From: smithc@stolaf.edu (Christopher A Smith)
Subject: APPS: Possible Medical Application of VR -- Outsider Question
Date: Thu, 2 Apr 1992 20:21:57 GMT
Organization: St. Olaf College; Northfield, MN



Just to give advanced warning, I am not a specialist in any means in
the field of virtual reality.  I've read several articles on the
subject recently, and the whole idea of virtual realities and the
seemingly endless possible applications of them has me intrigued.

While reaidng an article about it in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune a
couple days ago, I had an idea about a possible medical application,
and I wanted to get some opinions on it.  It's a purely hypothetical,
theoretical application; I'm not concerned about technicalities in the
implementation of such a virtual reality -- the technical folks can
argue those out.

First, though, some brief background info...  I have a genetic
disorder called albinism, characterized by the absence of pigment in
my system.  One of the side-effects of albinism is horrible vision:
extreme sensitivity to light, strange light-dark imbalances,
interference from light bordering on the visible spectrum, and most
annoying of all, purely two-dimensional sight (no depth perception is
possible because of optic nerve defects).

Right now the state-of-the-art optical toys to correct my vision are a
pair of glasses with two microtelescopes mounted in each lens,
sticking backwards to my eyes (hence invisible to outsiders).  They
work fine, except light plays an extremely important role because of
their size.  The scopes are mounted about 1 mm directly above the
center of sight, which can be annoying at times.  They can also
interfere with peripheral vision.

Here's what I was thinking...

A few years ago while I was working at NASA in Washington, D.C., I was
shown the preliminary design of a new pair of glasses, originally
based on robotics, for those of us with visual disabilities.  They
were in essence like virtual reality goggles, except smaller.  A
pen-sized camera was mounted on the left and right top sides of the
glasses.  On the inside were two LCD (or something along those lines)
screens on which the images from the camera, filtered by a waist-mount
computer, were displayed.  Magnification was allowed.  Two "trackers"
(nature unknown) were installed on the inside of the glasses, each
paying attention to one eye.  When the eyes moved, the cameras would
move accordingly.  This is where my idea comes from...

Could a possible application of virtual realities involve taking live
video of the existing reality in which we live (no metaphysics
comments, please), automatically or manually adjust the amount of
light in the image, allow for magnification of the entire image or a
portion thereof, and then -- here's the virtual reality aspect;
everything else seems like graphics workstation responsibilities --
manipulate the existing images to give them a pseudo three-dimensional
"feel" to them?  I don't know how that could be done since I cannot
perceive nor show (through drawing) a third dimension.  The idea of
manipulating images, either by literally moving them or distorting
them somehow, seemed like a possible application.

Any thoughts?  Could this, or the idea of visual aids, theoretically
be a possible application?

Just curious...  Thanks!

     ============================================================
     Christopher Smith				smithc@stolaf.edu
     St. Olaf College			     German & Mathematics
     Northfield, MN  USA	       (and combinations thereof)
     ------------------------------------------------------------
		   "First get your facts, and then
	 you can distort them at your leisure" -- Mark Twain