From: bm@cs.columbia.edu (Blair MacIntyre) Subject: Re: REV-PROD: VirtualIO iglasses! Date: 01 Sep 1995 15:14:39 GMT Message-ID: Organization: Columbia University >>>>> On 31 Aug 1995 16:32:37 GMT, holupka@keith.dfci.harvard.edu >>>>> (Edward J. Holupka) said: Edward> concerned about the iglasses IO interface. They use the serial port Edward> of the PC. Wouldn't connecting to the ISA/EISA bus be alot faster? No no no. You misread something. The only thing going through the serial port is the orientation tracking information. The video is via the VGA port. Edward> Plus I didn't get the impression that one could develope actual virtual Edward> worlds on them. Is it indeed possible to view 3D perspective images in Edward> the HDM? For example, each monitor of the HDM would have a slightly Edward> different image dependent on the value of interoccular distance. In Edward> addition, passing information about the head position (tracking) would Edward> also have to go through the serial port. They have similar limitations as any other LCD hmd -- they aren't full VGA resolution, for example. However, since they don't distort the image using LEEP optics the image is clearer but (unfortunately) somewhat smaller. 3D images are created using either alternate scan-line stereo or alternate frame stereo. Tons of PC software supports this style of rendering. Get a unit and try out the demos, you will be better convinced (its only $800, it's worth getting one and trying versus listening to us give our opinions). I find our units to be pretty good compared with the other HMDs I've tried on. I much prefer their high-end field-sequential colour CRT based unit, but considering its ~20x the price, I'll stick with the consumer model. -- Blair MacIntyre (bm@cs.columbia.edu), Graduate Student (Graphics and UI Lab) smail: Dept. of Computer Science, 450 Computer Science Building, 500 W 120 St. Columbia University, New York, NY 10027