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- Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
- Path: sparky!uunet!usc!rpi!usenet.coe.montana.edu!news.u.washington.edu!milton.u.washington.edu!hlab
- From: phillip@tag.co.uk (Phillip Trotter)
- Subject: INDUSTRY: How to make it in the VR field.
- Message-ID: <1992Sep9.052730.26576@u.washington.edu>
- Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu
- Sender: news@u.washington.edu (USENET News System)
- Organization: University of Washington
- Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 04:21:42 GMT
- Approved: cyberoid@milton.u.washington.edu
- Lines: 571
-
-
-
- Can you post the following to Sci.virtual Worlds for me?
-
- The first part is effectively a would be guide to getting involved in
- VR research and the second is answers to a questionaire - this is
- primarily to encourage others to answer the questionaire and also I
- think that the answers will spark off some fresh discussions.
-
- Phill
-
- * * *
-
- Okay folks -
-
- I'm not sure how much of this will be posted and if or not it will be
- placed in the archive for any length of time - I leave that decision
- to the resident folks that decide such things (Bob + Mark for those
- that don't tune in to often.
-
- Below is a Copy of the questionaire recently posted to Sci.VW, the
- answers are mine and mine alone, so make of them what you will -
- hopefully it will start of some useful or at least interesting
- (hopefully Both) discussion. I took a little more space and time to
- answer some of the questions because I thought they needed more space
- and time to do 'em justice.
-
- As I type this its 3.20am, so please forgive any typo's etc.
-
- BUT first ::::
-
- For those who want to get involved in VR work : a quick guide :-
-
- 1. Find a company with the type of facilities you need.
-
- 2. Write up a proposal based upon the work you want to do.
-
- 3. Write another proposal because the first will probably be
- rejected!
-
- 4. Make sure this is original and then give references to all
- supporting work (Don't forget benefits to the company, and why you
- and not some University professor should get the right to sleep on
- their floor!)
-
- 5. Be prepared to starve : practice going hungry for at least three
- days per week (five if you can manage it.)
-
- 6. Forget all concepts of money - you won't see any coming in your
- direction for a long time. - If you get the hardware be happy - don't
- grumble if they buy the optic fibre and switches and tell you to build
- a dataglove - just be thankful they haven't thought of billing you for
- the parts.
-
- 7. Don't suggest being billed for the parts.
-
- 8. Forget about a social life - you can bet that the only time the
- system will be free for you to do any work will be midnight to 6am.
-
- 9. On Second thoughts find a good girlfriend/boyfriend/husband/wife
- someone is going to have to occasionally feed you and put you up for
- the night [when the office is being cleaned]. (HI Beth)
-
- 10. Find the biggest desk/printer you can to live under. ( Remember
- this when your'e sharing the area beneath the photocopier with six
- other post-grads.)
-
- 11. Practice your ability to sound convincing - you'll need to
- convinve everyone you know that your still sane and **better Still**
- those $750 dollar conference people that you really should come and
- work for them for free for three days and in return recieve conference
- proceeding's and access to all those talks that you really want to get
- into! ( High Meckler!!!)
-
- 12. Practice your electronics skills by converting either the heating
- element in the laser printer or photocopier into an oven. Sharp
- SF-7800 are the best for doing baked potato's (about an hour and half)
- while Canon LBP4's make good sandwhich toasters.
-
- 13. Find a good Doctor who will treat double pneumonia as a weekly
- bug.( Because the heating Goes off at 5.30 pm and you don't start till
- 8pm.)
-
- 14. Become a psychological sado-masichist in order to enjoy your
- dreams of being paid to do this type of work.
-
- 15. Learn to live on less than $40 a week because this is all the
- money you'll be able to earn in that part time job in those daylight
- hours when you're supposed to be a sleep.
-
- 16. And finally if this hasn't put you off -Welcome to the Club - its
- fun - in a perverse kind of way.
-
- Well maybe one day and I'll have a proper job that pays me to do this
- type of research but until then I'm off to get my food out of the
- photocopier and return to some proper work......
-
- Phillip Trotter
- phillip@tag.co.uk
-
- 'These words are mine and mine alone. My computing facilities are
- kindly provided by the Technology Applications Group - long may they
- do what they do!!!!!! food kindly cooked by Sharp Photocopiers???'
-
-
- And unto the questionaire :-
-
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- MAPPING PERCEPTIONS OF VIRTUAL REALITY SURVEY
-
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- SECTION A: PERSONAL INFORMATION
-
- Please be as specific as possible:
- 1. Occupation (student-music, faculty-math, programmer, entrepreneur- )
- _
- Would Be Entrepreneur ( Systems Designer.)
- _
- 2. Type of organization affiliated to (business, military,
- public/private school, etc.):
- _
- Business and University.
- _
- 3. Your academic background (communications, science teaching etc.)
-
- Researcher ( Industrial) + Tutor
- _
- 4. Your professional background (computer consultant, graphics
- designer, etc.)
- _
- Systems Analyst, R&D Researcher, Tutor
- _
- 5. Describe the nature and frequency of your computer usage.
- _
- _ Varies depending upon project and access- upto 14 Hours per day
- Sometimes none.
-
- 6. Describe the nature of your involvement with Virtual Reality:
- _
- _ Researcher, Systems Designer and Developer.
- ( One day Hopefully gainfully employed in a proper job!!!)
-
- 7. Gender: Male
-
- 8. Age (type an 'x' to indicate the range you belong to):
- <20 years: 20-29 years: x
- 30-39 years: 40-49 years:
- 50-59 years: 60 or more :
-
-
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- SECTION B: WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT VR
- In our review of VR literature, we found some strong claims and
- controversial statements. Please respond to the ones we have
- reproduced below, explaining your position as well as discussing its
- implications. Please limit your responses to 6-8 lines:
-
- 9. "What has been done so far in VR is invention; research has not yet
- begun." (Krueger, 1991)
-
- ****Answer****
-
- True. The implications of the technology, its short, medium and long
- term effects in terms of the user ( Human Factors of interface design,
- possible long term damage or changes via physiological adaption
- of visual system due to prolonged immersion etc), Society - actual
- change rather than 'philosophized'/predicted change. This is of
- particular note when considering computer useage, by whom, when and
- where.
- *********************
-
- 10."... when today's infant VR technology matures in a few years, it
- promises (and threatens) to change what IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN"
- (RHEINGOLD, 1991, capitalization ours).
-
- ****Answer****
-
- What it means to be human differs from person to person,
- society to society and culture to culture. For those denied access
- due to poverty ( the majority of the population of the world) the
- definition/meaning of what it is to be human will probably not vary
- to any greater or lesser degree than that presently held.
-
- For those Societies which deal in information and base their economies
- upon the relative value of information (what ever its nature) the
- definition is likely to change. In such societies, as television did
- much to remove Humanity from the REAL world, virtual technologies
- will continue the separation unless common sense prevails.
-
- *****************
-
- 11.Apparently there are 2 ways of conceptualizing VR: "as a magical
- window onto other worlds, from molecules to minds,"
- or as a dangerous technology that makes "reality disappear behind a
- screen." (RHEINGOLD, 1991).
-
-
- In truth a little of both.
-
-
- 12. In his article, "Elements of a cyberspace playhouse" Walser
- comments on the "growing realization in the scientific community that
- the basis of rationality is not in the world, as had been supposed,
- but in the human body." This view "challenges the presupposition that
- the world is inherently rational." (Walser, 1991)
-
- ****Answer****
-
- _Every Human being applies a set of rules and information from which
- they organise their worlds. In this age of science, a more rational
- set of rules has been taught. These rules are then used as the basis
- of defining each individuals World View. { if you have time check out
- the work of Thomas Kuhn et al especially Kuhn's book The Structure of
- Scientifc Revolutions and his notes on redefining Paradigms.} With a
- rough consensus of world views discusion upon the world between like
- minds view the world as a rational place, since all are judging what
- they look at within the context of their own 'rational rules'. Which
- are broadlier similar since its likely that all come from backgrounds,
- the governing societies of which will have ben similar.
-
- Put simply rules help us survive.
- We impose our own sense of rationality (our worldviews rule set)
- in order to make sense of the world in which we exist, in turn ensuring
- survival. With the advent of Virtual Worlds and Philosophers such as
- Kuhn we begin to realize that we see the things in the world how we
- (to a certain extent) wish it to be, ie each person carries with them
- their own representation of the world they detect via their senses
- (their own personal virtual world). How they interpret this
- representational world depends on the rules they learn (which define
- their worldview) from their society and therefore a consensus of
- opinion occurs. Thus we find rationality in the world, not because
- it necessarily exists, but because we look for it in order for the
- rules our society has taught us to make sense, thus letting us survive
- both within the world and our society.
-
- After all this BS the point is Walser is correct - we as a society
- just never looked at things this way.
-
- ******************
-
- 13.Artificial Reality is characterized by a "trend from conceptual to
- perceptual, a renewed respect for innate, intuitive, real world
- intelligence over acquired, abstract symbolic intelligence" (Krueger,
- 1991).
- ******Answer*******
-
- A renewed respect certainly - bit this is more due to the simple
- fact that artificial reality ( and most of the other cognitive science
- based research) has led us to realize that we didn't have all the
- answer to the questions on how we percieve and that MotherNature
- (FWOABT) has produced much greater levels of complexity in systems that
- we thought simple. ( the Complexity often originates out of the
- parallel and distributed nature of the Human perceptive system.)
-
- Virtual Reality provides us with a technology which helps us percieve
- concepts by allowing them to be examined in a more familiar
- way.(imagine considering Superstring theory where you can visualize
- the appaherent structure of a string in terms that you know (3D
- instread of 1..10D)). But it is the acquired abstract symbolic
- intelligence which allows us to do this in the first place - what the
- hell is a computer based upon if not mathematics, and effectivley
- algebra and predicate logics - and maths don't come in a more abstract
- symbolic form than that.
-
- The acquired abstract symbolic intelligence is used to define the
- problem, virtual reality then allows the problem to be
- explored,cognized, exlained and communicated in a more natural way.
-
- Both the abstract and the inate intelligence form part of a chain
- where one part are equal not one greater then the other.
- ***************
-
- 14.In contrast to the above claim by Krueger, Garb (1987) sees in the
- development of VR "an uninhibited celebration of the separation and
- transcendence of mind over body . . . the substitution of symbolic
- realities for the world . . . ."
-
- See Above Answer.
-
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
- SECTION C: WHAT ARE YOU SAYING ABOUT VR?
- Please be precise in answering the following and attempt to limit
- your answers to 15 lines. Answer all the questions that seem
- relevant to your involvement with/interest in VR.
-
- 15. What is your definition of VR? Please elaborate on your rationale.
-
- ******Answer*******
-
- Virtual Reality is an empty misnomer - good for getting the attention
- of the public and popular media but it leads itself poorly to provide
- a definition. The term Virtual Worlds or preferably Virtual
- Environments provide a much greater definable quanta.
-
- Virtual Environments provide a MEDIUM where the possibilty of the
- INTERACTIVE COMMUNICATION of INFORMATION can occur. This MEDIUM
- differs from existing MEDIUMS in that it provides the possibility for
- of PARTICIPATORY INTERACTIVE AUDIO, TACTILE, VISUAL STIMULATION. In
- other words it is a medium of interactive experience, where experience
- is defined as direct personal participation.
-
- Thus a DEFINITION of VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS ( & therefore I suppose By
- expansion VR) BECOMES :
-
- A MEDIUM FOR THE COMMUNICATION OF INFORMATION BY INTERACTIVE
- PARTICIPATION WHICH OFFERS THE POSSIBILITY OF AUDIO, TACTILE & VISUAL
- STIMULATION TO THE PARTICIPANT.
-
- In this sense the environment does not have to be computer generated (
- that is just one form), it does have to provide some form of
- experience, it can exist in the mind of one person (communicating
- ideas to themselves :aka thinking) or many, similarly it broadly
- includes media forms such as Sci.Virtual-Worlds. Sadly though it does
- not have to be inspiring (unlike Sci.VW of course!)!
- ***************
-
- 16.Since the funding for research and development in VR has come
- largely from the military, scientific, entertainment and business
- establishments, the ideology that drives work in VR reflects the
- ideologies of only those institutions. What do you think, are the pros
- and cons of this ideological dominance? How will the ideologies of
- these institutions shape future developments in VR?
-
- *********Answer*************
-
- _Since the four ideologies dominate most (if not all) technological development
- you can examine existing technologies and view their uses for a
- represantative answer. Computers and broadcast technology are probably
- two of the prime examples of technologies which have broken away from
- the funding ideologies. Military, science, entertainment and business
- by their nature tend to be the most productive technologies, but this
- said they also cover a hue of many colours. VR if anything will
- represent this spectrum, social idealogies such as eduction will
- eventually subvert the medium, as it has done with other technologies
- such as computing and broadcasting. ( The UK's distant learning
- establishments such as the Open University are good examples of this.)
-
- Within the military, scientific, entertainment and business
- ideaologies exist many differing viewpoints and goals - If anything VR
- will represent this - a myriad of applications from the myriad of
- interested disciplines.
-
- ************************
-
- 17. Do you see a need for theoretical work in VR? What theories currently
- inform your thinking on VR? Are they adequate?
-
- ****Answer******
-
- Yes - though it is dependant on the area. Much of the present theory
- is more a case of empty rhetoric where no one konws and no one can
- fortell the answers to the questions postulated - this said they are
- often entertaining, pass the time, and attract other perspectives to
- the field.
-
- Current theories which will effect and inform thinking upon VR
- (hopefully more so than now) include :
-
- James J Gibson's work and thoughts on the nature of visual perception.
- As well as other Cognitive and Perception researchers.
-
- Current theory on the design of distributed databases. (Especially
- that of Chris Date/)
-
- Theory of parallel distributed processing systems.
-
- Various works on First Australians and their World views.
- ( Aboriginal peoples and their ideaologies.- and other native peoples.)
-
- Theories and work in the field of Human Factors.
-
- Japenese philosophy especially - those dealing with Kansai ('Harmony
- with nature','resonance and senativity with the environment')
-
- Thus theory which helps implement Virtual Enviroment technologies and
- addresses the problems we face in building them, designing better ones
- and problems we may have when we use them are at presently useful.
- Others dealing with their social effects when ungrounded by supporting
- study tend to be empty speculation and help divert attention from what
- is really going on and its true implications.
-
- *************************
-
- 18. While participating in virtual realities, the likelihood of a
- participant redesigning those realities as s/he pleases, is bound to
- become more and more feasible. What kinds of opportunities will
- present themselves in the future that will enable participants/users
- to manipulate 'given' artificial realities and create newer realities
- that the original designer might not or could not have planned for?
- What will, then, the implications be for designers and artists?
-
- ********Answer***********
-
- There are two ways in which the participant is likely to 're-design
- their realities' :
-
- One is that they merely change their own personal representation of
- that environment. Here the rendering system ( or display) mechanism
- would merely substitute one representation for another. The reality or
- environment that the participant virtually exist in, would appear as the
- standard representation employed by the original designer to other
- participants (as long as they had not changed the nature of their
- personal representations.) ie, it lets the user customize how their
- own user interface looks and reacts!
-
- The Second method would involve the participant changing the ACTUAL
- virtual environment by changing values in the environmental data. To
- do this firstly the participant must have access to this data. This
- may be prevented as part of the security of the system. If access is
- available then suitable tools that allow, assist and implement these
- changes to occur will have to be available. Such tools would have to
- be simple to use in order not to distract from the task in hand.
-
- Eventually tools to design better tools should also be available -
- allowing dramatic changes in environmental design to occur.
-
- Implications :-
-
- The implications of the first type of change - personal environment
- representation - means that the participant can taylor the
- representation to themselves, it will provide faciliities for making
- the user interface of the system more personal and comfortable. It
- also means you can taylor environments and the data's symbolic
- representation to suit your mood, sense of humour & individuality.
-
- The Second type of oppertunity to 're-design your reality' has more
- far reaching possibilities. If the Participant can re-design the
- environment, not only how it looks, but its spatial + structural
- relationships as well as its governing rules, WE shall see new ways in
- working within environments that were not thought of by the
- environmental designers.
-
- Environments used for working in, will have new tools added by the
- participants to speed up what they do and provide shortcuts to complex
- procedures , they wil make their environments moreaesthetically
- pleasing. We may find that changes will be made by consensus of opinion
- - thus if the original designer implements a datastructure, where the
- spatial representation is difficult to use then the participants of
- the environment would be able to restructure the datastructure
- accordingly, provided their were tools available to preserve special
- structural relationships.
-
- ****************
-
- 19.What do you think is the future of VR art? What kind of new
- aesthetics called for?
-
- *****Answers*****
-
- Artists will subjugate the Virtual Environment medium as they have
- others, the aesthetics they emplo will be down to themselve and or
- their school of thought. What ever they do, it will depend on personal
- taste and opinion, some will be amazing and some will be .....
-
- Some artists are already experimenting with the media -check out the
- work of both Jeffery Shaw and Myron Kruegar - there is also a
- thoroughly charming young lady who works with Jeffery Shaw inthe field
- of computer animation who's name I cannnot rember but will post
- soon...
- ***********************
-
- 20.Will VR art be about mirroring reality (simulating reality to an
- even greater degree till one is unable to distinguish 'reality' from
- 'artifice') or will it be about questioning conventional assumptions
- about 'reality'? Or creating 'unrealities'?
-
- *********A**************
-
- Probably a mixture of all three.
-
- Though I can't see the simulating reality type stuff becoming lifelike
- within the next ten years, though I have no doubt that some
- interesting things could be done in the meantime.
-
- Personally I think the more interesting stuff will come from the
- latter two area's, these are probably more attainable as well.
- *********************
-
- 21.To the extent that virtual representations are more 'realistic' are
- they more 'truthful'? Is realism synonymous with truthfulness? Or
- can there be a cleavage between the two concepts where virtual
- representations are concerned?
-
- *********Answer********
-
-
- 'Truth is subjective' I remember my highschool history teacher tell me
- this and its one of those comments that I can never shake. The
- dictionary definition of realism is 'to make something appear as if
- real life'. A virtual representation can never be more realistic than
- reality itself and is only as true as those rules which govern its
- degree of realism. Thus a model of a persom walking which looks
- realistic to the eye , is no more truthfull than a model of a person walking
- which uses mechanisms designed to function the same way as muscles and
- sinew, the latter may appear slower or stilted due to computation time
- or whatever. The truth's in either system are subjective. If you want
- a person who LOOKS as if they are walking naturally then the first
- system is more 'truthful' to the required objective than the latter.
- And vice versa is true if it is functionality that you wih to look
- for.
-
- In a more powerful system that functions as a natural system and is
- visually correct ( ie, the legs use muscle functions and look okay)
- there is not a greater degree of truth, but rather a greater
- number of world views and truths applicable to them are supported.
-
- THUS :- The truthfulness of a model is related to the criteria used to
- appraise the model not the degree of realism. The degree of realism in
- a virtual representation just increases the probility that that set of
- judging criteria is supported, NOT the degree of truthfulness.
-
- So yes the two concepts of realism and truthfulness can be separated.
-
- ******************
-
- 22.In a MORE philosophical vein how do you perceive VR? As
- extending human perceptual faculties? As solving medical, chemical,
- bio-physical, architectural, educational problems? As the artistic medium
- of the future? What are your dreams and aspirations about virtual worlds?
- What are your fears?
-
- ****ANSWER********
-
- Virtual Environment technologies are another tool. More flexible than
- some tools we have had before. They will let us visualize our thoughts
- more easily. The technology will let us mix our thoughts with real
- data, we can manipulate the data and information in an environment, in
- ways never before open to us. IN this manner we can experience
- problems on differing scales, and in differing situations, through
- experience and our own natural abilities we will be able to gain a
- greater insight into any problem. This greater insight will help us
- solve problems be they architectural, biological, medical,
- educational.
-
- As an art medium it will serve the same function as other present art
- mediums, it will serve to communicate ideas of artists which
- entertain, enchant, disturb and most of all evoke a reaction.
-
- Personal Dream : The Elctronic LIBRARY OF ALEXANDRIA - a place where I
- can learn everything about anything and have intelligent agents guised
- as Einstein, Plato, Von Neumann as librarians, guides and gurus.
-
- Personal fear : WE miss the oppertunity that we have now and that
- Virtual Environment technologies get resigned to back water research
- fields the way much of the useful work done in the name of artificial
- intelligence has in recent years.
-
- ********************
-
- 23.Do you see a blurring of conventional occupational roles such as
- scientist, artist, businessperson where VR is concerned? Please
- elaborate on the reasons.
-
- ******Answer*******
-
- Since the disciplines which are used in Virtual Environment technologies
- are multidisplinary by there nature - Computing, architectural design,
- psychology, ergomics, optics, audio engineers (to name but a few who
- combine to produce systems which aid in solving real world problems -
- usually the province of scientists and businesses (amongst others), in
- manners which involve visual representation and aesthetics (the domain
- of the artists) there is an inevitable blurring of the traditional
- roles.
-
- Developers must learn the skills from many different disciplines and
- users will subconsciously begin working within the frame work produced
- by these combinations and therefore within the domains of the
- contributing disciplines.
-
- ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
-