From: "Bruce Cohen;;50-662;LP=A;" Subject: Re: VR Sensual Feedback Date: 17 Jan 91 19:24:27 GMT Organization: Tektronix Inc. In article <1991Jan16.235717.21587@agate.berkeley.edu> latta@sting.Berkeley.EDU (Craig R. Latta) writes: > > That's silly. Then the VR hardware includes an arbitrary amount of > likely expensive food. > True, but the principle is the same as having overlays for keyboards for applications which use keys for functions. Sure, it's not very flexible, but it allows you to experiment. I've seen a number of comments in this newsgroup to the effect of "It's just not good enough because you can't do BLAH" (I think I've said that myself about my own hobby-horses, so no blame is attached). My viewpoint now is that VR is very much an experimental artform/engineering discipline at the moment; until we know what we need to be able to do to virtualize an environment which some people would actually find useful, we should just continue to experiment. >> Oh, you wanted to change the taste of the food too? Wait for release 2. >> But be sure you get the bug-free version; you might not like the overtone >> of diesel-flavored tunafish that the gustatory simulation software adds to >> the caviar ;-). > > No, really. How can a transparent sense of taste be effected without > disrupting speech or using brain surgery? Transparent taste can't be done as far as I can see, but maybe you don't need it. You might be able to get by with something chewable in your mouth (say foam plastic) and a taste systhesizer. Granted, you can't change the texture of the virtual food; the snack food designers won't be happy. YOu build a taste synthesizer in the same way you'd synthsize smell: a system containing a bank of standard tastes (odors), and a mechanism for delivering metered amounts of the standards to the taste buds (olfactory bulb). The problem of smell has been discussed here before; taste adds a dimension of potential discomfort (if you've ever had a breather stuck in you mouth you understand *that* problem!). As with taste, flushing the system rapidly to prevent old sensations from lingering is also a problem. > Another disappointing thing about VR is that the basic human form is > changed from the norm to something with equipment stuck all over it. You > can't convincingly run your hands all over someone in cyberspace. You can if we can design some form of high resolution tactile feedback. Then you can run your hands over the air, and the system will give you the sensation of holding a person who might be in the next room. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Speaker-to-managers, aka Bruce Cohen, Computer Research Lab email: brucec@tekchips.labs.tek.com Tektronix Laboratories, Tektronix, Inc. phone: (503)627-5241 M/S 50-662, P.O. Box 500, Beaverton, OR 97077