Pure Bollocks Issue 21_009

eZine lover (@eZine)

Published in 

Pure Bollocks

 · 5 years ago

  

Cyberspace - The final frontier 

 
   Imagine  seeing  the  full interior of a house  before  it  is  
built.  Or flying an inter-continental reconnaissance mission  in  
a fighter plane without leaving your home. 
   Such  applications  in 'cyberspace'  technology  -  considered  
potentially the most lucrative frontier in computing - are  years  
away.  But researchers insist they can eventually be a reality  -  
or, more accurately, a 'virtual reality'. 
   Cyberspace  is the 'space' that exists only as data  inside  a  
computer.   By  getting 'inside' computers with  all  that  data,  
house  hunters, fighter pilots or anybody else can touch  it  and  
control  it directly, in the same way people use their senses  in  
the real world. 
   "You  do that by having the computer create a world which  the  
human experiences as if it were a three dimensional place,"  said  
Tom   Furness,  engineering  professor  at  the   University   of  
Washington  (UW) and director of the school's  newly  established  
Human Interface Technology Laboratory. 
   Thanks to a $1.4m grant from Digital Equipment, the fledgeling  
computer  lab  is  setting out to  create  virtual  worlds  using  
special devices such as stereoscopic goggles, 3D sound headphones  
and  motion sensing gloves.  Such equipment creates the  illusion  
of  moving through a 3D space, or virtual reality, by  generating  
an image of the wearer moving inside the computer. 
   In  virtual  reality, the computer images are as real  as  you  
are.  Or as unreal.  The experience of cyberspace, Furness  says,  
is a powerful, even emotional one. 
   "Something magical happens when we create a wide field of view  
display," said Furness about the stereo goggles.  "When you  wear  
those  monitors, they fill your field of vision.  It is like  you  
really are in a new place." 
   If  you touch a virtual switch in cyberspace, a virtual  light  
might be turned on.  Or if that switch is hooked by a computer to  
a  real light, then the real light will go on.   Turning  complex  
data  into  3D  visual and audio forms also makes  it  easier  to  
understand. 
   For  example, a stock or bond trader who has to watch  half  a  
dozen  financial  indicators before making  an  instant  decision  
whether  to buy or sell, might more easily watch a virtual  image  
of  a  stock  or bond controlled by a  virtual  reality  computer  
program. 
   The  computer does the complex work, considering all  possible  
financial  factors.   When those factors indicate it is  time  to  
sell a bond, the virtual bond might turn yellow and swell.   When  
it is time to buy, it might turn green and shrink. 
   As  far  out  as  it sounds,  Cyberspace  is  drawing  serious  
attention  not only from the military and Nasa, but also  from  a  
wide range of corporations nationwide, from DEC to Boeing. 
   The  UW  lab  will use the DEC grant  -  and  other  corporate  
financing it is seeking through the creation of a Virtual  Worlds  
Consortium  - explore radically new methods of human  interaction  
with  computers and the massive amounts of data stored  in  them.    
That  focus  prompted  DEC, which has  its  own  virtual  reality  
research under way, to give the lab $1.4m in computer equipment. 
   "We are trying to find that next big breakthrough in what will  
make  a work station more useful," said Michael  Good,  principal  
software engineer for DEC's software usability engineering group. 
   Separately,  Boeing  will  collaborate  with  the  lab  on  an  
evaluation of practical applications for virtual space technology  
during the next three to five years. 
   Boeing  is  not  alone in its interest.   The  first  national  
conference on cyberspace, held in the spring at the University of  
Texas, Austin, attracted researchers from diverse businesses such  
as AT&T, American Express and Autodesk, a leading cad company. 
   Cyberspace is currently explored in labs nationwide chiefly by  
using  products  from VPL Research in Redwoord City.   It  has  a  
$225,000  system  composed  of  a  bulky  stereoscopic  PyePhones  
headset  and a motion detecting glove, called  DataGlove.   Video  
game  manufacturer,  Nintendo, based its PowerGlove  on  the  VPL  
design. 
   Furness  is  known  as the father of the  air  force's  'super  
cockpit',  an advanced virtual reality flight  simulation  system  
being used for air force training.  One of his projects at the UW  
lab  will  be to develop a 'laser microscanner' which  would  use  
tiny solid state lasers to scan colour images directly on to  the  
retina. 
   But  as  exiting as the research projects and the  notions  of  
virtual  worlds  are, it is tough to sort the  science  from  the  
fiction.  The term cyberspace was first coined by William Gibson,  
a  science  fiction author, in his 1984  novel  Neuromancer.   In  
Gibson's  futuristic  cyberspace world, computers  are  connected  
through one global network.  Humans access corporate, military or  
entertainment data by entering the 3D virtual world of the data. 
   The competition in Gibson's world is fierce, and the  boundary  
between  reality  and  virtual reality  is  often  blurred.   The  
competition  is  only  now  heating  in  the  real  world,  where  
commercial cyberspace remains a virtual reality.