From: Jorge Alvoeiro <J.Alvoeiro@psy.hull.ac.uk>
Subject: Re: HUMAN-FACTORS: A real, customer conceived VR app
Date: Fri, 01 Nov 1996 11:00:01 +0000
Organization: Dept. of Psychology, Hull University, Hull HU6 7RX, England



Peter Rothman wrote:
> HMDs will eventually produce something similar for viewing movies and
> TV. I know this has been tried before, but the price needs to be right
> and the content needs to be there. HMDs isolate the user; its part of
> their nature.
>  Applications that make use of this will succeed, all others will
> fail.  I don't see these devices being used for social activities
> (i.e. location based entertainment) for much longer.  The novelty is
> wearing off...

This is a very narrow view of using HMDs. In fact social activities
may be the way to go forward. The use of avatars and virtual humans in
V. R./E. is growing at a very fast pace. One can even have virtual
humans in REND/VR386 type of software. This sort of programming can be
used in all sorts of activities from entertainment to
teaching/training.  In fact virtual humans would be the ideal teachers
as they can be available all the time, from anywhere in the world and
their teaching material can be changed very rapidly. (Also they are
very cheap to maintain).

As far as viewing movies/TV/video in HMDs is something which with a
HMD like the CyberMaxx for $400.00 (
http://www.phoenix.net/~vrgear/hmd~1.htm ) is something which is
becoming very affordable to a very large population and this sort of
equipment already has connections for video/TV connectors.

Bye for now.
Jorge.
-- 
   Jorge Alvoeiro,           Phone:   +44 (0)1482 465778
   Dept. of Psychology,      Fax:     +44 (0)1482 465599
   Hull University,          E-Mail:  J.Alvoeiro@psy.hull.ac.uk
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