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Toward Ultimate RealityJason ChristieAbstract: This study explores various uses of virtual reality goggles in conjunction withconsumer level items: color cameras, video effects, luminance keying and videotape, inan effort to ascertain what is feasible at the present time regarding consumer andindustrial applications. As a measure toward eventual home theater display prospects, theviability of keying video into a see-through head-mounted display to form a virtual, wall-sized television will be determined. Another portion of the research will attempt tocommunicate aspects of the psychedelic experience into electronic form.“When we apply the power of networking to the VR world, the potential for stretchingthe limits of human abilities becomes very powerful.” —Jaron Lanier
IntroductionVirtual Reality (VR), its “newer” cousin Augmented Reality (AR), EnhancedReality (ER), Simulated Environments (SE), Myron Krueger’s Artificial Reality
andother terms each attempt to describe unique sets of experiences and phenomenon that promise to radically alter the process of human communication. It is my belief that thesevarious disciplines will continue evolving parallel with related technologies until acritical mass is achieved, resulting in a coalescence of unprecedented magnitude, which Ihave termed Ultimate Reality, in deference to Ivan Sutherland’s pioneering effortsdescribed in The Ultimate Display.
Mr. Sutherland’s first head-mounted display (HMD) was in fact a see-throughdesign.
Through clever use of half-bright mirrors, a video display was mapped over theuser’s field of vision. This was the first implementation of what is now known asAugmented Reality. I contend that this original incarnation will ultimately prove to bemore useful to mankind.
1
Byte, Vol. 22, No. 8, P. 32 “News and Views: Interviews.” (1997).
2
While Mr. Krueger’s phrasing seems best suited to describe his own unique field of study into “other”environments, I fully believe his early research will prove instrumental in the coming technologicalconvergence, particularly in the areas of telepresence and in making computers “aware” of human beings. Not only that, he constantly reminds us that such experiences should be enjoyable, even fun. Thishumanizing factor deserves far more attention than it currently receives.
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Suthlerland, Ivan. "The Ultimate Display." Information Processing 1965: Proceedings of IFIP Congress65, 2 (New York, May 24-29, 1965): 508.
4
Pimentel, Ken and Teixeira, Kevin. (1995) Virtual Reality: Through The New Looking Glass. P. 44
Few fields have shown as much promise, while failing to deliver in theway of actual product, as Virtual Reality, thus thwarting the potential for rapid advancesin human communication. While proving to be invaluable in the fields of science,medicine, and computing, what was once seen as a marketplace panacea has proven to bea commercial black hole. Various attempts to penetrate the U.S. consumer market haveinevitably resulted in withdrawals and bankruptcies. From the fall of the pioneering VPLResearch
to the 1997 bankruptcy filing of Virtual I-O,
VR has failed to attain a sizableniche in the marketplace beyond industrial and medical applications. Despite VR’sinability to gain a foothold in the consumer realm, the industry is still estimated to gross$1,000,000,000 in 1998 alone.
There has yet to be a compelling use for VR/AR in daily life. Games apparentlyare not driving factors in moving this technology into homes. In true paradoxical fashion,we won’t have better displays until there is a large demand, and we won’t have a demanduntil we have better displays.Japan, however, has a healthy market for VR, and relies heavily on Americanresearch and development, primarily importing foreign gear for various consumer uses.As far back as 1993, the National Trade Data Bank Market Report painted a bright futurefor VR in Japan, somewhere in the neighborhood of $174-$435 million in projected salesand revenue from VR related fields, entirely within the realm of entertainment.
It could be that the Japanese are culturally more ready for artificial reality experiences because of their preferred television viewing distance being half that of Western preferences. In other words, there is less reluctance to having a display near the eyes. While VR theme parksare a burgeoning industry in Japan, they have not caught on well in the United States,
5
Rifken, Glenn. (1996) “Computerworld Inner Visions”. P. 1 (November 11, 1996) (September 12, 1998)www.elibrary.comComputerworld.
6
Warren Publishing, Inc. Consumer Electronics (May 5, 1997) (August 13, 1998)
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Infonautics Corporation. “Virtual Reality Market to Reach Almost Billion Dollars in 1998”.www.elibrary.comPress Release
8
The National Trade Data Bank Market Report. (Japan: 1993)
with few exceptions (Virtuality’s early success with Dactyl Nightmare and Chicago’sBattleTech center.)
In the 1980’s, time base correctors (TBCs)
averaged a minimum cost of about$5000 each. With the advent of desktop video, in particular, Newtek’s Video Toaster, thedemand for TBCs increased to such a level as to lower prices to the extent that today youcan you can easily equip a computer with four TBCs, not to mention a video switcher, for less than $5000. If industry, by way of consumers, creates a demand for luminance andchromanance-based solutions, this pricing shift could occur with AR systems at a muchhigher rate, resulting in a product that remains affordable, but offers high quality images.The ultimate artificial reality experience would be a direct mind link. Scientistsare now able to view brain wave activity patterns as they occur.
As theneuromagnetometers that perform this task become more sensitive, and the computersthat interpret the data more sophisticated, it will be possible to think “apple,” and causethe representation of an apple to appear in virtual or augmented reality. Thus, I posit thatit will one day be possible to record actual thoughts and dreams. It is at this point thatthings begin to get interesting, in the sense that we will be able to create other realitiesthrough our own thoughts.Stereolithography is the process whereby 3-D objects are made into physicalobjects through the use of “object printers,” machines that convert the 3-D data into solidobjects by treating a volume of resin with lasers to harden it into specific shapes.
Thefuture promises us a world in which solid objects can be transmitted via a 3-D “faxmachine,” eminently useful in design and prototyping work. Coupling this process with
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I find it interesting to see Commodore’s Amiga crop up repeatedly in this research. Both Dactyl Nightmare and BattleTech used Amiga 3000’s for image generation and control. Sense8’s first demo to Sunwas also Amiga-based.
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Time base correctors correct the timing errors of videotape transports to provide a stable signal for switching and editing purposes.
11
Berger, Bob “Mapping the Mindfields” Omni
12
Pimentel, Ken and Teixeira, Kevin. (1995) Virtual Reality: Through The New Looking Glass. P. 269
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