VR.faq
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From: jkp@cs.HUT.FI (Jyrki Kuoppala)
Subject: MATERIAL: sci.virtual-worlds FAQ
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From hlab Sat May 9 12:19:16 1992
Date: Sat, 9 May 92 12:19:13 -0700
From: Human Int. Technology Lab <hlab@u.washington.edu>
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Sender: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu
Subject: ADMIN: sci.virtual-worlds FAQ, updated May 1992. (LONG)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds,news.answers
To: hlab
Status: R
This is the Frequently-Asked-Questions post (FAQ) for sci.virtual-worlds.
Please send updates, additions to Mark A. DeLoura (madsax@hitl.washington.edu)
This document was last modified on May 8, 1992.
Contents:
The Newsgroup
The Mailing List
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
cyberoid@u.washington.edu madsax@u.washington.edu
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 Mailing List:
The newsgroup is available via a mailing list, as well as UseNet
proper. The mailing list originates from hlab@milton.u.washington.edu.
To get onto the mailing list, send e-mail to Mark requesting to be put
on it. Articles will come to your mailbox as they are posted to the
group, and articles can be posted to the newsgroup by Replying to any
of the messages, or sending mail to hlab@milton.u.washington.edu.
Unsubscribe requests should also be sent to Mark.
========
The Listserv:
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 listserv@uiucvmd.bitnet (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: gbnewby@alexia.lis.uiuc.edu.
========
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 milton.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
listserv@karazm.math.uh.edu with a body of:
subscribe glove-list me@my.site
<replace me@my.site 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: (415) 497-1204 (599-2331?)
DataGlove II
VPL Research Inc.
950 Tower Lane
14th Floor
Foster City, CA 94404
Phone: (415) 312-0200
Fax: (415) 361-1845 (?)
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: 44-61-745-7384
Fax: 44-61-745-8264
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: (415) 688-1940
Fax: (415) 688-1949
Cyberface II
LEEP Systems, Inc.
241 Crescent St.
Waltham, MA 02154
Phone: (617) 647-1395
Fax: (617) 899-9602
EyePhones (various models)
VPL Research
656 Bair Island Road, Suite 304
Redwood City, CA 94063
Phone: (415) 361-1710
Fax: (415) 361-1845
Flight Helmet
Virtual Research
1313 Socorro Ave.
Sunnyvale, CA 94089
Phone: (408) 739-7114
Visette
W Industries Limited
Virtuality House
3 Oswin Rd
Brailsford Industrial Park
Leicester
LE3 1HR
Phone: (0533) 542 127
Fax: (0533) 548 222
Trackers
--------
2D/6D Mouse (Red Baron)
Logitech, Inc.
6505 Kaiser Drive,
Fremont, CA 94555
Phone: (415) 795-8500
Fax: (415) 792-8901
3Space Isotrak
Polhemus Navigational Sciences
P.O. Box 560
1 Hercules Drive
Colchester, VT 05546
Phone: (802) 655-3159
Fax: (802) 655-1439
ADL-1 Mechanically-Coupled Tracker
Shooting Star Technology
1921 Holdom Avenue
Burnaby, B.C. Canada
V5B 3W4
Phone: (604) 298-8574
Fax: (604) 298-8580
The Bird / Flock of Birds / Big Bird
Ascension Technology Corp.
P.O. Box 527
Burlington, VT 05402
Phone: (802) 655-7879
Fax: (802) 655-5904
Evil Eye eye-tracker
ISCAN
125 Cambridgepark Drive
P.O. Box 2076
Cambridge, MA 02238
Phone: (617) 868-5353
Fax: (617) 868-9231
Flying Mouse
SimGraphics Engineering
1137 Huntington Rd., Suite A-1
South Pasadena, CA 91030-4563
Phone: (213) 255-0987
GyroPoint 6D Mouse
GYRATION Inc.
12930 Saratoga Avenue
Building C
Saratoga, CA 95070
Phone: (408) 255-3016
3D Sound
--------
Convolvotron
Crystal River Engineering
12350 Wards Ferry Road
Groveland, CA 95321
Phone: (209) 962-6382
Fax: (209) 962-4873
Focal Point
Gehring Research, Inc.
189 Madison Avenue
Toronto, Ontario
M5R 2S6 CANADA
Phone: (416) 966-3139
Complete VR Systems
-------------------
Division "Vision"
Division Ltd.
Quarry Road
Chipping Sodbury,
Bristol, BS17 6AX
United Kingdom
Phone: 44-454-324527
Sense8 "WorldTool DS"
Sense8 Corp.
1001 Bridgeway, PO Box 477
Sausalito, CA 94965
Phone: (415) 331-6316
Fax: (415) 331-9148
VPL "RB1","RB2","MicroCosm"
VPL Research
656 Bair Island Road, Suite 304
Redwood City, CA 94063
Phone: (415) 361-1710
Fax: (415) 361-1845
WIndustries "Virtuality"
W Industries Limited
Virtuality House
3 Oswin Road
Brailsford Industrial Park
Leicester, LE3 1HR
Phone: (0533) 542 127
Other VR-related Software Products
----------------------------------
Body Electric, Isaac
VPL Research
656 Bair Island Road, Suite 304
Redwood City, CA 94063
Phone: (415) 361-1710
Fax: (415) 361-1845
Mandala
Vivid Effects
317 Adelaide St. W.
Suite 302
Toronto, Ontario
Canada M5V 1P9
Phone: (416) 340-9290
Virtual Reality Studio
Virtual 'S' Ltd.
The Limes
123 Mortlake High Street
London SW14 8SN England
Phone: 081-392-9000
WalkThrough
Virtus Corporation
Cary, NC
WorldToolKit
Sense8 Corp.
1001 Bridgeway, PO Box 477
Sausalito, CA 94965
Phone: (415) 331-6316
Fax: (415) 331-9148
========
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: (203) 226-6967
Fax: (203) 454-5840
MIT Press
55 Hayward St.
Cambridge, MA 02142
Phone: (617) 253-5643
Telepresence Research
635 High St.
Palo Alto, CA 94301
Phone: (415) 325-8951
Fax: (415) 325-8952
The WELL
27 Gate Five Road
Sausalito, CA 94965
Phone: (415) 332-4335
========
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 76130.2225@compuserve.com.
GEnie
Echo of sci.virtual-worlds, at least. Contact J.ANDERSON71
on GEnie, or jpa@pnet51.orb.mn.org. (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 bdel@well.sf.ca.us.
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 (617) 253-2889.
ISSN# 1054-7460
Whole Earth Review
ISSN# 0749-5056
Mondo 2000
...
VR Monitor
...
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