From: avatarp@well.sf.ca.us (Peter Rothman) Subject: INDUSTRY: Avatar Partners info Date: Tue, 9 Mar 1993 14:25:59 GMT Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link For Immediate Release Avatar Partners, a virtual reality software and consulting firm, has created an enhanced version of the Maxus Metaphor Mixer under contract to Sense8 Corporation. The Metaphor Mixer is a tool for visualizing multi-dimensional data specifically for assessing buying and selling of stocks, options, and other commodities. The original Metaphor Mixer has been nominated for the best virtual reality application of 1992 by Cyberedge Journal, the VR industry's leading publication. The Metaphor Mixer consists of a three dimensional world in which stocks, options, and other commodities are represented by polygons floating above a grid. The height above the grid, the shape and color of the polygons, as well as the behavior of the polygons (spinning, blinking, etc.) are used to indicate the presence of buying or selling opportunities or specific characteristics of stocks such as low price/earnings ratios. The location within the grid indicates the item's market and industry group. Avatar has enhanced the existing version of the Metaphor Mixer with the addition of texture mapping, three dimensional sound, voice recognition, advanced navigational aids, and an intelligent agent. The enhanced Metaphor Mixer was developed entirely with Sense8 Corporation's WorldToolKit Version 2.0 (alpha) on a 80486 system with two SPEA FIRE boards for rendering. The Crystal River Engineering Beachtron board was used to provide three dimensional sound through out the system. The delivered system also included a Spaceball Technologies Spaceball, a Virtual Research Flight Helmet, and a Polhemus Fastrak head tracking system. The texture mapping capability of WorldToolKit was employed to paint the company logos onto the polygons representing the stocks and options of the specified company. This allows the analyst to determine the company represented by a polygon at a glance. The Beachtron was used both to play sampled sounds and to generate synthesized sounds using the Beachtron's onboard Proteus synthesizer. A voice recognition capability was also integrated into the Metaphor Mixer to enable the operator to control the system through voice commands instead of the keyboard or Spaceball buttons. Advanced navigational aids were provided to enhance the user's ability to navigate in the virtual world. For this purpose, Avatar developed a Head Up Display (HUD) similar to the displays used in advanced fighter aircraft. The HUD can be used to select specific stocks simply by looking at them and issuing a voice command. Once a stock has been selected, the HUD provides the user with detailed information about the selected item. Price and volume charts for selected issues are also available, and a voice cue informs the user of the name of the issue selected. The HUD also provides the user with navigational cues to help the user orient herself in the virtual world. These cues include a roll and pitch indicator, and an indication of the user's location in the virtual world. Other navigational cues include a guidance arrow which can be controlled to point at various objects in the virtual world. By flying along the arrow, the user can navigate to the selected object. An intelligent agent was added to the Metaphor Mixer which can automatically lead the user to buying opportunities or other interesting aspects of the virtual world. The agent responds to voice commands and answers using sampled speech segments. For guidance and control, the agent employs algorithms originally developed for the control of missiles and fighter aircraft. For more information contact: Mr. Peter Rothman Senior Partner Voice: 408-338-6294 E-mail: avatarp@well.sf.ca.us