From: broehl@sunee.waterloo.edu (Bernie Roehl)
Subject: Re: TECH: world description
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Tue, 21 Jul 1992 13:38:54 GMT


In article <1992Jul17.185842.2330@u.washington.edu>
lonachon@anu.edu.au (andrew longhorn ) writes:

>My thoughts are on the topic of controlling a "user" object from
>input devices.

[many very good ideas deleted for brevity]

I really like the idea of someone being able to "be" an object other
than a person; it makes for an interesting, fun and diverse world.

>and his/her sensory input is switched to
>relate to the input acquired from that object and his/her motions are
>sent as messages to the object.

Rather than ship a lot of that information over a network, why not
just redefine your "body"?  In other words, when I enter a virtual
space other people can get from me a description of what I look like.
When I move, the different sub-objects that comprise my body move as
well.

If I simply redefine my virtual "body", and re-map my physical
movements, it does the equivalent of what you're describing.

For example: Assume I'm wearing some kind of datasuit that tracks my
body movement with a fair degree of accuracy.  I enter a virtual
world, and you send me a message saying "what do you look like".  Now,
I could say that I have humanoid body consisting of (for example) 11
objects arranged in a hierarchic fashion (hands connected to forearms
connected to upper arms connected to chest etc); when I move my
(physical) upper arm, a message gets sent to you saying that the
object corresponding to my upper arm has moved.  There'd be a
one-to-one mapping between the joints of my physical body and the
joints of my virtual body; this should probably be the default.  :-)

However, I could just as easily say that I have an arachnoid body
consisting of (for example) 17 segments arranged in a different kind
of hierarchy (8 lower legs connected to 8 upper legs connected to my
thorax).  When I move my (physical) upper arm, it might map to motion
of my 1st and 3rd upper legs, and so on.  There'd be a one-to-many
mapping between the joints of my physical body and the joints of my
virtual body.  Alternatively, I might map four of my fingers on each
hand to the four legs on the corresponding side of my virtual body.

There would of course also be a mapping from the location of my head
relative to my body to the corresponding position on the virtual body,
and so on.

Certainly, there'd be some re-learning to do; physical therapy for
virtual spiders might be one of the services people offer in a
networked world!  :-)

>As such the user replaces or overrides the behavioural process behind
>the object.

Taking over another object might well be possible, as well.  You would
tell the object's current "operator" (probably some automatic process
with no human behind it) to yield control to you, and then you send
messages out on its behalf.  Your point of view would track the
movement of the "eyes" on that object.

>Carry this further and you may have an interpreter on the client's
>machine that takes all input from the user (gloves, hand and head
>position, etc) and sends each one as tiny packets to each part of the
>user object's "body".

In fact, this should happen even with your own, "normal" virtual body.

>Funny thoughts aren't they?

I'd say they're interesting and innovative thoughts.  Thanks!

-- 
        Bernie Roehl, University of Waterloo Electrical Engineering Dept
        Mail: broehl@sunee.waterloo.edu OR broehl@sunee.UWaterloo.ca
        BangPath: uunet!watmath!sunee!broehl
        Voice:  (519) 885-1211 x 2607 [work]
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds