92.03.11
========
     

From: bdel@well.sf.ca.us <Ben Delaney>
Subject: PUBS: Special Student Offer for CYBEREDGE JOURNAL
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 92 14:45:48 -0800


 
Student Rate for CyberEdge Journal, the World's Leading Newsletter of
Virtual Reality.
 
Ben Delaney, publisher of CyberEdge Journal, today announced the
introduction of a Student Subscription Rate for the bi-monthly newsletter. 
This is being done to enable students, who typically have very limited 
budgets, the opportunity to learn about this area of growing interest
and opportunity.
 
CyberEdge Journal is published six times per year, and is the world's
leading newsletter of virtual reality, with subscribers in 12 countries, 
and over 1,000 readers. It covers the business of virtual
reality with new product listings, a full calendar of events, conference
reports, business developments, book reviews and more. It has been 
published since January, 1991.
 
Students who include a copy of a valid student ID, may subscribe for only
US$75 per year. (Mailing outside of North America, add $15 per year.) This 
offer is good immediately. Payment must accompany the order. Single year 
subscriptions will be accepted.
 
To subscribe, send check or money order, plus a copy of a valid student ID
to:
 
        CyberEdge Journal
        928 Greenhill Road
        Mill Valley, CA 94941-3406 USA
 


[MODERATOR'S NOTE:  Commercial postings are offered on sci.virtual-
worlds as a public service.  Their appearance here does not 
necessarily indicate endorsement by the moderators or by the USENET or 
its administrators. -- Bob Jacobson]



From: Kent Dalton <kentd@FtCollinsCO.NCR.COM>
Subject: DESIGN: Keyboards in (cyber) Space (was Re: SOC: First VR writer)
Date: 11 Mar 92 13:32:22 GMT
Organization: NCR Microelectronics, Ft. Collins, CO



On 6 Mar 92 22:11:19 GMT, tolman%asylum@hellgate.utah.edu (Kenneth Tolman) 
said:

KT> Gibson had this annoying habit of having "decks"
KT> with keyboards.  Lets face it- no one will use a keyboard in the future.

You must be psychic. It seems to me that for some applications the
keyboard will remain the primary input device.

In my conceptions of the future of computing, I like to think that the
user will have an IR remote, mouse, light pen, voice recognition,
keyboard, "cybersuit", and maybe even direct neural inputs to an
all-in-one computing/media device.

KT> < Bogus (IMHO) ragging on William Gibson deleted.  >
--
/**************************************************************************/
/* Kent Dalton                   * EMail: Kent.Dalton@FtCollinsCO.NCR.COM */
/* NCR Microelectronics          *                                        */
/* 2001 Danfield Ct. MS470A      *                                        */
/* Fort Collins, Colorado 80525  * (303) 223-5100 X-319                   */
/**************************************************************************/
This PIZZA symbolizes my COMPLETE EMOTIONAL RECOVERY!!




From: brucec@phoebus.labs.tek.com (Bruce Cohen)
Subject: Re: APPS: Game Design
Date: 11 Mar 92 19:37:06 GMT
Organization: Software Technology Research Laboratory, Tektronix Inc.



In article <1992Mar11.092756.12330@u.washington.edu>rwzobel@eos.ncsu.edu 
(RICHARD W ZOBEL) writes:

> ... deleted ...
>
> As an addendum to this: is there one scale to virtual worlds, or
> is there just a reference scale to base your position on? To 
> clarify this (with another question), is it possible to add
> scale as a dimension to allow logical movement in? If I were at the
> 0% reference scale, should it be possible to "move" in scale to
> say .0001%, and find rooms, spaces, or entire worlds making up the
> "matter" of the reference scale world. This would mean that rather
> than virtual atoms making up the reference world, that other worlds
> have the potential to make up the world ad-inifinitum...  "Take a
> left at the lamp post, shrink 10,000 times, go two blocks
> virtual North, and shrink 1,000 times. You can't miss it."

Sure, scaling yourself within a part of a world is very useful in
examining simulations, for instance (see Eric Drexler's "Unbounding the
Future" for a description of a hypothetical VR trip through a simulation
of a nanotechnological factory at scales between 1:1 and 1 nanometer to
10 cm.  There have been several books and videos showing the world at
various scales from the atomic to the cosmic; I'd love to have an
interactive version.

It's also a good way to allow arbitrary nesting of rooms in a "building"
designed to represent an organizational structure like a city government
or a hierarchical database (there's a nice example of representing ALL
the organizational structures of a city this way in Gelernter's (sp?)
"Mirror Worlds").
--
"The end cause ... is too often handed off as an afterthought to harried
interface designers who follow programmers around with virtual brooms
and pails." - Brenda Laurel in "Computers as Theatre"
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speaker-to-managers, aka
Bruce Cohen, Software Technology Research Lab   email: brucec@strl.labs.tek.com
Tektronix Laboratories, Tektronix, Inc.         phone: (503)627-5241
M/S 50-662, P.O. Box 500, Beaverton, OR  97077



From: chris.russell@spd.analog.com (Christopher Russell)
Subject: Re: CULTURE: More Lawnmower Man (Was Re: SOC: The Best Virtual 
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1992 17:31:18 GMT
Organization: Analog Devices, Norwood MA



- the graphics are not spectacular. better graphics available
  in most prime-time advertisements generated by industrial
  light and magic.

- the plot was not developed by S.King. In fact King's
  lawnmower man is about a lawnmower and never even mentions
  VR. This is an effective marketing ploy. I saw the movie.

- This movie is so technically flawed on the VR front that 
  it makes you want to hurl in the isle of the theater.
  Said metally deficient individual wearing tron suite
  suddenly learns at a fantastic rate and can manipulate
  objects through psychic energy. (off course tron suite
  glows in the dark when he's being psychic)

enough. don't bother. it's a waste of time = money.
cdr

- 
-- 
--------------------------------------\-------------------------------------
Christopher Russell                    \ ...!uunet!analog.com!chris.russell
Analog Devices DSP Tools Engineering    \     chris.russell@analog.com
3 Technology Way, Norwood, MA 02062-9106 \   dsp phone mail: 617-461-4200   
------------------------------------------\---------------------------------




From: dstamp@watserv1.waterloo.edu (Dave Stampe-Psy+Eng)
Subject: Re: TECH: Collision detection -- a possible new approach
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1992 15:26:42 GMT
Organization: University of Waterloo



cmcl2!panix.com!entropy@uunet.UU.NET (Daniel Gross) writes:

>Perhaps useless, but.... PV-Ray (and just about every other CSG-based
>ray-tracer I know) allows CSG primitives to be defined as the bounding
>shapes of CSG complexes (unions, diff's, etc.). The ray-trace compares
>against the simpler bounding shape (almost invariably sphere, cylinder,
>or set of planes) and evaluates complex-CSG intersection iff the bounding-
>shape test completes. The other advantage of this approach applied to
>collision-detect would be that at a specified difference from POV, you
>could consider the bounding-shape test to be conclusive.

Problem is getting real-time performance out of the system.  For
each figure/CSG element, an intersection point/curve must be 
computed (usually with a minimization search, since the math is
intractible) which takes 10-100 iterations.  You need the point/
curve if you're doing anything except unions in the CSG-- else
just go far enough to find any intersection.

>Another trick for speed would be to specify CSG primitive bounding shapes
>in fixed-point (i.e. int) math. Depending on your hardware, and certainly
>in the case of the 486, this would give you some advantages from instruction
>pipelining (in the case of multiple-object tests, you could actually begin
>the integer bounding-shape test on another object before the floating-point
>test on the previous complex-CSG object completes).

Actually, this won't help much on the 486, as most of the float/integer
math is comparable in time.  Might as well use float alone since the
multiplies are 3x faster.  Alternatively, try to write interleaved
code as an exersize in frustration (B-{)).

Right now, I feel that union CSG of cut spheres, cylinders, and simple
rectangular/prism objects is going to be the way to go.  The line stuff
only works if you're doing point-to-point, and the direct polygon
methods are a bit too costly without hardware assist.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| My life is Hardware,                    |                              | 
| my destiny is Software,                 |         Dave Stampe          |
| my CPU is Wetware...                    |                              | 
| Anybody got a SDB I can borrow?         | dstamp@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca |
__________________________________________________________________________




From: dstamp@watserv1.waterloo.edu (Dave Stampe-Psy+Eng)
Subject: CULTURE: LAWNMOWER MAN: doesn't anybody get it???? 
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1992 15:06:39 GMT
Organization: University of Waterloo



Doesn't ANYBODY else get it?  LM should be viewed as a piece of dark 
comedy, not as a serious statement.  That message at the start of the film
should be regarded as something added by a studio executive who didn't 
understand the movie.

I saw it yesterday, and had a great time.  The technology isn't to be
taken seriously: when can it ever be in a movie?  The use of it had
internal consistancy: that's what is important in a sci-fi movie.
Remember Brainstorm?  Technology extremely unlikely, but very well
treated.

If you put aside expectations of any serious statements about VR,
the movie is a gas.  There are dozens of tag lines from sci-fi 
movies and TV shows, the ambience has been pumped to a typical
comic-book level (if you took it seriously, you missed some
great jokes!)  The characters were also fitted exactly to the
50's-style sci-fi plot: if you've read books from that era, they
were PERFECT.

The graphics were fascinating, in that they were used AS graphics,
not attempts to distort reality.  A lot of simple effects were used
(which everybody with a Video Toaster will be copying in a few weeks).
The computer graphics were also full of "inside" jokes if you're
familiar with graphics too-- triangular pixelization of an image?
I thought it was _rendered_ for a second or two!

As for the graphics being a decade away:  only in resolution. 
None of the "basement" graphics were such that they couldn't
be done with 10K polys/screen, lit and Phong shaded.  There
are products in the works that can do that on your PC.
(Not mine, and I can't reveal my sources).

The "mainframe" graphics are more sophisticated, but still nothing
really impossible was done.  Again, resolution was the problem.
As for the "gyro" frames, they copied the Leonardo da Vinci sketch,
and should be viewed as props.  Most of the I/O appeared to be 
neural anyway, with _input_ thru the suit and goggles.  This 
actually makes good sense, from a neural point of view.

In conclusion, if you view LM as serious, it's your own fault.  What
bothers me is that nobody seems to be getting the jokes.  They are
there, but most of the audience looks faintly puzzled after the 
film.  Oh well, I don't like having jokes shoved at me, and I liked
the low-key level.  Trouble is, if nobody else sees the point, then
the movie will always seem pointless.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| My life is Hardware,                    |                              | 
| my destiny is Software,                 |         Dave Stampe          |
| my CPU is Wetware...                    |                              | 
| Anybody got a SDB I can borrow?         | dstamp@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca |
__________________________________________________________________________



From: kilian@tamarack.cray.com (Alan Kilian)
Subject: DESIGN: New paradigms for virtual realities
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 92 08:49:53 CST



Maurice Sharp asks about new paradigms for designing virtual realities.
Here are some we came up with at lunch over the past few weeks:

1) Admin-Reality. A world where the administration system rules all.
   You cannot get anything done the first time you try. You must first
   be refused access then you must fill out a virtual-form and send it in.
   After a while your form will be returned because you couldn't remember
   your department/project number. When you fill this is and send the form
   back you will get almost what you want. Participants in this world
   generally decide to become traveling musicians quickly.

2) Feline-Reality. In this world everything looks like a place to sleep.
   You are in two possible states: Drowsy-land where everything is sluggish
   and Interesting-land where everything needs to be dragged onto the floor
   and pushed under the couch.

3) Hardware-Reality. You get the raw data from gloves and head tracking systems
   and you make sense out of them yourself. You cannot convert the data into
   any other form because it would impact system performance. This world is
   faster and has a lower latency than any other world. Inter-ocular distance
   is adjustable as is the convolution filters coefficients. Variable
   resolution HMDs vary with the IOD and the ETR is minimal in the DRF-M
   version. The USR cannot RST the system unless the DWG is asserted within
   the GRE-GRF window. Sorry.

4) Trivial-Reality. Using $120,000.00 of hardware and software you can play
   a boring barely interactive low-resolution game of flying about a scene.
   This is available now.

5) Science-Reality. Scientific data from real-science(tm) is displayed for
   the user. Stereoscopic displays of the data make the interpretation of
   the phenomenon easier for the scientist. Very large images are viewable 
   as are long sequences of data. The user can move around in the data and
   remove items not of interest from view. This world is not very interesting
   to executives and it makes them feel like they should have taken at least
   one math course in school so these worlds are not funded long after the
   first demo.

6) Psy-Reality. Children are placed in a nurturing world where everything
   is a game and they learn to intuitively understand complex mathematical
   concepts as a game. There is no violence or stereotypes. Only stereopsis.
   Children exposed to this world are calmer and more productive individuals.
   Parents of children using this world have more time to spend with their
   children in a nurturing setting. 

7) Testosterone-Reality. Normal scenes with every emotion multiplied by 10.
   This world goes by very fast and you can't get the one thing you want most.
   Usually turns into either #5 or #6 after age 25.

8) Estrogen-Reality. Sorry, there aren't enough females in the group to give
   a proper answer to this. We really should get more females into this group.
   You don't think that was sexist do you?

Just to make sure everything is covered some more statements are in order:

IT'S JUST A JOKE!!! No, I don't think that people should stop thinking about
"New paradigms of thought". Hardware rules this field. PHIGS stinks. So does
PEX. SGI's GL is great. Evans&Sullivan makes the best boxes in the world.
HMD resolution is too low. No one should have the patent on putting fiberoptics
on a glove. You CANNOT even MAKE something that is patented for your own use
in your own home. Really!!

                           That's it,
                                 -Alan "simpleton" Kilian


 -Alan Kilian         kilian@cray.com 612.683.5499 (Work) 612.729.1652 (Home)
  Cray Research, Inc.           | 
  655 F Lone Oak Drive          | 
  Eagan  MN,     55121          |




From: dstamp@watserv1.waterloo.edu (Dave Stampe-Psy+Eng)
Subject: Re: APPS: Game Design
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1992 14:42:35 GMT
Organization: University of Waterloo



rwzobel@eos.ncsu.edu (RICHARD W ZOBEL) writes:

>The actual case you described of the room becoming bigger than the
>building that encloses it, sounds more like a scale modification
>than a physical paradox. Suppose ...

Actually a fair amount of inside/outside rescaling is probably
OK from a psychological viewpoint anyway.  When you look at a 
building from the outside, you see it in relation to surrounding
structures.  On the inside, different referents are used so
the rooms looks larger.  More detail and contents in the room
help too.  How much is the distortion? Probably about 2:1

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
| My life is Hardware,                    |                              | 
| my destiny is Software,                 |         Dave Stampe          |
| my CPU is Wetware...                    |                              | 
| Anybody got a SDB I can borrow?         | dstamp@watserv1.uwaterloo.ca |
__________________________________________________________________________




From: Jayson Raymond <jraymond@BBN.COM>
Subject: Re: sci.virtual-worlds
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 92 05:20:00 PDT



To "Presence"s who's-who list

>EDITORIAL BOARD
> 
>Co-Editor-in-Chief, Tom Sheridan, Director, MIT Human-Machine Sytems 
>       Laboratory
>Co-Editor-in-Chief, Tom Furness, Director, HIT Lab, Seattle
>Managing Editor, Nathaniel Durlach, Director, MIT Virtual Environment 
>       and Teleoperator Research Consortium
>Associate Editor, William Bricken, University of Washington
>Associate Editor, Blake Hanniford, University of Washington
>Associate Editor, Warren Robinett, University of North Carolina
>Associate Editor, J. Kenneth Salisbury, Jr., MIT
>Associate Editor, Robert Welch, NASA Ames Research Center
>Associate Editor, David Zeltzer, MIT
> 
>Editorial Advisors (partial list)
> 
>Michael MacGreevy, NASA Ames Research Center
>Elizabeth Wenzel, NASA Ames Research Center
>Jaron Lanier, VPL Research Inc.
>Myron Krueger, Artificial Reality Corporation
>Michael Benedikt, University of Texas, Austin
>Brenda Laurel, Telepresence Research
>Scott Fisher, Telepresence Research
> 
>International Editorial Advisors
> 
>Massimo Bergamesco, Scuolo Superiore, Italy
>Jens Blauert, Ruhr-Universitat Bochum, Germany
>John M. Hollerbach, McGill University, Canada
>Ian W. Hunter, McGill University, Canada
>Lynette A. Jones, McGill University, Canada
>Susan Lederman, Queen's University, Canada
>Robert J. Stone, National Advanced Robotics Research Centre, UK
>Susumu Tachi, University of Tokyo, Japan
>

Bob writes:
>[MODERATOR'S NOTE 1:  Do you recognize ANY of these people from our newsgroup?
>With the pleasant exceptions of Bricken , Hanneford, and Zeltzer, who lurk 
>regularly, I don't.  The PRESENCE Editorial Advisory Board, which is twice as 
>long, features only ONE person -- the redoubtable Marvin Minsky -- who has 
>ever (to my knowledge) posted here.  So it goes that Inner Circles and 
>Onlookers are formed.... -- Bob Jacobson]

I know for a fact that Beth Wenzel has posted here, and I believe Brenda
Laurel and Scott Fisher are at least lurkers. Jeez Bob, you get so
indignant about these things, as if the sci.virtual-worlds were the
center of the VR universe. Well if it is, it's certainly not the only
center. The center of the VR universe is the do'ers world itself --- I
know several of these people literally have no time to sort through the
VR wannabe'ers. Hopefully "Presence" will provide a well filtered forum
that can provide solid facts (but it will certainly lack the personal
warmth and immediacy of material that s.v-w provides), two different
mediums.

Sorry - couldn't let another of these go by unscathed..

--Jayson
jraymond@bbn.com


[MODERATOR'S NOTE:  Properly scathed, thank you.  My own experience is
that inclusion leads to variety and discovery, but one must also re-
spect the need to get things done without interruption.  Yes, I do see
s.v-w as a special place, because it is the product of a common effort
by all of the participants, wannabe's and do'ers alike.  I do believe
it -- we -- deserve more respect than merely being asked (as I was) to
advertise other forums, without reciprocation.  But the Doer's deserve
their own celebrity, too. -- Bob Jacobson]




From: Jayson Raymond <jraymond@BBN.COM>
Subject: APPS: Game Design
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 92 04:54:45 PDT



        Again, in previous messages Rob Jellinghaus and Bruce Cohen
addressed the difficulties of world coherence in cyberspace, (VR, V-W,
Distributed Simulations,  (substitute your favorite term here)), with
Bruce ending his message in a quote from Laurels "Computers as Theatre".

        In this book, her originating thesis, and the work of Joe Bates
at CMU on Oz - the consensus appears to be that in the future, when we
have very fast systems, an interactive fiction system will be able to
quickly explore the probable event space for a participant and present
the event which best imparts the emotional impact that will create the
dramatic dynamics typical of a good story/theatre/movie. (Forgive me,
it's been sometime since I read "CaT", and don't recall the exact
terminology Laurel or Bates used).

        Unfortunately, I believe the flaw in this theory occurs when
multiple participants join in. The implied requirement of world
coherence between partipants in a V-W would seem to rapidly reduce this
"probability space" to nothing in common within a very few number of
additional participants.

        Did anyone else notice this (or is anyone else interested)?

--Jayson

jraymond@bbn.com




From: Jayson Raymond <jraymond@BBN.COM>
Subject: APPS: Distributed Simulation (was Game Design)
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 92 04:21:11 PDT



In several previous message autodesk!robertj@uunet.uu.net (Young Rob
Jellinghaus) and brucec@phoebus.labs.tek.com (Bruce Cohen) addressed the
difficulties of wide-area shared cyberspaces.

        Simnet, Darpa's distributed networked 300 vehicle simulator
could be considered just such a system. The problem of reducing
network traffic and  latency are handled currently by utilizing dead
reckoning to extrapolate the current vehicle and component motion
vectors. By maintaining a model at both the  agents node as well as at
the nodes of the potential viewers, the potential viewers can then
display the vehicles, and as the agent veers from the extrapolation by
some margin, an update is sent out over the net (that's my
understanding, though not my focal area).

        This system works well for the rather static world of existing
Simnet - with the only dynamic objects being vehicles and special
effects. Yet this does not allow the environment, (terrain, buildings
etc.) to be modified in real-time. The next generation systems will
require these types of objects to be dynamic and thus research is
currently proceeding with how to distribute this information to each
node on the net. Brian Blau of UCF-IST, for example, spoke briefly on
this list of the research they are doing in this area some months back.

-- Jayson

Jayson Raymond 
BBN Advanced Simulation




From: cyberoid@u.washington.edu (Bob Jacobson)
Subject: Re: CONF: Virtual Reality Intl. 92, London, 1-2 April 1992
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1992 10:31:57 GMT
Organization: HIT Lab, Seattle WA.



For those who cannot afford the time or money to attend the full 
Virtual Reality 92 conference, Dr. Angela Sasse of the Computer 
Science Department at the University of Central London is organizing 
a London mini-conference for 6 April 1992.

To learn more, send email to      a.sasse@cs.ucl.ac.uk




From: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu (Human Int. Technology Lab)
Subject: ADMIN: Request for Company Info, Please!
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1992 10:28:32 GMT
Organization: HIT Lab, Seattle WA.



The archives need enriching.

sci.virtual-worlds gets lots of requests for information pertain-
ing to companies and their offerings.  Some of the information is 
available in the archives.  Much is not.  What we can glean from 
postings here, the trades, and the popular press is not enough for 
many participants.

If you are a company and manufacturing software or hardware, or pro-
viding services in the field of virtual reality or virtual interfaces,
please send this information to me at the address below.  I will
organize this information and use it to answer questions from indivi-
duals regarding who provides what.  This will enable the newsgroup to 
concentrate on more general issues.  Also, I will be able to call to 
the attention of the newsgroup worthwhile technological accomplishments.
This information WILL be made public, so don't send proprietary secrets.

Thanks, and may our mailbox be overflowing.


Bob Jacobson
Moderator

128 NW 56th Street
Seattle, WA 98107 USA

or use email, but only if necessary.  Hard copy is much easier
to organize for this purpose.




From: cyberoid@milton.u.washington.edu (Robert Jacobson)
Subject: SCI: What would YOU like the NSF to fund?
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1992 08:48:44 GMT
Organization: WORLDESIGN, Seattle



By now it is no secret that the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) is
about to sponsor an important roundtable on future support for research 
on virtual worlds.  What do you think should be the NSF's priorities,
remembering that it is a federal agency charged primarily with advancing 
national interests in science and engineering?

If you will leave your comments here, I will be glad to consolidate them
and pass them to the NSF hosts (if they aren't lurking already).  Thanks.

Bob Jacobson
Moderator




From: cyberoid@milton.u.washington.edu (Robert Jacobson)
Subject: PUBS: PRESENCE is finally here!
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1992 08:44:23 GMT
Organization: WORLDESIGN, Seattle



News from MIT Press
-------------------
 
PRESENCE:  THE FIRST SCHOLARLY JOURNAL ON TELEOPERATORS
AND VIRTUAL REALITY, FORTHCOMING IN MARCH
 
To promote intelligent understanding of major teleoperation and 
virtual environment developments in electromechanical and computer 
science, MIT Press Journals is publishing PRESENCE: TELEOPERATORS 
AND VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS, the first quarterly for serious investigators 
of either or both types of systems.  The journal will premiere in March.
 
Until now, scientists, engineers, psychologists, architects, 
executives, artists, and philosophers [who's left out -- football 
players? -- B.J.] had no authoritative publication they could turn to 
for vital research, ideas, and applications pertinent to teleoperators 
*and* virtual environments.  PRESENCE will offer understandings and 
design for these types of systems.  In the first issue, one paper 
proposes arhitectures for high performance, flexible, and concurrent 
event-coordinated virtual worlds.  "Free Style" provides a lesson on 
choreographing human-robot dance, and even includes a short story 
about the lack of presence you get from telephone answering machines.  
"Transforming Human Hand Motion for Telemanipulation" and "Virtual 
Reality, Art and Entertainment" further illustrate what the pages of 
PRESENCE will deliver:  multiperspective, penetrating explorations 
into the mental and physical faculties of people and machines; 
stimulating analyses of the impact transformed presence can have on 
aesthetics and culture.
 
The journal will have an initial circulation of approximately 2,000,
including electrical and mechanical engineers concerned with 
teleoperators; computer scientists, high-tech artists, and media 
people interested in virtual environments; and (3) psychologists 
involved in the study of human-machine interfaces and senorimotor/ 
cognitive behavior.
 
 
EDITORIAL BOARD
 
Co-Editor-in-Chief, Tom Sheridan, Director, MIT Human-Machine Sytems 
        Laboratory
Co-Editor-in-Chief, Tom Furness, Director, HIT Lab, Seattle
Managing Editor, Nathaniel Durlach, Director, MIT Virtual Environment 
        and Teleoperator Research Consortium
Associate Editor, William Bricken, University of Washington
Associate Editor, Blake Hanniford, University of Washington
Associate Editor, Warren Robinett, University of North Carolina
Associate Editor, J. Kenneth Salisbury, Jr., MIT
Associate Editor, Robert Welch, NASA Ames Research Center
Associate Editor, David Zeltzer, MIT
 
Editorial Advisors (partial list)
 
Michael MacGreevy, NASA Ames Research Center
Elizabeth Wenzel, NASA Ames Research Center
Jaron Lanier, VPL Research Inc.
Myron Krueger, Artificial Reality Corporation
Michael Benedikt, University of Texas, Austin
Brenda Laurel, Telepresence Research
Scott Fisher, Telepresence Research
 
International Editorial Advisors
 
Massimo Bergamesco, Scuolo Superiore, Italy
Jens Blauert, Ruhr-Universitat Bochum, Germany
John M. Hollerbach, McGill University, Canada
Ian W. Hunter, McGill University, Canada
Lynette A. Jones, McGill University, Canada
Susan Lederman, Queen's University, Canada
Robert J. Stone, National Advanced Robotics Research Centre, UK
Susumu Tachi, University of Tokyo, Japan
 
Quarterly, Volume 1 forthcoming in March.  96 pp. per issue, 
illustrated.  8-1/2 x 11.
 
Annual subscription rates:  Individual,         $ 50
                            Institution,        $120
                            Student/Retired,    $ 20 (ID required)
 
Outside USA, add $14 postage and handling.  Canada, add additional 7% 
GST.  Prepayment is required.  Send check drawn against a U.S. bank, 
Mastercard, or VISA number to:
 
        MIT Press Journals
        55 Hayward Street
        Cambridge, MA 02142-1399 USA
 
        +1-617-253-2889 phone
        +1-617-258-6779 fax
 
 
[MODERATOR'S NOTE 1:  Do you recognize ANY of these people from our newsgroup?
With the pleasant exceptions of Bricken , Hanneford, and Zeltzer, who lurk 
regularly, I don't.  The PRESENCE Editorial Advisory Board, which is twice as 
long, features only ONE person -- the redoubtable Marvin Minsky -- who has 
ever (to my knowledge) posted here.  So it goes that Inner Circles and 
Onlookers are formed.... -- Bob Jacobson]
 
[MODERATOR'S NOTE 2:  Commercial postings are offered on sci.virtual-
worlds as a public service.  Their appearance here does not 
necessarily indicate endorsement by the moderators or by the USENET or 
its administrators. -- Bob Jacobson]



From: cyberoid@milton.u.washington.edu (Robert Jacobson)
Subject: CONF: Virtual Reality Intl. 92, London, 1-2 April 1992
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1992 08:42:50 GMT
Organization: WORLDESIGN, Seattle



VIRTUAL REALITY INTERNATIONAL 92
IMPACTS AND APPLICATIONS
 
1-2 April 1992
Olympia Conference Centre, London
Conference Chairman, Tony Feldman
Meckler Conferences
 
"Virtual Reality:  Impacts and Applications" is the only major 
international forum in this field which addresses both a specialist 
and a nonspecialist audience.  The emphasis throughout is on 
demystifying virtual reality so that we can grasp what it is, how it 
is developing and what it can do.  The first day of the conference 
focuses on the key human, technological and commercial factors shaping 
the pace and direction of developments in virtual reality.  The second 
day deals with applications, illustrating and assessing a wide range 
of ways in which virtual reality systems are already being put to 
work.
 
The Exhibition:  For the first time in the United Kingdom, you will be 
able to examine a range of commercial virtual reality and virtual 
reality-related systems.
 
 
APRIL 1
 
9.15-9.30     ChairmanUs welcome and introduction
 
9.30-10.15    Special conference address
              Jaron Lanier, CEO, VPL Research, Redwood City, 
              California
 
10.15-10.45   Keynote address:  Virtual Reality in Perspective
              Dr. Robert Stone, UK National Advanced Robotics Research 
              Centre
 
10.45-11.15   Coffee
 
11.15-11.45   The Key Technologies of Virtual Reality
              Charles Grimsdale, Managing Director, Division
 
11.45-12.15   Designing Virtual Worlds
              Jon Stoppi, Managing Director, CADONMAC UK
 
12.15-12.45   Authoring Virtual Worlds on the Desktop
              Ian Andrew, Managing Director, Dimension International
 
12.45-2.30    Lunch and special lunchtime session
 
1.45-2.15     British Virtual Reality Users Group open meeting
              Chairman, Martin Kavanagh
 
2.30-3.00     Imaging Three Dimensional Sound in Virtual Worlds
              Professor F. Gardin, Artificial Realities Systems, 
              Milan
 
3.00-3.45     Realtime Lighting for Virtual Worlds
              Campbell McKellar, Thorn EMI Central Research
              Laboratories
 
3.45-4.15     Tea
 
4.15-5.00     Televirtuality
              Dr. Robert Jacobson, WORLDESIGN, Seattle
 
5.00-5.30     Open forum
              Chairman, Robert Stone
 
5.30          Close
 
 
APRIL 2
 
9.15-9.30     Chairman's welcome and introduction
 
9.30-10.15    Does the Emperor have any Clothes?
              Myron Krueger, Artificial Realities Corporation,
              Vernon, Connecticut
 
10.15-11.00   Virtual Reality:  A New Medium for the Artist?
              Jeffrey Shaw, Director, Institute for Image Media,
              Karlsruhe
 
11.00-11.30   Coffee
 
11.30-12.00   Beyond the Super Cockpit
              Dr. Roy Kalawsky, Chief Engineer, Systems Technology 
              Research and Development, British Aerospace Military 
              Aircraft
 
12.00-12.30   The Impact of Virtual Reality on Simulators
              Ian Stage, Engineering Manager, Marconi Simulation
 
12.30-1.00    Virtual Reality in Mental Therapy
              Dr. Peter Ward, Director, Information Modelling 
              Programme, School of Medicine, University of Leeds
 
1.00-2.30     Lunch and special lunchtime session
 
2.00-2.30     Industrial Applications of Virtual Reality:  Robot
              Employment Planning
              Jens Neugebauer, Franhofer Institute for Production
              Technology and Automation (IPA), Stuttgart
 
2.30-3.00     Virtual Reality enters the Living Room
              Phillip Brindal, Managing Director, Performance Systems
 
3.00-3.45     New Developments in Telepresence
              Dr. Robert Stone, UK National Advanced Robotics Research
              Centre
 
3.45-4.15     Tea
 
4.15-5.00     Virtual Reality in Educationa and Training
              Michael Clark, Head, West Denton High School, Newcastle
              upon Tyne
              Dr. Irena Robert, Russian Academy of Pedagogical 
              Research, Moscow
 
5.00-5.30     Open forum
              Chairman, Tony Feldman
 
PARTICULARS
 
The conference and exhibition will be held at the Olympia Conference 
Centre, Kensington, London W14 8UX.  Exhibition hours are 10.00-5.30.
 
Conference Fees
 
L522.88   Full conference
L287.88   One day
 
Admission to the Exhibition is free *by prior reservation;* otherwise, 
L10.
 
Payment should be made by 1 April 1992.
 
Accommodations are reserved at the London Kensington Hilton, at a 
special rate of L80/night plus VAT.  Contact the hotel directly for 
reservations (+44-71-603 3355).  [My travel agent tells me this is a 
steal. -- B.J.]
 
To register or for more information, contact:
 
        Alice Taylor
        Meckler
        247-249 Vauxhall Bridge Road
        London SW1V 1HQ, United Kingdom
 
        +44-71-931 9985 phone
        +44-71-931 8908 fax
 
[MODERATOR'S NOTE:  Commercial postings are offered on sci.virtual-
worlds as a public service.  Their appearance here does not 
necessarily indicate endorsement by the moderators or by the USENET or 
its administrators. -- Bob Jacobson]



From: cyberoid@milton.u.washington.edu (Robert Jacobson)
Subject: CONF: INFORMATIQUE 92, Montpellier, France, March 23-27, 1992
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1992 08:41:03 GMT
Organization: WORLDESIGN, Seattle



INFORMATIQUE 92:  
INTERFACE TO REAL & VIRTUAL WORLDS
 
Le Corum
Montpellier, France
March 23-27, 1992
 
Held for the first time, this conference has from the outset 
taken on the scale of an important major event focusing on a theme 
which is representative of the dynamism of Montpellier:  computer 
systems, a central activity in the city's technological community; and 
the five senses, which we unceasingly strive to enrich through our 
constant concern for an increasingly higher quality of life in the 
city.
 
Communication between man and machines, whether these take the 
form of computers, manufacturing systems or automatic control 
instruments, now holds and original and important place in the 
development of industrial products, hard goods and the service 
industries.  In order to gain a better understanding and greater 
knowledge of these techniques and their practical short and medium-
term applications, Montpellier LR Technopole and the EC2 company are 
organizing an event entitled, "Interface to Real & Virtual Worlds," 
devoted to those themes concerned with man-machine interfaces -- 
themes which are strongly represented in the work of researchers and 
engineers at Montpellier which has itself become a focus for 
technological industries.
 
 
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25
 
Invited Lectures
 
        * B. Delaney, CyberEdge Journal
        * M. Yoshitoshi, NTT
        * B. Laurel, Telepresence Research
        * V.J. Vincent, Vivid Group
        * H. Jones, Middlesex Polytechnic
        * N. Stenger, HIT Lab, "Angels" Showing
 
Sessions
 
        * 3D Vision
        * Behavioral Animation
        * Natural Language & Interfaces
        * Teleoperation
        * Electronic Pen-Pads
 
 
THURSDAY, MARCH 26
 
Invited Lectures
 
        * C. Grimsdale, Division
        * S. Foster, Crystal River Engineering
        * C. Cadoz, Acroe/LIFIA
        * M. Beaudoin-Lafon, Universite de Paris-Sud (Groupware)
 
Sessions
 
        * Human Factors and Interface Prototyping
        * Gesture and Force Feedback
        * Virtual Reality Applications
        * Interface Design & Implementation
        * Arts & Interfaces
        * CAI
        * Computer-Supported Cooperative Work
        * Taste & Olfactory Systems
        * Multimedia
 
Panel Session 1
 
        * Virtual Organizations:  Potential Gains & Obstacles
 
 
FRIDAY, MARCH 27
 
Invited Lectures
 
        * J. Caelen, INPG/ICP
        * P. Vicens, 
        * J.-C. Garnier, FERMA
 
Sessions
 
        * Empowering the Handicapped 1 & 2
        * Vehicle Driving
        * Multimodal Interaction
        * Vocal Communication
        * Visual Designation
 
Panel Session 2
 
        * Man-Machine Interface:  Actual or Virtual Reality?
 
 
There are 12 tutorials taught in English and French on the two days 
preceding the formal conference and an exhibition featuring many 
French and international displays.
 
Films and videos include Natalie Stenger's ANGELS and Vincent John 
Vincent's DWELLING IN THE DEPTHS OF A MIND.
 
 
REGISTRATION
 
Standard Fee:        FF 4800
University Fee:      FF 2900
Student Fee:         FF  600 (must be born after January 1, 1967) [!]
 
Tutorials (must be purchased separately)
 
One-Half Day         FF 1100
One Day..............FF 2000
1-1/2 Day............FF 3000
Two Days.............FF 3800
 
Full registrations include certain amenities, like lunch, proceedings, 
etc.  International money orders should be made out to CIC AZ 
Nanterre:  3006 00471 06511407534 65.  Otherwise, use Banker's Drafts 
or send checks drawn on French banks.  Payment must be made in full.
 
Hotel arrangements must be made separately by each registrant.  
Contact Le Corum/Hebergement, +33-67-61 67 61, +33-67-61 6700 fax.
 
For registration or for further information, contact:
 
        Marie-Martine Sainflou
        Secretariat Informatique 92
        269-287, rue de la Garenne
        F-92024 Nanterre Cedex, France
 
        +33-1-47 80 70 00 phone
        +33-1-47 80 66 29 fax


[MODERATOR'S NOTE:  Commercial postings are offered on sci.virtual-
worlds as a public service.  Their anecessarily indicate endorsement 
by the moderators or by the USENET or its administrators. -- Bob Jacobson]




From: pattabhi@sfu.ca (Pat Pattabhiraman)
Subject: PUBS: IEEE TDKE Spcl Issue on learning&Discovery in K-B DBs
Date: 11 Mar 92 01:02:12 GMT
Organization: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C., Canada



Crossposted from news.announce.conferences.


                        Call For Papers
        IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering
 Special Issue on Learning and Discovery in Knowledge-Based Databases

The effective and efficient use of intelligent information systems
requires far better tools and techniques which can assist a wide range of
users to create, comprehend, modify, and otherwise use such systems.
Full use of future intelligent information systems will be impossible
without such aids. Inextricably intertwined with the rapid growth of
data and information available, techniques which extract knowledge from
databases must be developed. Techniques developed from machine learning theory
are not readily amenable to database technology without modification;
databases are rapidly changing in response to new opportunities-
hence the development of knowledge-based and object oriented paradigms.
As one noted researcher has put it, "Computers have promised us
a fountain of wisdom, but they have delivered a flood of information."
Recent research progress, coupled with reported application successes,
has created a significant interest in learning and discovery in
Knowledge-Based Databases.

The guest editors solicit contributions for this Special Issue
of TKDE in the following areas:

* Learning and Discovery in Databases
* Integration of Knowledge-based and Object-Oriented Approaches
* Data Engineering Tools and Techniques for Learning and
  Discovery in Databases
* Visual and Perceptual ways of Discovery in Data
* Integration of Knowledge-based and Statistical Approaches
* Integration of Different Discovery and/or Learning Methods
* Use of Domain Knowledge in Discovery and Re-use of Discovered
  Knowledge
* Learning and Discovery of Causal Structure in Data
* Interactive Systems for Data Exploration and Discovery
* High-level Query Answering and Data Summarization
* Discovery in Complex Data or Text
* Ethics of Discovery in Social Databases
* Successful Applications in Medicine, Business and other areas.

Manuscripts should be no more than 25 typewritten, double spaced
pages, including figures and references. Each manuscript should
have a title page with the title of the paper, full name(s) and
affiliation(s) of author(s), complete postal and electronic
addresses, telephone number(s), and informative 150-200 word
abstract and a list of identifying keywords.

Please submit 6 copies of a paper to the guest editors by 15 June 1992.

        Nick Cercone/Mas Tsuchiya
        Special Issue of IEEE TDKE
        Centre for Systems Science
        Simon Fraser University
        Burnaby, British Columbia
        Canada V5A 1S6

Acceptance status letters will be sent by 1 November 1992.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------


From: howeiden@MILORI.CCIT.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: Re: SCI: SIRDS
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 1992 07:20:49 GMT
Organization: University of Arizona


re: random dot stereograms

You might also check out "Foundations of Cyclopean Perception" by 
Bela Julesz (University of Chicago Press, 1971), and "Seeing" by
Frisbey (Oxford University Press, 1980). I don't remeber if they have
any algorithms, but they are classics [remeber=remember].

HJW

From: sharp@cpsc.ucalgary.ca (Maurice Sharp)
Subject: APPS: Paradigms for Design in VR ?
Date: Wed, 11 Mar 92 00:24:57 GMT
Organization: U. of Calgary Computer Science



I am in the final stages of an MsC thesis about a (hopefully) new
paradigm for designing virtual realities.

I know of the following paradigms:

...as Cooperative design/paradigm shifts (Meredith Bricken, Cyberspace
First Steps, MIT Press)

...as Microworld (Mark Green University of Alberta, Canada)

...as designing action (Brenda Laurel, Interface as Theatre, Addison-Wesley)

My question is, are there any other paradigms that have been written
up ? Are there any other paradigms that are more theoretical (as
opposed to pragmatic) ? Are there any other paradigms ?

You can email me (address below) or post to the group. I will attempt
a summary (though it may take a while, I am madly writing :-).

My main concern is to make sure I have am fairly representing current
paradigms.

maurice

Maurice Sharp MSc. Student (403) 220 7690
University of Calgary Computer Science Department
2500 University Drive N.W.            sharp@cpsc.UCalgary.CA
Calgary, Alberta, T2N 1N4             AOL FSAMaurice







