From: edlantz@aol.com (Edlantz)
Subject: Re: INDUSTRY: New VR Display Classes, etc.
Date: 30 Aug 1996 12:07:32 -0400
Organization: America Online, Inc. (1-800-827-6364)


More comments on "FishTank VR" by Michael F. Deering
(Michael.Deering@Eng.Sun.COM):

******************************************************

In article <4vlckl$bpn@newsbf02.news.aol.com> you write:
>Some comments from David Zeltzer worthy of posting:
>******************************************************
>ed-
>per our discussion on tuesday night before the panel, i have to
>dissent on your statement that VMD represents a new class of displays.
>colin ware of u. new brunswick coined the term "fishtank" VR some
>years ago -- in a CHI conference, i think -- to denote exactly what
>VMD refers to.  i've heard the term used quite often.  i'll try and
>dig up references for you.
>

My recollection was that Colin Ware had contacted us (Sun) in
discussions about naming, because of Sun's desktop VR display of the
time. We told him that our first version was at Schlumberger Palo Alto
Research labs in the mid 80's, and that we had called it "fishtank VR"
because that was the term used in many Science Fiction Novels for
similar displays dating back to the 50's.  (The holographic "tank"
would show the status of space battles, etc.) In terms of actual
devices, my '92 SIGGRAPH paper ("High Resolution Virtual Reality")
gives references to a number of "almost" fishtank VR systems, dating
back to '72.

Names are important, as they give us a common framework to have
discussions within. Sometimes there are problems, for example Sun's
"Virtual Portal" was developed at the same time as the U. Chicago
"CAVE", yet the generic name for such displays seems to be "CAVEs",
yet many people seem to think this refers exclusively to the
U. Chicago work.

Michael F. Deering (Michael.Deering@Eng.Sun.COM)