From: robcamp@well.sf.ca.us (Robert Campanell) Subject: APPS: Mandala in TV classroom -- "EMERGING TECHNOLOGY" Date: Sat, 1 May 1993 17:33:00 GMT Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link EMERGING TECHNOLOGY is an education application of virtual environ- ments using the Mandala system. It was created for an interactive multimedia class at George Washington University. The class is part of a nationwide network of televised classrooms called the Mind Extension University. It aired Thursday, April 26. The topic for this class was emerging technology which included virtual environments. The Mandala application focused on emerging technologies of the past and future. It featured silver boxes floating around in the virtual environment. As you touched one of the boxes, a graphic with an emerging technology would appear. The boxes on the left side opened successful technologies, while the boxes on the right side opened sister technologies that never quite made it. The first two technologies to appear were automotive technologies. The successful technology was the gasoline powered auto. It's sister technology was the electric auto. I chose this example to illustrate the effect of a distribution network on an emerging technology. The distribution network designed for a personal transportation system was a series of high speed freeways circling and intersecting the city. The cities are connected throught a series of high speed freeways known as the U. S. Inter- state Highway System. Both the gasoline powered auto and the electric auto were devloped around the same time. The government's decision to build the interstate highway system clearly favored the gasoline powered auto because of its ability to travel over longer distances and at higher speeds. We know VR comes in different technologies just as the early automotive technologies. How it will evolve as something that is familiar to everyone depends on the design of its distribution network. Vice President Al Gore is a proponent of a national information network whose concept is similar to the interstate highway system. If we get this network, the design of the network will determine the VR technology that will emerge as the perceived standard. The second example looked at the telephone and the picturephone. This was used to illustrate the point about how much information in neces- sary, given the task that you are doing. Telephone conversation requires a high degree of interaction. The addition of images to the conversation does not enhance the interaction, given the additional cost that's required to provide the images. Immersion is one of the most discussed topics in VR. It seems to be the general opinion that the more detailed the virtual world is designed, the more immersive it is. I believe that in a networked virtual environment, the most important design element is not the virtual world itself, but the level of interaction among the participants. If the interaction is mostly between the participant and the virtual environment then the virtual environment must be very detailed. If the interaction is between the participant and a virtual actor, the virtual actor should be detailed with lesser detail to background virtual environment. If the interaction is high between the participants, the focus of the design should be to optimize interaction. Detail should be given the secondary priority. In the final example of EMERGING TECHNOLOGY, an image of the telecom- puter popped out in the last box that you opened. This scene was a television with a computer drawn image of my face. The text was TELECOMPUTER? Lifestyle journalists who write technology stories always talk about how we will have a telecomputer in our home in the near future. I have no clue when this will happen. I'm still waiting for my personal robot to clean my apartment, do the dishes, do the laundry, and take out the trash. ---------------------------------------------------------------- | "C Y B E R I A" | | Experience Reality in a Virtual World | ---------------------------------------------------------------- |Robert Campanell |Explicit | |Producer, "Cyberia" |2020 Pennsylvania Ave. NW | |George Washington University |Suite 430 | |Internet: robcamp@well.sf.ca.us |Washington, DC 20006 | ----------------------------------------------------------------