From: Mel Slater Subject: ANNOUNCE: VR Seminar on MBONE Date: Tue, 21 May 1996 10:37:48 +0100 Organization: University College London The following seminar is planned to go out on the MBONE 1.00-2.00pm BST Friday 24th May. More details for the MBONE can be found on http://www-mice-nsc.cs.ucl.ac.uk/mice-nsc/ Details of the seminar on http://cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/m.slater/Meetings/stark.html ----------- REALITY IS VIRTUAL: Why Virtual Reality Works Professor Lawrence W. Stark Telerobotic and Neurology Units School of Optometry, 485 Minor Hall University of California at Berkeley Berkeley, California 94720 email: stark@pupil.berkeley.edu Friday 24th May, 1.00-2.00, [Room 229] Department of Computer Science, University College London, Room 229 Pearson Building ABSTRACT Virtual reality displays work because of visual illusions that are part of the normal visual process in both "real" and virtual environments. Visual illusions abound in normal vision - illusions of clarity and completeness, of continuity in time and space, of presence and vivacity - and are part and parcel of the visual world in which we live. These illusions are discussed in terms of the human visual system, with its high resolution fovea, moved from point to point in the visual scene by rapid saccadic eye movements (EMs). This sampling of visual information is supplemented by a low resolution, wide peripheral field-of-view, especially sensitive to motion. The scanpath theory suggests that cognitive-spatial models control perception,imagery and "seeing", and also control the EMs that shift the fovea in the scanpath mode. Illusions provide for presence, the sense of being within an environment. They equally well lead to "Telepresence", the sense of being within a virtual display, especially if the operator is intensely interacting within an eye-hand and head-eye human-machine interface (HMI)that provides for congruent visual and motor frames-of-reference. Interaction, immersion and interest compel telepresence; intuitive functioning and engineered information flows can optimize human adaptation to the artificial new world of virtual reality (VR), as VR expands into entertainment, simulation, telerobotics, scientific visualization and other professional work. -- Mel Slater, Department of Computer Science,University College London, Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT, UK TEL: +44 (0)171 419 3709 FAX: +44 (0)171 387 1397 Fax http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/staff/M.Slater/