From: sharp@cpsc.ucalgary.ca (Maurice Sharp) Subject: Re: Computerized Reality: Better than VR Date: Fri, 19 Jul 91 01:56:23 GMT Message-ID: <1991Jul19.015623.28526@cpsc.ucalgary.ca> Organization: U. of Calgary Computer Science In article galt@dsd.es.com (Greg Alt - Perp) writes: >In article <1991Jul17.230416.16895@cpsc.ucalgary.ca>, sharp@cpsc.ucalgary.ca >(Maurice Sharp) writes: [stuff about utility of VR as copy of reality] > >There are many reasons why jotting down info on virtual paper would be >better than real paper. Imagine having a spelling/grammar checker built >into your notepad. OK, this one I will buy, though I can already do that on my Mac. >Imagine a keyword search through virtual notes... >e.g. You wrote something down about a meeting, so you type (on a virtual >keyboard) "find 'meeting'", and suddenly the filing cabinet opens, and a >stack of papers flies right into your hand, and they are all nicely >typed. You then look through the papers and find one that mentions it >will be a meeting with a certain group. You then type "list conferences" >and you see several boxes floating in space, each one has a meeting in >progress inside of it. You pick up the box with the meeting you want, >and suddenly you are in the virtual meeting. All without leaving your >desk (and only a few keystrokes). All of this is a completely different paradigm from the 'reality' of paper and pencil. It requires learning the new way of interacting with my notes. It also already exists in todays laptops and palmtops. Granted it is not all pervasive, and the storage is limited. But that is not a particularly hard problem. All you have to do is look at the prototype Mac notebook demod at the recent developers conference. It is about the size of a normal pad of paper and does all of the things you list above in more intuitive ways. All the ideas work, all can be modeled after real reality, but none require VR. So what is VR *for* ? My original comments still hold, you can get further with computer enhanced reality (chips in toasters that know about where to return them when they go wrong, ...). And it is more cost efficient and likely to be more pervasive sooner than VR. maurice Maurice Sharp Technical Coordinator, Art and Virtual Environments Project (403) 289 5462 / 762 6194 FAX (403) 281 0204 / 762 6659 #206 - 2010 Ulster Road N.W. sharp@cpsc.UCalgary.CA Calgary, Alberta, T2N 4C2 AOL: FSAMaurice -- Maurice Sharp MSc. Student (403) 220 7690 University of Calgary Computer Science Department 2500 University Drive N.W. sharp@cpsc.UCalgary.CA Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4 AOL FSAMaurice