Giga Games 1/Giga Games.iso/net/vir_real/thereal.faq

Text File | 1993-06-20 | 17.0 KB | 570 lines

   This is the Frequently-Asked-Questions post (FAQ) for sci.virtual-worlds.
 Please send updates, additions to Mark A. DeLoura ([e-mail])
             This document was last modified on May 8, 1992.


Contents:
    The Newsgroup
    The Listserv
    Index to Subject-line Blips
    The Posting Archives
    Virtual Reality Bibliography
    Answers to Frequently-Asked Questions, available via FTP
    The Glove-list Archive
    Definitions
    VR Tool Index
    Other Businesses
    VR Research in Schools
    Suggested Reading List
    Other Sources of Information on Virtual Reality

========

The Newsgroup:

Sci.virtual-worlds is aimed at the discussion of aspects of virtual
reality and its related technologies.  The newsgroup is moderated by
two members of the Human Interface Technology (HIT) Lab, in Seattle,
Washington:

    Bob Jacobson                 Mark A. DeLoura
    [e-mail]           [e-mail]
    Moderator                Co-moderator/librarian

Questions concerning the newsgroup itself or operations of the HIT Lab
should be addressed to Bob.  Questions regarding the archives, FAQ, or
FTP site should go to Mark.

========

The Listserv:
(This replaces the old mailing list.)

Sci.virtual-worlds is bounced off a BITNET site, UIUCVMD at the
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  To sign on this list,
send a mail message to [e-mail] (or whatever the
appropriate manner for sending mail to bitnet might be at your site).
The body of the message should read:
    subscribe virtu-l <full_name>
Put your full name as a replacement for <full_name>, of course.  Greg
Newby is the administrator for virtu-l.  Any questions about the list
should be directed to him at: [e-mail].

========

Index to Subject-line Blips:

        ADMIN: Items of administrative importance.
        APPS:  Applications of virtual worlds in various domains.
        CONF:  Probably the most overused blip, for conferences.
        EDUC:  Having to do with schooling in the field.
        JOB:   Notice of job offers, etc.
    MISC:  Items that don't fit into any other category.
        PHIL:  Deep and profound discussions of virtuality, etc.
        SCI:   Scientific issues, like how light refracts, etc.
        SOC/CULTURE: Notes on virtual worlds and social phenomena.
        TECH:  Hard technology, codes, software, hardware, etc.
    %-):   The Awestruck Smiley symbol.  Item is of unusual interest
        or quality.

========

The Posting Archives:

Nearly all of the postings ever made to sci.virtual-worlds have been
saved, and are available via anonymous FTP.  We say "nearly all",
because some postings from the first few months have been lost.

The FTP site is ftp.u.washington.edu (128.95.136.1).  The messages
are stored in ~ftp/public/virtual-worlds/postings, and are generally
kept in monthly groups that are tar'red and compressed.  An index file
is kept in the top-level of the postings directory, and is also
compressed-- it consists of the subject lines from all postings that
are available.

Don't forget to anonymously ftp the files in binary mode!  (If you
have no idea what I'm talking about, you'd be best off talking to your
system administrator.)

========

Virtual Reality Bibliography:

There is a bibliography of VR-related papers and publications
available in the FTP site mentioned above, in the directory
~ftp/public/virtual-worlds/citations.

The bibliography is in latex/bibtex format.  If you don't have these
text formatters, the files are readable as straight text, they just
look a little messy.

========

Answers to Frequently-Asked Questions, available via FTP:

Also in the sci.virtual-worlds FTP site, there exists a large
directory filled with various information on current VR technology.
Most of this information has been obtained from sci.virtual-worlds
posts, and will be updated as things are posted to the newsgroup.  The
information will be kept in ~ftp/public/virtual-worlds/faq, and a
tar'red and compressed version of the directory will be kept as the
file ~ftp/public/virtual-worlds/faq.tar.Z (usually.  Right now it is
faq.tar, because the compress process does not decrease the size much.)

Here is a list of the current contents of the faq directory:

citations/    commercial/    conf/    other/
papers/        publications/    rsrch/    schools/

citations:
3D.optical.tracker    3D.sound    Eye-tracking
Force-feedback        Good.top.10    HCI.bibliography
Head-tracking        Text.in.VR    W.industry.papers

commercial:
3d.digitizers        AGE            Alias
Ascension        Battletech        Broderbund
CrystalRiver        Dimension        Division
EXOS            Evans&Sutherland    FakeSpaceLabs
FocalPoint        FutureVisions        GoggleVox
Gyration        Haitex            ISCAN
Interlink        Kynar            LEEP
Logitech        MaK            Matsushita
Mattel            Megatek            Polhemus
README.3dsound        README.displays        README.gloves
README.hardware        README.other        README.software
README.trackers        Reflection        Sega
Sense8            ShootingStarTech    SimGraphics
Spaceball        StereoGraphics        StrayLight
Tektronix        Telepresence        Teletact
TiNi            Transfinite        VPL/
Virtex            VirtualResearch        VirtualS
Virtus            VividEffects        WIndustries/
Worldesign        Xtensory

commercial/VPL:
EyePhones        VPL.MicroCosm        VPL.MicroCosm2
VPL.address

commercial/WIndustries:
Visette.size        W.addr            W.descrip
W.descrip1        W.descrip2        W.descrip3

conf:
CyberConf1.proceedings    CyberConf2.CFP        CyberConf2.review
CyberConf2.review2    CyberConf2.review3    CyberConf2.review4
CyberConf2.review5    CyberConf3.info        Cyberarts.91.announce
HITL.91.announce    InCyberspace.91.announce
InCyberspace.91.review    Meckler.91.announce    Meckler.91.proceedings
Nikkei.91.addr        Nikkei.91.announce    Nikkei.91.announce2
Nikkei.91.announce3    Nikkei.91.review    Nikkei.92.CFP
SRI.91.announce        SRI.91.review        SRI.91.review2
Siggraph.91.CFP        Siggraph.91.CFP2

other:
3D.renderer.PC        ALIFE            ALIFE.2
ALIFE.Tierra        BIX            BlipList
George.Coates.info    INGRAFX            MUDs
Meckler.videos        Neural.interface    Neural.interface.2
Neural.interface.3    Neural.interface.4    Senate.hearing.summary
Senate.hearing.video    Stereoscopy.bulletin    Tech2000.DC
UserInterface.92.announce            VR.Consortium
VR.Film.doc

papers:
3dm-abstr.ps.Z        3dm-impl.ps.Z        3dm-users.ps.Z
Andersson.Scenario.Z    Barlow.BeingInNothingness.Z
Barlow.CrimeAndPuzzlement.Z            Bricken.DirectionsOfGrowth.Z
Carlson.VirtualMars.Z    Farmer.GettingThere.Z
Jacobson.TowardsGlobalInitiative.Z        Jacobson.trip.reports/
Norskog.5D.Z        Norskog.VRNeeds.Z    Pausch.5DollarsADay.Z
Taylor.VisualizationSarnoff.Z            VR.paper.tar.Z
VirtualEnvironments.ps.Z            Walser.CyberspacePlayhouse.Z
Wells.Overview.Z    Wolff.InsideVR.Z

papers/Jacobson.trip.reports:
Bob.Europe.1.Z        Bob.Europe.2.Z        Bob.Europe.3.Z
Bob.Japan.1.Z        Bob.Japan.2.Z        Bob.Japan.3.Z
Bob.Sweden.Z

publications:
ArtificialRealityII    Azimuth.newsletter    CyberEdge
EccentricSpaces        Graphics.hacking    HITL.tapes
HumanScale        MakingThemMove        Mondo2000
Presence        Random.magazine.articles
Spatial.data.books    Theoretical.and.General    VR.Index
VR.Monitor        VRsourcebook        VirtualReality
WholeEarthReview

rsrch:
Boeing            Boeing.Alabama        DEC
HITL            IBM            Intel
JTTAS            NASA            NASA.3d.sound
NASA.Ames        NASA.View        NASA2
RMIT            SFI            Sarnoff
Sarnoff's.Princeton.Engine

schools:
Banff            CMU            Cal.Arts
Columbia.U        National.U.Singapore    Naval.Postgrad
Naval.Research.Lab    README            RPI
Stanford        Syracuse        Syracuse.2
Syracuse.3        U.of.Alberta        U.of.Alberta,MRToolkit
U.of.Central.Florida    U.of.Geneva        U.of.Illinois.U-C
U.of.NorthCarolina    U.of.NorthCarolina,3dm    U.of.NorthCarolina,Siggraph
U.of.Southampton    U.of.Tokyo        U.of.Toronto
U.of.Virginia        U.of.Washington        Utah
list.extended

========

The Glove-list Archive:

The Mattel PowerGlove, which was designed to be plugged into a
Nintendo home video game unit, spawned off a large discussion of how
to interface the unit to computers for simple movement in virtual
worlds.  This discussion was eventually moved to a mailing list, and
is now archived on karazm.math.uh.edu (129.7.128.1), in the directory
~ftp/pub/VR.  Also available there is the source code for interfacing
the PowerGlove to various computers.

The Glove-list still exists-- to subscribe to it, send mail to
[e-mail] with a body of:

subscribe glove-list [e-mail]

<replace [e-mail] with a valid e-mail address>

The PowerGlove itself has been discontinued, but lucky bargain-hunters
may be able to find some still available in Toys 'R Us stores or
remote stores that sell Nintendo equipment.


========

Definitions:

The definitions which are listed here are not meant to be *the*
canonical definitions of VR technology. They are instead a list of terms
which are commonly used and the intersection of many people's personal
definitions.

Cyberspace: in short, the information space which we all operate in.
    Radio waves are as much a part of the cyberspace "matrix" as
    are the means by which you are currently reading this article.
    Anything which is a means of communication or a communication
    itself could arguably be considered part of Cyberspace.
Virtual Reality (VR): Virtual Reality as a concept essentially deals
    with convincing the participant that s/he is actually in
    another place, by replacing the normal sensory input received
    by the participant with information produced by a computer.
    This is usually done through three-dimensional graphics and
    I/O devices which closely resemble the participant's normal
    interface to the physical world.  The most common I/O devices
    are gloves, which transmit information about the participant's
    hand (position, orientation, and finger bend angles), and
    head-mounted displays, which give the user a stereoscopic view
    of the virtual world via two computer-controlled display
    screens, as well as providing something to mount a
    position/orientation sensor on.
Virtual World: a Virtual World is a scene or experience which a
    participant can interact with using computer-controlled I/O
    devices.  Most virtual worlds attempt to imitate physical
    reality, but virtual worlds are not strictly tied to physical
    reality-- any set of information that can be visualized can be
    made into a virtual world that the participant can experience.
Artificial Reality: unlike the term Virtual Reality, Artificial
    Reality has come to mean something a bit more specific, due to
    Myron Kreuger's books "Artficial Reality" and "Artificial
    Reality II".  Artificial Reality is like VR in that the
    participant's experiences are manipulated/enhanced by a
    computer, but the Artificial Reality experiences are not as
    intrusive-- they usually don't require the participant to
    don goggles, or wear a glove, and they often involve full-body
    motion without any extra interface whatsoever.  Read the book
    "Artificial Reality II" for more details.

========

VR Tool Index:

Gloves
------
CyberGlove
    Jim Kramer
    Virtex Technologies
    P.O. Box 5984
    Stanford, CA 94309
    Phone:    [phone] (599-2331?)
DataGlove II
    VPL Research Inc.
    950 Tower Lane
    14th Floor
    Foster City, CA 94404
    Phone:    [phone]
    Fax:    [phone] (?)
EXOS Dextrous Hand Master
    EXOS, Inc.
    8 Blanchard Road.
    Burlington, MA 08103
Mattel PowerGlove
    Discontinued-- Check Toys 'R Us.
Teletact Force-feedback Glove
    Advanced Robotics Research Ltd
    National Advanced Robotics Research Centre
    University Road,
    SALFORD,  M5 4PP,
    United Kingdom.
    Phone:    [phone]
    Fax:    [phone]

Stereo Displays (for LCD shutter glasses and other displays, see FTP site.)
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
BOOM (Binocular Omni-Orientational Monitor)
        Fake Space Labs
        935 Hamilton Avenue
        Menlo Park, CA 94025
        Phone: [phone]
        Fax:   [phone]
Cyberface II
        LEEP Systems, Inc.
        241 Crescent St.
        Waltham, MA  02154
       Phone:    [phone]
    Fax:    [phone]
EyePhones (various models)
    VPL Research
    656 Bair Island Road, Suite 304
    Redwood City, CA 94063
    Phone:    [phone]
    Fax:    [phone]
Flight Helmet
        Virtual Research
        1313 Socorro Ave.
        Sunnyvale, CA 94089
    Phone:    [phone]
Visette
        W Industries Limited
        Virtuality House
        3 Oswin Rd
        Brailsford Industrial Park
        Leicester
        LE3 1HR
    Phone:    [phone]
    Fax:    [phone]

Trackers
--------
2D/6D Mouse (Red Baron)
        Logitech, Inc.
        6505 Kaiser Drive,
        Fremont, CA  94555
    Phone:    [phone]
    Fax:    [phone]
3Space Isotrak
    Polhemus Navigational Sciences
    P.O. Box 560
    1 Hercules Drive
    Colchester, VT 05546
    Phone:    [phone]
    Fax:    [phone]
ADL-1 Mechanically-Coupled Tracker
    Shooting Star Technology
    1921 Holdom Avenue
    Burnaby, B.C. Canada
    V5B 3W4
    Phone:     [phone]
    Fax:       [phone]
The Bird / Flock of Birds / Big Bird
    Ascension Technology Corp.
    P.O. Box 527
    Burlington, VT 05402
    Phone:     [phone]
    Fax:    [phone]
Evil Eye eye-tracker
    ISCAN
    125 Cambridgepark Drive
    P.O. Box 2076
    Cambridge, MA  02238
    Phone:     [phone]
    Fax:    [phone]
Flying Mouse
    SimGraphics Engineering
    1137 Huntington Rd., Suite A-1
    South Pasadena, CA 91030-4563
    Phone:     [phone]
GyroPoint 6D Mouse
    GYRATION Inc.
    12930 Saratoga Avenue
    Building C
    Saratoga, CA 95070
    Phone:    [phone]

3D Sound
--------
Convolvotron
    Crystal River Engineering
    12350 Wards Ferry Road
    Groveland, CA 95321
    Phone:     [phone]
    Fax:    [phone]
Focal Point
    Gehring Research, Inc.
    189 Madison Avenue
    Toronto, Ontario
    M5R 2S6 CANADA
    Phone:    [phone]

Complete VR Systems
-------------------
Division "Vision"
    Division Ltd.
    Quarry Road
    Chipping Sodbury,
    Bristol, BS17 6AX
    United Kingdom
    Phone: [phone]
Sense8 "WorldTool DS"
    Sense8 Corp.
    1001 Bridgeway, PO Box 477
    Sausalito, CA  94965
    Phone:     [phone]
    Fax:    [phone]
VPL "RB1","RB2","MicroCosm"
    VPL Research
    656 Bair Island Road, Suite 304
    Redwood City, CA 94063
    Phone:    [phone]
    Fax:    [phone]
WIndustries "Virtuality"
    W Industries Limited
    Virtuality House
    3 Oswin Road
    Brailsford Industrial Park
    Leicester, LE3 1HR
    Phone: [phone]

Other VR-related Software Products
----------------------------------
Body Electric, Isaac
    VPL Research
    656 Bair Island Road, Suite 304
    Redwood City, CA 94063
    Phone:    [phone]
    Fax:    [phone]
Mandala
    Vivid Effects
    317 Adelaide St. W.
    Suite 302
    Toronto, Ontario
    Canada M5V 1P9
    Phone:    [phone]
Virtual Reality Studio
    Virtual 'S' Ltd.
    The Limes
    123 Mortlake High Street
    London SW14 8SN England
    Phone: [phone]
WalkThrough
    Virtus Corporation
    Cary, NC
WorldToolKit
    Sense8 Corp.
    1001 Bridgeway, PO Box 477
    Sausalito, CA  94965
    Phone:     [phone]
    Fax:    [phone]

========

Other Businesses:
    (some important businesses whose addresses are not listed in
     the VR Tool Index)

Meckler Publishing
    11 Ferry Lane West
    Westport, CT 06880
    Phone:    [phone]
    Fax:    [phone]
MIT Press
    55 Hayward St.
    Cambridge, MA 02142
    Phone:    [phone]
Telepresence Research
    635 High St.
    Palo Alto, CA 94301
    Phone:  [phone]
    Fax:    [phone]
The WELL
    27 Gate Five Road
    Sausalito, CA 94965
    Phone:    [phone]

========

VR Research in Schools:

Detailing what each of these schools are doing would take up a LOT of
space in this post.  Interested parties would be better off checking
the FAQ information on the FTP site-- for a pretty reasonable list,
check the listing of files on the FTP site, listed above.

========

Suggested Reading List:

    Artificial Reality II, Myron W. Kreuger.
        Reading MA: Addison-Wesley, 1991.
        ISBN: 0-201-52260-8.
    Virtual Reality, Howard Rheingold.
        New York NY: Summit Books, 1991.
        ISBN: 0-671-69363-8.
    Cyberspace:First Steps (CyberConf I papers).
        Michael Benedikt, editor.
        Cambridge MA: MIT Press, 1991.
        ISBN: 0-262-02327-X.
    Neuromancer (fiction), William Gibson.
        New York NY: Ace Books, 1984.
        ISBN: 0-441-56959-5.
    more to be added...

========

Other Sources of Information on Virtual Reality:

CompuServe
    CompuServe has a Virtual Reality section in the COMART (Computer
    Art) forum, Room 13.  It is moderated by John Eagan.  For
    more details, contact him at [e-mail].
GEnie
    Echo of sci.virtual-worlds, at least.  Contact J.ANDERSON71
    on GEnie, or [e-mail]. (Joel Anderson)
BIX
    Virtual-Reality Conference: If you are into the man/machine
    interface concept; virtual-reality design, programming, and events;
    virtual reality and computer interface gaderty; and related matters,
    take a stroll through BIX's new Virtual World conference.  Type "join
    virtual.world" to join in extended discussions of all aspects of
    virtual reality, from entertainment to fiction to hardware.  Moderated
    by Dan Duncan (dunc), the conference is a good source of information
    on meetings and other events of interest to virtual-reality buffs.
CyberEdge
    CyberEdge Journal is a bi-monthly newsletter which covers
    Virtual Reality and related subjects.  For more information,
    contact Ben Delaney, editor, at [e-mail].
    ISSN# 1061-3099
Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments
    Presence is being advertised as "the journal for our field".
    The editorial board contains members from the HIT Lab, JPL,
    NASA, UNC, Telepresence Research, VPL, MIT, IBM, EXOS, Apple,
    and many other groups doing VR research.  For more
    information, contact MIT Press Journals, at [phone].
    ISSN# 1054-7460
Whole Earth Review
    ISSN# 0749-5056
Mondo 2000
    ...
VR Monitor
    ...