet@well.sf.ca.us, was the
administrator for this list.
"This is probably the last version of the PowerGlove-specific FAQ. It
will probably be consumed by a HomeBrew VR FAQ, if things go well. (I
recently (Jul 94) changed jobs. Much of my free time is consumed with
work here at General Magic, Inc., making the world a safer place for
personal communicators.)"
3.2.2 Rend386
There are currently two mailing lists related
to rend386: one for announcements, and one for discussion. If you encounter
trouble using the automated server, you may contact the administrators at
"rend386-owner@sunee.uwaterloo.ca". To get the complete instructions on
subscribing, send e-mail to "rend386-request@sunee.uwaterloo.ca".
subscribe rend386-announce
subscribe rend386-discuss
3.2.4 Homebrew-VR mailing list:
3.2.5. HOTT-List
3.2.6 Iris On-Line
This is a mailing list based on the SGI monthly news magazine. The
types of articles published are: SGI press releases, SGI and related product
announcements, technical articles, training course schedules and general
information regarding SGI products and services. To subscribe, E-mail:
list-manager@sgi.comm and put the message "subscribe nyn-emag".
3.2.7 IRIS Performer List
IRIS Performer is an object-oriented 3D graphics toolkit that supports
programmers developing applications that need to achieve high graphics
performance across Silicon Graphics product line. This list is an
unmoderated technical forum to discuss the toolkit and its use in
applications.
3.2.7 PowerGlove Serial Interface (PGSI)
3.2.8 RenderWare List
3.2.9 VeRGe-Events
To subscribe to the VeRGe-Events mailing list, send a message to:
"listserv@netcom.com " with the message: "subscribe verge-events"3.2.10 VIGIS-L
3.2.11 VIRTPSY - Virtual Reality Psychology
In the BODY of the message write the following: "SUBSCRIBE VIRTPSY [Full Name]"
3.2.11 VRMLMailing List
majordomo@wired.com
No subject, message body:
subscribe www-vrml your-email-address
Before posting, please read the ettiquette guide
A text-only archive of the VRML mailing list is also available.
3.2.12 vworlds-list
3.2.13 WTK
Maintained by NASA Ames Research Center,
sig-wtk@artemis.arc.nasa.gov.
3.2.14 Vworlds-biz Mail List
If you are interested in talking and exploring Virtual Worlds as a
Business, subscribe to vworlds-biz. The list includes any virtual
world business from text-based muds to 3D Quake-like worlds, to full
body-armor VR.
3.3 Bulletin Boards
There are many other mailing lists and
discussion groups which are relevant to the discussions taking place
here, such as:
3.4 Periodicals
3.4.1 General
Wired: Magazine 12/year. San Francisco, CA: Wired USA Ltd. ISSN 1059-1028, Email: subscriptions@wired.com.
3.4.1 Newsletters
CyberEdge Journal: The World's Leading Newsletter of
Virtual Reality. Newsletter 6/year. Ben Delaney, editor [Email:
bdel@well.sf.ca.us].
3.3.3 Magazines
AI Expert. San Francisco, CA: Miller Freeman, Inc [August issues feature Virtual Reality; they have also been publishing a
Special Report on Virtual Reality in July, for the last two years].
Meckler Publishing, 11 Ferry Lane West, Westport, CT 06880-9760. ISSN
1060-9547. Internet: meckler@jvnc.net; CompuServe 70373,616; AppleLink:
Meckler.3.3.4 Journals
Computer Graphics. Journal published by the Special Interest Group on Computer
Graphics of the Association for Computing Machinery. ISSN 0097-8930. 3.4 Books
3.4.1 General
Ellis, S.R. (ed.) (1991). "Pictorial Communication
in Virtual and Real Environments." London: Taylor & Francis. ISBN:
0-748-40008-7.
3.4.2 Technical
Laurel, B. (ed.) (1990). "The Art of
Human-Computer Interface Design." Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. ISBN:
0-201-51797-3.
3.4.3 Fiction
Card, Orson Scott. (1991). "Ender's Game." New York,
NY: Tom Doherty Associates. ISBN: 0-812-51349-5.3.5 Bibliographies
For a more complete list of publications, consult the latest issue of
the IRVR in the HITLab Knowledge Base:
Section 4.0: Glossary
4.1 General
The feeling of actually being in an environment, whether it is real,
augmented, or virtual. This is a defining characteristic of an immersive VR
system.
A computer system which uses projection televisions to provide an
individual or group with a window to a virtual environment.
The remote operation of a robotic system. If the human interfac
provides an immersive environment, then it can also be called "telepresence."
This term is attributed to Jaron Lanier, to describe an immersive,
interactive simulation of realistic or imaginary scenes. Common usage of this
term would indicate that the immersive component is not required. However,
many researchers strongly believe that immersion is as important as
interactivity.
A specific interactive model comprised of a set of objects or
entities.4.2 Technical
BSX:
Bram Stolk's X-windows based graphical MUD system.
A low-cost 6d stationary input device made by Logitech.
The PowerGlove Serial Interface provides users the ability to connect
their glove to a personal computer.
A real-time polygon renderer for Intel 386s and up. Used in combination
with a 3d display device, such as Shutter Glasses, and a 3d input device, such
as the PowerGlove, hackers can create virtual environments at home.
Liquid crystal glasses which cover each eye alternatively, in sync with
the alternating display of images for each eye, produces a 3d effect.
An example of Shutter Glasses is the product CrystalEyes by Stereographics.
A 6d stationary input device.
The Virtual Environment Operating {System, Shell} was developed at the
HITLab as a foundation for building virtual worlds.
The Virtual Retinal Display, developed at the HITLab, is a display
approach wherein lasers are used to scan images directly onto the retina. This
has the potential of greatly reducing the size, weight, and power consumption
of displays, while increasing the resolution.
4.3 Others
NCSA Virtual Reality Lab
ftp.u.washington.edu
5.2 Others
yy=year of last update
mm=month of last update
For a comprehensive listing of WWW VR sites, see On the Net: Internet
Resourses in Virtual Reality, written by sci.virtual-worlds moderator, Toni
Emerson