From: "STARS::PSOTKA" <PSOTKA%STARS.decnet@alexandria-emh2.army.mil>
Subject: Re: PSYCH: How 'bout this one...
Date: Tue, 9 Mar 1993 13:55:20 CST



Someone wrote:
 Imagine the case of a "locked-in" patient.
This is a person with healthy mind, but no sensory or motor ability."

If a VR were created for this person. responding somehow to  detected
brainwaves (perhaps even in the motor cortex); would this person learn to have
a sense of presence like that generated by head-coupled control of motion
in the VR?

The question arises from the distinctly superficial sense of presence obtained
by looking at a VR through a fixed TV screen.  Even though you can control
the image and explore the environment by using a mouse or a spaceball, the
sense of immersion is faint, mainly because motion is not head-coupled.
Could a paraplegic without heaad motion really experience immersion?