From root@nntp1.u.washington.edu Tue Feb 21 08:34:38 1995 Received: from mx5.u.washington.edu by stein2.u.washington.edu (5.65+UW94.10/UW-NDC Revision: 2.32 ) id AA11750; Tue, 21 Feb 95 08:34:38 -0800 Received: from hitl-new.hitl.washington.edu by mx5.u.washington.edu (5.65+UW94.10/UW-NDC Revision: 2.31 ) id AA09980; Tue, 21 Feb 95 08:34:37 -0800 Received: by hitl.hitl.washington.edu; id AA13001; Tue, 21 Feb 1995 08:30:27 -0800 Received: from trout.cs.washington.edu (trout.cs.washington.edu [128.95.1.178]) by beaver.cs.washington.edu (8.6.9/7.1be+) with ESMTP id IAA02606 for ; Tue, 21 Feb 1995 08:34:07 -0800 Return-Path: Received: from nntp1.u.washington.edu (root@nntp1.u.washington.edu [140.142.64.2]) by trout.cs.washington.edu (8.6.9/7.1ws+) with SMTP id OAA09835 for ; Mon, 20 Feb 1995 14:12:12 -0800 Received: by nntp1.u.washington.edu (5.65+UW94.10/UW-NDC Revision: 2.32 ) id AA23383; Mon, 20 Feb 95 14:10:55 -0800 X-Sender: root@nntp1.u.washington.edu To: sci-virtual-worlds@june.cs.washington.edu Path: blake From: blake@u.washington.edu (Blake Hannaford) Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds Subject: CONF: VRAIS-95 Registration and Program Date: 20 Feb 1995 22:10:54 GMT Organization: University of Washington Lines: 886 Message-Id: <3ib41e$mqk@nntp1.u.washington.edu> Nntp-Posting-Host: stein2.u.washington.edu Status: OR >From vraispub Mon Feb 20 13:59:05 1995 From: "Virtual Reality...Publications" Wed Jan 25 16:02:22 1995 ** VRAIS '95 ** IEEE Virtual Reality Annual International Symposium March 11-15, 1995 Sheraton Imperial Hotel & Convention Center Research Triangle Park, North Carolina Sponsored by The Virtual Reality Technology Committee of the IEEE Neural Networks Council The IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Computer Graphics In Cooperation With SPIE and Society for Computer Simulation ************************ ** PROGRAM INFORMATION ** REGISTRATION AND HOUSING FORMS ** ** PAPERS ** PANELS ** TUTORIALS ** EXHIBITS ** VR LAB TOURS ** A formatted WWW version of the advance program is available as http://isdl.ee.washington.edu/VRAIS/Vrais.html ************************ ==== INVITATION FROM THE GENERAL CHAIR ==== After the past few years of rapid growth, high excitement, frequent introductions of new technologies and new companies, and appalling misinterpretation by the media, virtual reality now seems to be emerging, not only as a technology with a broad range of potential applicability, but also as a rich and fascinating area of multidisciplinary investigation. VR research and development is influenced by and sometimes influences several scientific fields, including computer graphics, human-computer interfaces, computer architecture, human factors research, and computational geometry. VRAIS was conceived as a forum for the researchers and engineers studying and developing virtual reality to exchange and evaluate new ideas and approaches. The sponsoring IEEE organizations are determined to establish VRAIS as the premier technical conference on VR. Judging from the rigor of the refereeing process and the papers selected for VRAIS '95, we are well on our way. I anticipate an excellent set of papers and panel sessions at VRAIS '95, as well as a carefully-selected choice of tutorials on the weekend preceding the conference, and outstanding paper and video proceedings. Our invited lecturers this year are Prof. Henry Fuchs of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who has been a leader in VR research for many years, and who is perhaps best known for leading the prototyping of the "Pixel Planes" and "Pixel Flow" parallel computer graphics architectures, and Prof. Bowen Loftin of the University of Houston/Downtown, who had lead responsibility for one of the most significant applications of VR to date: training NASA personnel for the Hubble repair mission. In addition, following the conference reception, we are going to try an experimental format for invited speakers -- a dialogue on a variety of VR topics between two of the most original thinkers in the field: Prof. Fred Brooks of UNC and Jaron Lanier, formerly of VPL, Inc. During the first two evenings of the conference, we will take advantage of the Research Triangle location and provide tours of the highly-regarded VR research labs at the University of North Carolina and at Research Triangle Institute. It is my pleasure to invite you to attend VRAIS '95. David Mizell ==== PROGRAM SUMMARY ==== ======== Saturday, March 11th TUTORIALS (see below for tutorial descriptions): ----8:00am-12:00pm: 1A: An Introduction to Virtual Reality 1B: Merging Supercomputers with Virtual Reality ----8:00am-5:00pm: 1C: Multimedia Systems and Applications ----1:00pm-5:00pm 1D: Advanced Issues in Virtual Reality Systems Design 1E: Human Factors in Virtual Reality Development ======== Sunday, March 12th TUTORIALS (see below for tutorial descriptions): ----8:00am-12:00pm: 2A: Virtual Reality in Medical Practice & Training 2B: Fundamentals of Optics in Head-Mounted Displays 2C: Direct Manipulation in Virtual Reality ----1:00pm-5:00pm: 2D: Gibsonian Perception for the Design of Virtual Environments 2E: Tutorial on the Psychophysics & Technology of Virtual Acoustic Displays 2F: User Interface Issues for Virtual Systems ---- 6:00pm-7:30pm: Conference Reception ---- 7:30pm-8:30pm: Welcome and Opening Introductions ---- 8:30pm-9:30pm: Dialogue on Virtual Environments Fred Brooks and Jaron Lanier ======== Monday, March 13 ---- 9:00am-10:15am: Invited Speaker Research Challenges in Virtual Environments: The Race Between Achievements and Expectations Henry Fuchs, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill ---- 10:45am-12:45pm: Human Factors Realizing the Full Potential of Virtual Reality: Human Factors Issues That Could Stand in the Way K. Stanney, University of Central Florida Implications of Balance Disturbances Following Exposure to Virtual Reality Systems R. Kennedy, Essex Corporation M. Lilienthal, Defense Modeling Simulation Office The Use of Sketch Maps to Measure Cognitive Maps of Virtual Environments M. Billinghurst, S. Weghorst, University of Washington Virtual-Reality Monitoring H. Hoffman, K. Hullfish, S. Houston, University of Washington ---- 2:15pm-3:45pm: Perception and Presence Quantification of Adaptation to Virtual-Eye Location in See-Thru Head-Mounted Displays J. Rolland, F. Biocca, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill T. Barlow, North Carolina State University A. Kancherla, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Visual Resolution and Spatial Performance: The Trade-Off between Resolution and Interactivity G. Smets, K. Overbeeke, Delft University of Technology Presence in Virtual Environments as a Function of Visual and Auditory Cues C. Hendrix, W. Barfield, University of Washington ---- 4:15pm-5:45pm: Calibration and Registration Using Texture Maps to Correct for Optical Distortion in Head-Mounted Displays B. Watson, L. Hodges, Georgia Institute of Technology Ultrasonic Calibration of a Magnetic Tracker in a Virtual Reality Space M. Ghazisaedy, D. Adamczyk, D. Sandin, R. Kenyon, T. DeFanti University of Illinois, Chicago Dynamic Registration Correction in Augmented-Reality Systems M. Bajura, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill U. Neumann, University of Southern California ======== Tuesday, March 14 ---- 9:00am-10:15am: Invited Speaker The Use of Virtual Environments for Training the Hubble Space Telescope Flight Team Bowen Loftin, University of Houston and NASA Johnson Space Center ---- 10:45am-12:45pm: Haptic Interfaces Integration of the Rutgers Master II in a Virtual Reality Simulation D. Gomez, G. Burdea, N. Langrana, Rutgers University Intermediate Representation for Stiff Virtual Objects Y. Adachi, T. Kumano, K. Ogino, Suzuki Motor Corporation Simulation and Presentation of Curved Surface in Virtual Reality Environment Through Surface Display K. Hirota, M. Hirose, University of Tokyo Pen-Based Force Display for Precision Manipulation in Virtual Environments P. Buttolo, B. Hannaford, University of Washington ---- 2:15pm-3:45pm: Panel: Whither Force Feedback? W. McNeely, Boeing Computer Services (chair) G. Burdea, Rutgers University B. Hannaford, University of Washington M. Hirose, University of Tokyo S. Jacobsen, University of Utah K. Salisbury, MIT S. Tachi, University of Tokyo ---- 4:15pm-6:15pm: Techniques Model-Based Vision as Feedback for Virtual Reality Robotics Environments E. Natonek, T. Zimmerman, L. Flu"ckiger Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Human Figure Synthesis and Animation for Virtual Space Teleconferencing K. Singh, J. Ohya, R. Parent ATR Communication Systems Research Laboratories Production and Playback of Human Figure Motion for 3D Virtual Environments J. Granieri, J. Crabtree, N. Badler University of Pennsylvania A Simple and Efficient Method for Accurate Collision Detection among Deformable Polyhedral Objects in Arbitrary Motion A. Smith, Y. Kitamura, H. Takemura, F. Kishino ATR Communication Systems Research Laboratories ======== Wednesday, March 15 ---- 9:00am-10:30am: Tools Design and Applications of a High-Resolution Insert Head-Mounted Display A. Yoshida, Universita"t Mannheim J. Rolland, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill J. Reif, Duke University A Vision-Based Head Tracker for Fish Tank Virtual Reality---VR without Head Gear J. Rekimoto Sony Computer Science Laboratory Intelligent Assistance for Intravascular Tele-Surgery and Experiments on Virtual Simulator F. Arai, M. Ito, T. Fukuda, M. Negoro, Nagoya University T. Naito, Kinjo Gakuin University ---- 11:00am-12:30am: Distributed VR Infrastructure Exploiting Reality with Multicast Groups: A Network Architecture for Large Scale Virtual Environments M. Macedonia, M. Zyda, D. Pratt, D. Brutzman, P. Barham Naval Postgraduate School EM---An Environment Manager for Building Networked Virtual Environments Q. Wang, M. Green, C. Shaw University of Alberta BrickNet: Sharing Object Behaviors on the Net G. Singh, L. Serra, W. Png, A. Wong, H. Ng National University of Singapore ---- 2:15pm-3:45pm: Distributed VR Applications Interacting in Distributed Collaborative Virtual Environments W. Broll, German National Research Center for Computer Science An Application of Shared Virtual Reality to Situational Training S. Stansfield, N. Miner, Sandia National Laboratories D. Shawver, D. Rogers, University of New Mexico A Distributed Virtual Environment for Concurrent Engineering J. Maxfield, T. Fernando, P. Dew, University of Leeds ---- 4:15pm-5:45pm: Panel: Networked Virtual Environments M. Zyda, Naval Postgraduate School (chair) R. Gossweiler, University of Virginia J. Morrison, MaK Technologies S. Singhal, Stanford University M. Macedonia, Naval Postgraduate School ==== GENERAL INFORMATION ==== ==== LOCATION AND ACCOMMODATIONS ==== North Carolina is characterized by its beautiful landscape. With 300 miles of beaches, islands and inlets along the Atlantic Ocean, and the breathtaking Great Smoky and Blue Ridge Mountains it is a destination worth visiting. In the 1950's and '60s, a large part of North Carolina's southeast Durham evolved into Research Triangle Park, now the world's largest university-related research park and the namesake for the vast Triangle Region. The City of Durham encompasses 75% of Research Triangle Park, with Raleigh to the southeast end of the Triangle, and Chapel Hill found in the southwest corner. The Symposium will take place at the Sheraton Imperial Hotel & Convention Center, located in the heart of Research Triangle Park, just minutes away from Raleigh-Durham International Airport. Special Rates for VRAIS '95 Registrants: Single or Double - Hotel Level = $95.00, Single - Concierge Level = $123.00, Double - Concierge Level = $133.00 To guarantee your reservation, you MUST make your reservation with payment directly to the hotel to cover the first night's stay by check or credit card using the official reservation form below. ** DEADLINE FOR HOTEL RESERVATIONS: February 18, 1995 ** ==== AIRLINE TRANSPORTATION ==== Bristol Travel has been named the official travel agency for VRAIS '95 and can assist you with all your travel needs. To make your reservations call Bristol Travel at 1-800-762-2746 or (714) 285-1145 and ask about special fares for VRAIS '95. ==== TRANSPORTATION FROM THE AIRPORT ==== The Sheraton Imperial provides complimentary shuttle service to and from the airport for guests of the hotel every 30 minutes. You may also request a shuttle pick-up at the Sheraton Imperial courtesy phone located in the Baggage Claim area. Taxi fare runs between $8 and $10. ==== EXHIBITS ==== There will be an exhibits area at VRAIS '95. Vendors and publishers will be displaying the latest technology in Virtual Reality. Exhibits are open to all conference participants. For exhibit information, contact: Karen Haines Dept. of EECE, UNM Albuquerque, NM 87131 Email: Karen@eece.unm.edu (505)254-9974 ==== VR LABORATORY TOURS ==== Tours of University of North Carolina's Graphics and Image Lab and Research Triangle Institute's Applied Virtual Reality Lab will be available to conference participants. Please see course registration form for tour time and date selection. Bus transportation for each tour is $8.00. ==== FOR MORE INFORMATION === Please contact the VRAIS '95 Symposium office if you have questions or require further information about any aspect of the conference. VRAIS '95 Symposium Office 2603 Main Street, Suite 690 Irvine, CA 92714 USA 714-752-8205 (Telephone) 714-752-7444 (Fax) E-mail Address: 74710.2266@compuserve.com ==== REFUND POLICY ==== If your registration must be canceled, your fee will be refunded less $50 U.S. administration costs. You must notify us in writing by February 15, 1995. No refunds can be given after this date. ==== VRAIS '95 CONFERENCE REGISTRATION FORM ==== Sheraton Imperial Hotel & Convention Center Research Triangle Park, North Carolina March 11-15, 1995 Last Name _______________________________________________________________ First Name/Middle _______________________________________________________ IEEE Membership # _______________________________________________________ (must be entered to qualify for discount) Mailing Address _________________________________________________________ City _________________________ State ___________ Postal Code ____________ Country _________________ E-mail ________________________________________ Office Telephone ________________________________________________________ Fax _____________________________________________________________________ TO APPEAR ON BADGE Name: ___________________________________________________________________ Affiliation: ____________________________________________________________ City/State: _____________________________________________________________ CONFERENCE REGISTRATION FEES ENCLOSED (includes one set of Proceedings) Before Feb 10, 1995 After Feb 10, 1995 IEEE Member _____ $ 350 _____ $ 420 Non Members _____ $ 435 _____ $ 525 *Students _____ $ 95 _____ $ 110 * Students must include letter from Dept. Head stating full-time student status I WOULD LIKE TO PURCHASE ADDITIONAL PROCEEDINGS: Number of Copies _______ X $35 = TOTAL $_________ VR Laboratory Tours ($8 per tour): UNC Demo ____ Monday (6pm - 9pm) ____ Monday (8:30pm - 11:30pm) ____ Tuesday (6pm - 9pm) ____ Tuesday (8:30pm - 11:30pm) RTI Demo ____ Monday (6pm - 9pm) ____ Monday (8:30pm - 11:30pm) ____ Tuesday (6pm - 9pm) ____ Tuesday (8:30pm - 11:30pm) Tutorial Registration Fees: Tutorials will be held on Saturday, March 11th and Sunday, March 12th. Tutorials may be canceled if there is an insufficient number of registrants. Registration will be on a first-come, first-served basis. Only registered conference participants may register for Tutorials. Full day tutorials count as two tutorials. Students who supply a letter from Dept. Head stating full-time student status are charged half the appropriate IEEE Member price for tutorial registration. IEEE Member IEEE Member Non-Member Non-Member by Feb.10 after Feb.10 by Feb.10 after Feb.10 One Tutorial $150 $190 $185 $225 Two Tutorials $200 $250 $250 $300 Three Tutorials $250 $310 $315 $375 Four Tutorials $275 $340 $350 $410 Tutorial Selection Please indicate tutorial #'s (e.g., 1A, 2C) Tutorial # Alternate ____ One Tutorial ____ ____ ____ Two Tutorials ___ ___ ____ ____ Three Tutorials ___ ___ ___ ____ ____ Four Tutorials ___ ___ ___ ___ ____ Payment Enclosed: Registration Fees: $________________ Tutorial Fees: $________________ Additional Proceedings: $________________ Professional Tours ($8 per tour) $________________ GRAND TOTAL ENCLOSED: $________________ Please enclose checks payable to VRAIS '95 Check # ____________ Amount $ ____________ OR...... Credit Card # ____________________________________ Exp. Date __________ Please indicate Credit Card: VISA ____ MC____ AMEX ____ Authorized Signature __________________________________________ (FOREIGN PAYMENTS MUST BE MADE BY DRAFT ON A US BANK IN US DOLLARS) Mail conference registration form to : VRAIS '95 Symposium Office 2603 Main Street, Suite 690 Irvine, CA 92714, USA Telephone: 714-752-8205 Fax: 714-752-7444 ==== VRAIS '95 HOTEL RESERVATION FORM ==== Please reserve before the February 18, 1995 deadline. After that time, rooms are subject to availability. Mail hotel reservation form to: Sheraton Imperial Hotel & Convention Center P.O. Box 13099 Research Triangle Park, NC 27709 Reservations: (919) 941-5050 ext. 2500, Fax: (919) 941-5156 Arrival Date: _________ Arrival Time: _________ Departure Time: _________ Hotel Level Concierge Level Room Type __Single - $95 __Single - $123 __King __Double - $95 __Double - $133 __Double/Double Name:______________________________________________________________ Company: __________________________________________________________ Address: __________________________________________________________ City/State/Zip/Country: ___________________________________________ Telephone: ________________________________________________________ Sharing Room with: ________________________________________________ Check if Handicapped Accommodations required: ______ Name on Credit Card: ______________________________________________ Credit Card Number: _______________________________________________ American Express_______ Visa________ MasterCard________ Discover_______ Diners Club_______ Authorized Signature: ______________________ Expiration Date:_____________ One night's deposit enclosed $_________ Make check payable and mail to The Sheraton Imperial Hotel & Convention Center. Reservations subject to cancellation after 4PM unless held by one night's deposit or credit card guarantee. Sheraton check-in time is 3:00PM. Check-out time is 12:00 noon. Reservations must include a first night's deposit, plus 11% tax or guarantee with accepted credit card. ==== TUTORIAL DESCRIPTIONS ==== Tutorial 1A: An Introduction to Virtual Reality (half-day) Organizer: Henry Sowizral This tutorial provides an introduction to virtual reality and its associated technologies. It begins with an overview of how a VR system operates, a brief history of VR, and videos showing a collection of VR applications in operation. It continues with a survey discussing the component parts of a VR system, both hardware and software, including information on how those components operate and pointers to suppliers of various products. The hardware section focuses mainly on display devices and trackers but includes other modalities such as sound and touch. The software section discusses the process of "world creation", products for constructing world models, the structure of a VR runtime environment, and existing VR runtime environments. The tutorial concludes with an review of outstanding issues in VR. Tutorial 1B: Merging Supercomputers with Virtual Reality (half-day) Organizers: Trina M. Roy & Carolina Cruz-Neira Recent developments in technology have allowed real-time communication between graphics workstations and supercomputers. This tutorial shows how these advances can be applied to the use of virtual reality to interactively visualize data from HPCC applications. The tutorial surveys models of virtual environments and discusses how their software design affects the overall performance of a HPCC-VR environment. Techniques for the real-time steering of simulations running on remote supercomputers, including successive refinement, are presented. Also covered are several working HPCC applications in VR along with discussions of their design processes. Tutorial 1C: Multimedia Systems & Applications (full-day) Organizer: Borko Furht The objective of this tutorial is to provide an in-depth survey of the state-of-the-art in multimedia system design and applications. We will begin with basic definitions and requirements for multimedia systems, and continue with an overview of multimedia compression techniques and standards (such as JPEG, MPEG, and H.261). We will then discuss multimedia networks and protocols, including traditional networks (Ethernet, Token ring) and some new networks, such as ATM. Basic concepts and techniques of media synchronization (audio and video) will be presented. Techniques for multimedia storage and retrieval, as well as video partitioning methods will be introduced. An overview of multimedia systems, tools, and applications will be presented. Case study of the video-on-demand application including interactive TV will be analyzed in detail. This tutorial assumes little or no familiarity with multimedia systems. Tutorial 1D: Advanced Issues in Virtual Reality Systems Design (half-day) Organizer: Henry Sowizral This tutorial delves into the many topics involved in making the VR experience more "real" such as correcting for errors introduced by the display's optical pathway, correcting for tracker errors and lag, understanding how to use the graphics hardware most effectively, handling scene complexity, and inserting an ego-centric human model (avatar) into the scene. The tutorial concludes with a description of augmented environments and their operation. Tutorial 1E: Human Factors in Virtual Reality Development (half-day) Organizers: Dennis R. Proffitt & Mary K. Kaiser This half-day tutorial will provide an overview of basic perceptual functioning as it relates to the design of virtual environment systems. The tutorial consists of three parts. First, basic issues in visual perception will be presented, including discussions of the visual sensations of brightness and color, and of the visual perception of depth relationships in three dimensional space (with a special emphasis on motion-specified depth). The second section will discuss the importance of conducting human factors user studies and evaluations. Examples and suggestions on how best to get help with user studies will be provided. Finally, we will discuss how perceptual psychologists and computer engineers can work together as a team -- drawing on their complementary competencies -- to develop optimal VR systems, technologies, and techniques. Tutorial 2A: Virtual Reality in Medical Practice & Training (half-day) Organizer: Kirby Vosburgh VR has been applied to medicine both in the training of physicians and in patient care. The technical basis of this work and commercial and academic developments will be reviewed. In particular, we will discuss the sources of generic and specific anatomical information and its organization and application to the 3D models, including the major efforts to develop "standard" 3D anatomical data bases. Then, the use of 3D models in the training of physicians will be evaluated, with emphasis on incorporation of realistic tactile feedback and perturbation of the model structures. The extension of this approach to "telesurgery" will be described, including the technical challenges in implementing such a system. The use of VR technology in clinical experiments will be covered from various perspectives: 1) Current work in teleradiology, 2) The use of 3D models in surgical planning, 3) The application of video merging techniques to real time surgery, 4) Real time image acquisition and display during surgery. In these areas, emphasis will be placed on the ability of VR techniques to complement and improve the performance of the physician. Tutorial 2B: Fundamentals of Optics in Head-Mounted Displays (half-day) Organizer: Jannick P. Rolland Head-mounted displays have been designed since the 60's, yet we are all awaiting the "ultimate" HMD with high-resolution and very wide field-of-view. Some basic knowledge of what is achievable with today's technology coupled with an analysis of your application may help you make choices that will most benefit the advance of your work. This course will enable you to: * learn the basic principles of optical imaging in head-mounted displays (HMDs) * list the different approaches to HMD design * explain their principal advantages and disadvantages * list available technologies and their trade-offs * become more knowledgeable on image quality criteria such as the effect of different optical aberrations on the images and what one needs to know about display photometry * understand how the optics interface to the graphical software * untangle some of the calibration nightmares you may be facing. An extended bibliography will be included and active participation will be encouraged with enough time for questions/answers. Tutorial 2C: Direct Manipulation in Virtual Reality (half-day) Organizer: Steve Bryson This course will survey the issues that arise in the design and implementation of direct manipulation interfaces in virtual reality. After a statement of the various aspects of the problem, we survey available tracking technologies. Various representations of tracking data, types of tracking error, and overcoming these errors via calibration and predictive tracking will be discussed. We will next discuss the virtual environment from the perspective of sampling: how trackers sample the real world and how the user samples the virtual environment via the frames of a display; the inference of behavior from samples via interpolation and signal reconstruction; minimal sample rates from sampling theory such as the Shannon-Nyquist limit; the impact of truncated samples, jitter, and over-sampling. We next discuss the human factors of direct manipulation: Fitts' Law for pick and place tasks and manual tracking; the impact of lag and frame rate on Fitts' Law and manual tracking. Turning to the design of virtual objects for direct manipulation, we discuss how collision detection is performed, examining the types of feedback that may be missing and how other feedback can be added. We end with a discussion of metaphor to suggest manipulation techniques, both in terms of overall environment design and object-by-object and describe the use of virtual tools for indirect manipulation. Tutorial 2D: Gibsonian Perception for the Design of Virtual Environments (half-day) Organizers: G.J.F. Smets, C.J. Overbeeke, & P.J. Stappers The object of this tutorial is to present an overview of what Gibsonian perception/action research has to offer for the design of virtual environments. Despite the great interest in the human interface with the computer, comparatively little of this research has seeped through into the major development works such as those presented at conferences like CHI, VRST, VRAIS, SIGGRAPH. Nevertheless, principles from Gibsonian perception theory have been shown to be a useful guide to optimizing the interaction with artifacts, be they simple tools or advanced computers. Applications of this approach typically exploit users' everyday perceptual-motor skills instead of relying on their cognitive skills like deductive reasoning and memory. Topics covered are (1) Comparing `Classical' and `Gibsonian' perception theories. (2) The fit between observer and (virtual) environment. (3) Consequences for telepresence. (4) Perceptual meaning (form semantics). (5) Where to find recent perception/action research. Tutorial 2E: Tutorial on the Psychophysics & Technology of Virtual Acoustic Displays (half-day) Organizers: Beth Wenzel & Scott Foster Virtual acoustics, also known as 3-D sound and auralization, is the simulation of the complex acoustic field experienced by a listener within an environment. The tutorial will review the basic psychoacoustical cues that determine human sound localization and the techniques used to measure these cues as Head-Related Transfer Functions (HRTFs) for the purpose of synthesizing virtual acoustic environments. Psychophysical experiments examining the perceptual validity of the synthesis technique will also be reviewed and factors which can enhance perceptual accuracy and realism will be discussed. Of particular interest is the relationship between individual differences in HRTFs and in behavior, the role of reverberant cues in reducing the perceptual errors observed with virtual sound sources, and the importance of developing perceptually-valid methods of simplifying the synthesis technique. Recent implementations of real time systems will also be discussed and an attempt made to interpret their quoted system specifications in terms of perceptual performance. A more detailed explanation of systems developed by Crystal River will be presented as examples of current systems including a discussion of future directions in 3D audio hardware. The Snapshot system recently developed for measuring individualized HRTFs in any type of environment will also be described and demonstrated if time allows. Finally, some critical issues for the future will be outlined with an emphasis on applications in virtual reality. Tutorial 2F: User Interface Issues for Virtual Systems (half-day) Organizer: Chris Esposito This tutorial will present a view of what the User Interface (UI) and Virtual Reality (VR) communities have to offer one another. We will do this by answering the following four questions: 1) What can the VR community learn from the existing body of UI research? 2) What new opportunities and challenges does VR have for the UI community? 3) What has the VR community learned that modifies or extends what we know about interfaces? 4) What aspects of existing UI work are not useful in VR? The tutorial is divided up into 2 broad sections, with the first section devoted to question 1, and section 2 for questions 2-4. Although this tutorial was first given at VRAIS '93, a number of new topics have been added. The first set of topics has to do with the definition, calibration, and interactive control of virtual bodies. The second set of topics is about an empirical framework for matching up devices, interaction techniques, and application tasks, and assessing the usability of the resulting systems. ==== ORGANIZING COMMITTEE ==== General Chair: David Mizell Boeing Computer Services Program Co-Chairs: Press Relations: Steve Bryson Nadine Miner CSC/NASA Ames Research Center Sandia National Laboratories Steve Feiner Local Arrangements Chair: Columbia University Jannick Rolland University of North Carolina Organization Chair: Robert Marks Video Proceedings Chair: University of Washington Blake Hannaford University of Washington Publications Chair: Brenda Thein Tutorials Chair: Army Human Engineering Lab Beth Wenzel NASA Ames Research Center Finance Chair: Judy Qualy-White Exhibits Chair: Boeing Military Airplanes Karen Haines University of New Mexico Publicity Chair: Mary Lou Padgett Far East International Liaison: Auburn University Toshio Fukuda Nagoya University European International Liaison: Mel Slater QMW University of London ==== PROGRAM COMMITTEE ==== Bernard D. Adelstein, Sterling Software/NASA Ames Research Center Joanna Alexander, Zombie Inc. Ron Azuma, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Norman Badler, University of Pennsylvania Woodrow Barfield, University of Washington Stephen Benton, MIT Chuck Blanchard, Talisman Dynamics, Inc. Mark Bolas, Fake Space Labs Kellogg Booth, University of British Columbia Pere Brunet, Polytechnical University of Catalonia Grigore Burdea, Rutgers University Thomas P. Caudell, University of New Mexico Chris Codella, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center Carolina Cruz-Neira, University of Illinois at Chicago Michael Deering, Sun Microsystems Computer Corporation Rae Earnshaw, University of Leeds Steve Ellis, NASA Ames Research Center Jose Encarnacao, Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Lennart Fahlen, Swedish Institute of Computer Science Kim Fairchild, National University of Singapore Wolfgang Felger, Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Scott Foster, Crystal River Engineering Henry Fuchs, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Thomas Funkhouser, AT&T Bell Laboratories Michael Gigante, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology Martin Go"bel, Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Mark Green, University of Alberta Hideki Hashimoto, University of Tokyo Richard Held, MIT Michitaka Hirose, University of Tokyo Larry Hodges, Georgia Tech John Hollerbach, University of Utah Philip Hubbard, Cornell University Hiroo Iwata, University of Tsukuba Rob Jacob, Tufts University Adam Janin, Boeing Computer Services Mary Kaiser, NASA Ames Research Center Ken-ichi Kameyama, Toshiba R&D Center Arie Kaufman, SUNY, Stony Brook Myron Krueger, Artificial Reality Wolfgang Kru"ger, German National Research Center for Computer Science James Lackner, Ashton Graybiel Spatial Orientation Laboratory Andy Liu, Nissan Cambridge Basic Research Nadia Magnenat-Thalmann, University of Geneva Beth Marcus, EXOS, Inc. Michael W. McGreevy, NASA Ames Research Center Margaret Minsky, Interval Junji Nomura, Matsushita Electric Works, Ltd. Shojiro Nagata, Stereo Researcher Randy Pausch, University of Virginia Tom Piantanida, SRI International Steve Pieper, Medical Media Systems Ronald Pose, Monash University Timothy Poston, National University of Singapore Dennis Proffitt, University of Virginia Warren Robinett, Virtual Reality Games, Inc. Jannick Rolland, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill Joseph M. Rosen, M.D., Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center Larry Rosenblum, Naval Research Laboratory Rick Satava, Advanced Research Projects Agency Luis Serra, National University of Singapore Gurminder Singh, National University of Singapore Mel Slater, QMW University of London Henry Sowizral, Boeing Computer Services Mandayam A. Srinivasan, MIT Sharon Stansfield, Sandia National Labs Lawrence W. Stark, University of California at Berkeley Dave Sturman, Medialab Susumu Tachi, University of Tokyo Daniel Thalmann, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology James Thomas, Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory Andries van Dam, Brown University Elizabeth Wenzel, NASA Ames Research Center Alan Wexelblat, MIT David Zeltzer, MIT Michael J. Zyda, Naval Postgraduate School