From: haskell@vela.acs.oakland.edu (haskell)
Subject: EVENT REVIEW: VR seminar at Oakland University, Rochester, MI
Date: 22 Jun 1993 21:32:14 -0400
Organization: Oakland University, Rochester MI.



REPORT OF VIRTUAL REALITY SEMINAR 
AT OAKLAND UNIVERSITY, ROCHESTER, MICHIGAN.
                              
Oakland University, Dykema Gossett, Vidtronics, Virtual Reality News,
and Matrix Technical Services co-sponsored a Virtual Reality Seminar
at Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan on Friday, June 11, 1993.
Steve Aukstakalnis, author of Silicon Mirage: The Art and Science of
Virtual Reality, used slides and videos in his keynote address to
provide a very complete view of the history and present state of
virtual reality.  He was followed by John Chupa, attorney at Dykema
Gossett law firm, who discussed what types of protection (or lack of
protection) are available for virtual worlds.  During the day
workshops were held on

        * Engineering applications of VR 
        * Medical applications of VR
        * VR in education
        * Consumer applications of VR
        * Legal issues of VR
        * Investment opportunities of VR
        * WorldToolKit

The following vendor demonstrations were held throughout the day.

Jerry Williamson and Anant Chandra of Virtual Reality, Inc., 485
Washington Ave., Pleasantville, NY 10570, (914) 769-0900, demonstrated
their high-resolution HMD running Alias software on an SGI Indigo.

Mark Reiss of Fake Space Labs brought out their 2DOF table-top BOOM
that was running the virtual wind tunnel demonstration on a Silicon
Graphics ONYX/Reality Engine kindly loaned to us by Silicon Graphics.

Doug Rowan of RPI Advanced Technology demonstrated their new Micro
HMSI VR immersive viewing device.  This device looks like a pair of
glasses.  For more information on the HMSI contact Robin Nichols,
Magellan Marketing, Inc., 32969 Hamilton Ct., Ste. 215, Farmington
Hills, MI 48334.  Email: larryv@msen.com

Tom Hayward of VRontier worlds of Stoughton, 809 E. South St.,
Stoughton, WI, (608) 873-8523, demonstrated his PC-based color LCD HMD
with the Ascension flock of birds magnetic tracker.  Tom also had a
copy of his new book, Adventures in Virtual Reality, Prentice-Hall -
Que Corp., which comes with VR software and color 3-D glasses.  Aimed
at homebrew VR.

Chris Bien of Deneb Robotics Inc., 3285 Lapeer Rd West, Auburn Hills,
MI 48321 demonstrated their IGRIP software running on an SGI Indigo
with the CrystalEyes shutter glasses.  This is a first-rate simulation
package for modelling robots and factory workcells in real time.

Students in my VR class demonstrated some of their WorldToolKit
projects running on a 50MHz 486 with the Fire board.  The display was
projected on a large screen (no tracking or shutter glasses) and
controlled with a spaceball and/or mouse.  Interesting projects that
got a lot of attention included a fly-over of the university with
buildings, walks, and parking lots all to scale; a virtual watch that
keeps real time; and a horse racing demo with texture-mapped horses
taken from a recent program from the Detroit Race Course!

The following people helped in organizing this seminar:

Larry Vingelman, president of Magellan Marketing, Inc., 32969 Hamilton
Ct., Ste 215, Farmington Hills, MI 48334, who is publisher of Virtual
Reality News, and chaired the workshop on investment opportunities in
VR.

John Chupa, patent attorney at Dykma Gossett, who chaired the workshop
on legal issues in VR.

Jay Cullimore, president of Vidtronics, 65 Woodside Dr., Oakland, MI
48363, who chaired the workshop on consumer applications of VR.

Steve Aukstakalnis, V.P. Technical Services, Matrix Technical
Services, 18560 Bungalow Drive, Lathrup Village, MI 48076, (313)
559-1526.  Steve gave a keynote address that people are still talking
about.

I held a workshop on VR in education and described the course in
virtual reality that I am currently teaching.  As part of this class,
the students compiled an annotated VR bibliography containing over 250
entries.  This bibliography is available via anonomous ftp at

	vela.acs.oakland.edu in the file pub/VR/vrbib.ps.Z.

Richard E. Haskell                      haskell@vela.acs.oakland.edu
Computer Science & Engineering Dept.
Oakland University
Rochester, Michigan 48309