From: brundage@ipac.caltech.edu (Michael Brundage) Subject: Re: INDUSTRY: Virtual Reality is Dead! Long Live Virtual Reality! Date: Wed, 21 May 1997 11:59:19 -0700 Message-ID: Organization: Infrared Processing Analysis Center, Caltech In article <19970518003000.UAA12113@ladder02.news.aol.com>, vrevnts@aol.com (Vrevnts) wrote: > Expanding the definitions to make sure that VR will not die doesn't > really seem to be the best way to go. In fact, it's almost the right > time (or late even!) to create the true definition of VR. How many > VRML web-sites meet the most standard VR criteria of being immersive > AND interactive? Very few from what I've seen. "Text based VR??? > Wouldn't that make all printed materials virtual reality? Come on, don't be silly. Text-based VR's such as MUDs have been around a lot longer than any of the computer-graphics laden VR's, and I think one could even persuasively argue that they led researchers to imagine (and make the technological leaps necessary to create) the more high-tech VRs. I further posit that one can have aural VR's -- let's not be visual bigots and exclude the blind from experiencing "virtual reality" simply because for the seeing, visual input is a significant part of "reality." However, I think no one is suggesting that your FM radio or favorite book quite passes the bar. Necessary qualities of virtual reality seem to include being "immersive" (users experience "presence," the feeling of "being there") and interactivity of a sufficiently high quality (beyond what one might encounter in one of those "choose your own ending" books, for example). I don't mean to suggest that these are the only two qualities, but any definition which requires 3D computer graphics is completely missing the point. > Yes, it has been a bumpy road and I do feel that VR is finally finding > some applications. As Tony Asch @ StrayLight used to say "What can be > done better or cheaper in VR?" I think we're finally finding > applications that will work. Text-based VR's, which you so quickly dismiss, have been used found real applications for years now. As a starting place, check out some of the literature on MOOs, such as: A New Direction in Conferencing: The First Electronic Glycoscience Conference, Hardy, Robinson, Doughty, Findsen, Towell, Towell, and Wilson. Trends in Biochemical Sciences (21), January 1996. AstroVR, An On-line Collaborative Environment for Research in Astrophysics, Van Buren, Brundage, Curtis, and Nichols. Proceedings of the 1994 ADASS Conference, Baltimore. November, 1994. http://www.math.washington.edu/~brundage/papers/astrovr.ps ) Bibliography of Electronically Available MOOs, MUDs, MUCKs, and MUSHs http://www.cas.usf.edu/english/walker/bibliog.html (just a few starting places, but maybe enough to demonstrate that text-based VRs are alive and well) michael brundage@ipac.caltech.edu