From: Marc Nicholas Subject: HARDWARE: VapourGlove news... Date: Mon, 19 Apr 1993 15:48:54 GMT Organization: RedNet - The Mac Networking People Hi All: Firstly, thanks to all who replied to the VapourGlove posting! All add you all to a mailing list to keep you up to date. The glove so far... The first glove will be called the "SmartGloveOne" and the interface "InterfaceOne". These will be sold in a pair, and left or right hand gloves can be specified when ordering. Replacement glove parts will also be available. The specs so far are: A lightweight, comfortable Lycra glove 15-channels of data - 14-joint sensors and 1 wrist sensor 8-bit resolution on ALL sensors. ie. 256 levels per sensor Serial interface Easy to understand 16-char datagram Connects to a PC, Mac, SGi, Sun, HP Workstation, etc. via serial port at 9600bps Uses exteremely high-quality resistance based sensors This glove will be WAY better than the PowerGlove!!!! Why? It supports many more levels of resolution, has more joints, is more comfortable and can be used in professional applications. As you probably tell, the glove does NOT offer any position tracking. Why? Well...to develop a magnetic tracking system would cost me major bucks and Polhemus have been doing it for years anyway! Secondly, it gives the user some choice. Not everyone actually needs tracking - honest! You can start with a $1000 Logitech 6D tracker, or a $5200 Ascension tracker with the same glove. How much? The whole glove with interface, manuals, warranty etc. should be in the region of $250 when production starts. I expect to start shipping Oct '93. Advance orders will require a 30% deposit...mail me for more details. Oh, my new company will be called the SmartWare Corporation. I may even eventually give up my day job to run it! SmartWare products will be distributed my major VR distributors in the USA, Canada, London (for Europe) and Japan. Other projects that I've sketched-out include a much more sophisticated interface for the glove - InterFaceTwo. Also, is anyone interested in a $1000 LCD based HMD that does 640x200 or maybe 640x480 greyscale (64 levels)? It could be driven directly from VGA. Finally, I need all the emotional support I can get! Remember, I'm doing all this on a shoe-string budget, by myself and trying to hold down a day job too! Marc. :-) ----------------------------------- Marc Nicholas RedNet Ltd +44 494 513 333 Fax +44 494 443 374 AppleLink: RedNet Email: marc@rednet.demon.co.uk "Virutal Reality - just like real life, only the pixels are bigger..."