From diderot@hitl.washington.edu Mon Oct 17 14:38:16 1994 Return-Path: Received: from mx5.u.washington.edu by stein2.u.washington.edu (5.65+UW94.4/UW-NDC Revision: 2.30 ) id AA01922; Mon, 17 Oct 94 14:38:16 -0700 Received: from hitl-new.hitl.washington.edu by mx5.u.washington.edu (5.65+UW94.10/UW-NDC Revision: 2.30 ) id AA23128; Mon, 17 Oct 94 14:38:15 -0700 Received: by hitl.hitl.washington.edu; id AA05261; Mon, 17 Oct 1994 14:35:33 -0700 Date: Mon, 17 Oct 1994 14:35:33 -0700 Message-Id: <9410172135.AA05261@hitl.hitl.washington.edu> X-Sender: diderot@hitl.washington.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: scivw@hitl.washington.edu From: joeha@microsoft.com (by way of diderot@hitl.washington.edu (Toni Emerson)) Subject: RE: Virtual Reality hits the Beer industry (fwd) Status: OR Toni, Answers to your questions: 1.) The original story came from the Wall Street Journal, I believe it was the story on page B-1 from last Wednesday. 2.) Fire away on the posting of it. We just CAN'T have too much funny stuff floating around on the Net. :-) Chow SuperChef joeha@microsoft.com ---------- From: Toni Emerson To: Subject: Virtual Reality hits the Beer industry (fwd) Date: Monday, October 17, 1994 10:50AM Someone forwarded this to me. I'm the moderator of the USENET newsgroup, sci.virtual-worlds...and, we need a laugh now and again. I have a two-part question: 1. Where did you get this information and where was it first posted? I received it in the format below... 2. I'd like to post it to sci.virtual-worlds, may I? Toni Emerson sci.virtual-worlds Moderator Research Consultant HIT Lab -------- > > >Tokyo, Japan: > >The beer at the new Yebisu Beer Memorial Hall in Tokyo may or may not >taste great, but it's definitely less filling than ever before. > >Starting October 8, visitors to the museum can take the Virtual Brewery >Virtual Adventure, a virtual-reality "ride" through the brewing vats. >Using the latest in beer -- and computer -- technology, the Virtual >Adventure takes visitors deep inside the familiar amber fluid, where >they can hang out with enzymes and starches before being filtered, >bottled and presumably shipped off to virtual customers. > >To those who have worn the ride's beer goggles, a tall glass of suds >may never look the same again. A self- appointed captain, equipped >with a headset and steering arms, leads the tour through the inner >world of beer. Up to 12 others can follow along. As tuneless New Age >music flows from hidden speakers, the tour zooms across the exterior of >a red-brick building -- the brewery -- then ducks through the front >door. From the brewery's central control room, visitors have a choice >of diving into the processes for fermentation, brewing, filtering or bottling. > >Those who choose fermentation, for instance, suddenly find themselves >drifting along with a white, articulated structure resembling a finger >bone. It's an enzyme. Huge, multicolored beach balls -- starch >molecules -- bounce around, breaking up if they collide with the enzyme. > >"We really wanted people to have the experience of becoming an enzyme >or a piece of yeast and then banging around," says Scott Fisher, >managing director of the Portola Valley, California, company >Telepresence Research and producer of the Virtual Brewery Adventure. > >The project took nearly a full year to complete, and it wasn't exactly >Miller Time for Fisher when the last software image checked out. "I'm >not a big fan of beer myself," he admits. > >The museum's near-beer experience, of course, isn't its only >attraction. In its beer science section, visitors can test their beer >knowledge with a touch-screen quiz. Passing isn't easy. Visitors are >tested on pouring beer (foam should fill 20 to 30 percent of the >glass), drinking beer (suck the beer carefully from under the foam >layer, but without drawing it into the nose) and refrigerating beer >(any lower than 43 to 48 degrees Fahrenheit and the beer can become >"less tasty"). > >But alas, there is no real beer to drink at the museum. >========== > >Chow >SuperChef >WhiteBoard News Service Bureau Chef > >To subscribe please email: >JoeHa (Joseph Harper) >joeha@microsoft.com >microsoft!joeha@uunet.uu.net > > > >