From: wtangel@cais2.cais.com (Bill Angel) Subject: Re: INDUSTRY: The VR future (was Immersion studies) Date: 23 Oct 1996 17:30:54 GMT Message-ID: <54lkoe$85n@news2.cais.com> Organization: Sent via CAIS Internet In article , Robert A Schmitt wrote: >The big question is "What are useful applications of this >technology?" What are the compelling reasons to use VRML? Anybody? There are some possible uses for Virtual Reality (VRML), coupled with the use of data gloves that provide the user with tactile feedback. Such data gloves would allow the user to explore computer generated objects by gliding their hands along the surfaces of these objects in 3D virtual space. Such a capability would considerable augment the ability of those persons with limited vision (and the totally blind) to benefit from the advances in computerization and networking. For example, the magazine National Geographic has in the past published fold out maps depicting the seafloor of the Arctic ocean. These maps are 3D perspective renderings of data collected via "side-scan sonar" and "multi-beam echo sounding" and were pub lished in the January 1990 issue. It is a shame that persons who are blind cannot "see" these depictions. If the same sonar data was converted to VRML format, and a person were equipped with data gloves that offered tactile feedback, then they could "explore" the floor of the Arctic ocean by gliding their hands along its basins and then up its ridges. I should expect that in this manner they could form a mental picture of entire Arctic seafloor. -- Bill Angel wtangel@cais2.cais.com