From: Arthur Zwern Subject: Re: PROD: General Reality Introduces New Wide FOV HMD Date: Thu, 15 May 1997 18:12:37 +0000 Message-ID: <337B5210.6CFA@genreality.com> Organization: General Reality Company GRC HMD FOV Taxonomy According To Robin: > 20 degrees: Normal FOV > 40 degrees: Wide FOV > 60 degrees: Very wide FOV > 80 degrees: Very very wide FOV > 100 degrees: Very very very wide FOV > 120 degrees: Very very very very wide FOV > 140 degrees: Very very very very very wide FOV > Not quite - we reserve very very very wide for an HMD that is "immersive", but strictly speaking, no immersive HMD exists because none covers a human's entire FOV. Similarly, there is no such thing as "real-time" 3D rendering, because electrons move at a finite speed so there is always a lag. And I just read an advert for a $500 graphics accelerator that brings "the ultimate in 2D, 3D, and video acceleration to your Windows NT desktop", although it is from a large company that will likely have a more ultimate product next month. The point is that marketing messages aren't intended to generate semantic definitions, but to position products in the minds of prospective customers. I think there were a couple additional responses I should reply to, but I can not access them since my "full service Internet provider" provides the additional service of dumping this newsgroup's posts after a few days (at no extra charge). In case Jorge's email to me was a copy of a post, suffice it to say that I have read some of the literature in this area (though not as much as a professional researcher might have time for), and I have seen that for some "immersive" tasks, human performance continues increasing beyond 45 degrees FOV. I have not seen anything that can be called a "standard" in either the sense of an IEEE publication or in the commercial sense of industry domination, but I am open to admitting my mistake if someone provides the conference paper defining "wide". In the meantime, does anyone want to buy a "narrow FOV" HMD that still has the same 45 degree HFOV it did yesterday? It has a money-back guarantee in case you feel deceived by the hype... Cheers! Arthur Zwern -- Arthur Zwern, President General Reality Company 124 Race St. San Jose, CA 95126 USA Phone +408-289-8340 FAX +408-289-8258 Arthur@GenReality.com