From: phillip@tag.co.uk (Phillip Trotter)
Subject: INDUSTRY: How to make it in the VR field.
Originator: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu
Organization: University of Washington
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 04:21:42 GMT



Can you post the following to Sci.virtual Worlds for me?

The first part is effectively a would be guide to getting involved in
VR research and the second is answers to a questionaire - this is
primarily to encourage others to answer the questionaire and also I
think that the answers will spark off some fresh discussions.

Phill

                        *        *        *

Okay folks - 

I'm not sure how much of this will be posted and if or not it will be
placed in the archive for any length of time - I leave that decision
to the resident folks that decide such things (Bob + Mark for those
that don't tune in to often.

Below is a Copy of the questionaire recently posted to Sci.VW, the
answers are mine and mine alone, so make of them what you will -
hopefully it will start of some useful or at least interesting
(hopefully Both) discussion. I took a little more space and time to
answer some of the questions because I thought they needed more space
and time to do 'em justice.

As I type this its 3.20am, so please forgive any typo's etc.

BUT first :::: 

For those who want to get involved in VR work : a quick guide :-

1. Find a company with the type of facilities you need.

2. Write up a proposal based upon the work you want to do.

3. Write another proposal because the first will probably be
rejected!

4. Make sure this is original and then give references to all
supporting work (Don't forget benefits to the company, and why you
and not some University professor should get the right to sleep on
their floor!)

5.  Be prepared to starve : practice going hungry for at least three
days per week (five if you can manage it.)

6. Forget all concepts of money - you won't see any coming in your
direction for a long time. - If you get the hardware be happy - don't
grumble if they buy the optic fibre and switches and tell you to build
a dataglove - just be thankful they haven't thought of billing you for
the parts.

7. Don't suggest being billed for the parts.

8. Forget about a social life - you can bet that the only time the
system will be free for you to do any work will be midnight to 6am.

9. On Second thoughts find a good girlfriend/boyfriend/husband/wife
someone is going to have to occasionally feed you and put you up for
the night [when the office is being cleaned]. (HI Beth)

10. Find the biggest desk/printer you can to live under. ( Remember
this when your'e sharing the area beneath the photocopier with six
other post-grads.)

11. Practice your ability to sound convincing - you'll need to
convinve everyone you know that your still sane and **better Still**
those $750 dollar conference people that you really should come and
work for them for free for three days and in return recieve conference
proceeding's and access to all those talks that you really want to get
into! ( High Meckler!!!)

12. Practice your electronics skills by converting either the heating
element in the laser printer or photocopier into an oven. Sharp
SF-7800 are the best for doing baked potato's (about an hour and half)
while Canon LBP4's make good sandwhich toasters.

13. Find a good Doctor who will treat double pneumonia as a weekly
bug.( Because the heating Goes off at 5.30 pm and you don't start till
8pm.)

14. Become a psychological sado-masichist in order to enjoy your
dreams of being paid to do this type of work.

15. Learn to live on less than $40 a week because this is all the
money you'll be able to earn in that part time job in those daylight
hours when you're supposed to be a sleep.

16. And finally if this hasn't put you off -Welcome to the Club - its
fun - in a perverse kind of way.

Well maybe one day and I'll have a proper job that pays me to do this
type of research but until then I'm off to get my food out of the
photocopier and return to some proper work......

Phillip Trotter
phillip@tag.co.uk

'These words are mine and mine alone. My computing facilities are
kindly provided by the Technology Applications Group - long may they
do what they do!!!!!! food kindly cooked by Sharp Photocopiers???'


And unto the questionaire :-

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
MAPPING PERCEPTIONS OF VIRTUAL REALITY SURVEY

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SECTION A: PERSONAL INFORMATION

Please be as specific as possible:
1. Occupation (student-music, faculty-math, programmer, entrepreneur- )
_
  Would Be Entrepreneur ( Systems Designer.)
_
2. Type of organization affiliated to (business, military,
   public/private school, etc.):
_ 
     Business and  University.
_
3. Your academic background (communications, science teaching etc.)

  Researcher ( Industrial) + Tutor   
_
4. Your professional background (computer consultant, graphics
   designer, etc.)
_
   Systems Analyst, R&D Researcher, Tutor
_
5. Describe the nature and frequency of your computer usage.
_
_ Varies depending upon project and access- upto 14 Hours per day
   Sometimes none.

6. Describe the nature of your involvement with Virtual Reality:
_
_ Researcher, Systems Designer and Developer. 
 ( One day Hopefully gainfully employed in a proper job!!!)

7. Gender: Male

8.  Age (type an 'x' to indicate the range you belong to):
    <20 years:                    20-29 years: x
  30-39 years:                    40-49 years:
  50-59 years:                    60 or more :


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SECTION B: WHAT OTHERS ARE SAYING ABOUT VR
In our review of VR literature, we found some strong claims and
controversial statements. Please respond to the ones we have
reproduced below, explaining your position as well as discussing its
implications. Please limit your responses to 6-8 lines:

9. "What has been done so far in VR is invention; research has not yet
    begun." (Krueger, 1991)

                       ****Answer****

True. The implications of the technology, its short, medium and long
term effects in terms of the user ( Human Factors of interface design,
possible long term damage or changes via physiological adaption
of visual system due to prolonged immersion etc), Society - actual
change rather than 'philosophized'/predicted change. This is of
particular note when considering computer useage, by whom, when and
where.
                     *********************

10."... when today's infant VR technology matures in a few years, it
promises (and threatens) to change what IT MEANS TO BE HUMAN"
(RHEINGOLD, 1991, capitalization ours).
                     
                        ****Answer****     
  
 What it means to be human differs from person to person,
 society to society and culture to culture. For those denied access
due to poverty ( the majority of the population of the world) the
definition/meaning of what it is to be human will probably not vary
to any greater or lesser degree than that presently held.

For those Societies which deal in information and base their economies
upon the relative value of information (what ever its nature) the
definition is likely to change. In such societies, as television did
much to remove Humanity from the REAL world, virtual technologies
will continue the separation unless common sense prevails.
                      
                        *****************

11.Apparently there are 2 ways of conceptualizing VR: "as a magical
window onto other worlds, from molecules to minds,"
or as a dangerous technology that makes "reality disappear behind a
screen." (RHEINGOLD, 1991).

     
   In truth a little of both. 


12. In his article, "Elements of a cyberspace playhouse"  Walser
 comments on the "growing realization in the scientific community that
 the basis of rationality is not in the world, as had been supposed,
 but in the human body." This view "challenges the presupposition that
 the world is inherently rational." (Walser, 1991)

                        ****Answer****

_Every Human being applies a set of rules and information from which
they organise their worlds. In this age of science, a more rational
set of rules has been taught. These rules are then used as the basis 
of defining each individuals World View. { if you have time check out 
the work of Thomas Kuhn et al especially Kuhn's book The Structure of
Scientifc Revolutions and his notes on redefining Paradigms.} With a
rough consensus of world views discusion upon the world between like
minds view the world as a rational place, since all are judging what
they look at within the context of their own 'rational rules'. Which
are broadlier similar since its likely that all come from backgrounds,
the governing societies of which will have ben similar.

Put simply  rules help us survive.
We impose our own sense of rationality (our worldviews rule set)
in order to make sense of the world in which we exist, in turn ensuring 
survival. With the advent of Virtual Worlds and Philosophers such as
Kuhn we begin to realize that we see the things in the world how we
(to a certain extent) wish it to be, ie each person carries with them
their own representation of the world they detect via their senses
(their own personal virtual world). How they interpret this
representational world depends on the rules they learn (which define
their worldview) from their society and therefore a consensus of
opinion occurs. Thus we find rationality in the world, not because
it necessarily exists, but because we look for it in order for the
rules our society has taught us to make sense, thus letting us survive
both within the world and our society.

After all this BS the point is Walser is correct - we as a society
just never looked at things this way.
                       
                     ******************

13.Artificial Reality is characterized by a "trend from conceptual to
perceptual, a renewed respect for innate, intuitive, real world
intelligence over acquired, abstract symbolic intelligence" (Krueger,
1991).
                     ******Answer*******

 A renewed respect certainly - bit this is more due to the simple
fact that artificial reality ( and most of the other cognitive science
based research) has led us to realize that we didn't have all the
answer to the questions on how we percieve and that MotherNature
(FWOABT) has produced much greater levels of complexity in systems that
we thought simple. ( the Complexity often originates out of the
parallel and distributed nature of the Human perceptive system.)

Virtual Reality provides us with a technology which helps us percieve
concepts by allowing them to be examined in a more familiar
way.(imagine considering Superstring theory where you can visualize
the appaherent structure of a string in terms that you know (3D
instread of 1..10D)). But it is the acquired abstract symbolic
intelligence which allows us to do this in the first place - what the
hell is a computer based upon if not mathematics, and effectivley
algebra and predicate logics - and maths don't come in a more abstract
symbolic form than that.

The acquired abstract symbolic intelligence is used to define the
problem, virtual reality then allows the problem to be
explored,cognized, exlained and communicated in a more natural way. 

Both the abstract and the inate intelligence form part of a chain
where one part are equal not one greater then the other.   
                        ***************

14.In contrast to the above claim by Krueger, Garb (1987) sees in the
development of VR "an uninhibited celebration of the separation and
transcendence of mind over body . . . the substitution of symbolic
realities for the world . . . ."

 See Above Answer.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
SECTION C: WHAT ARE YOU SAYING ABOUT VR?
Please be precise in answering the following and attempt to limit
your answers to 15 lines. Answer all the questions that seem
relevant to your involvement with/interest in VR.

15. What is your definition of VR? Please elaborate on your rationale.

                    ******Answer*******                  

Virtual Reality is an empty misnomer - good for getting the attention
of the public and popular media but it leads itself poorly to provide
a definition. The term Virtual Worlds or preferably Virtual
Environments provide a much greater definable quanta.

Virtual Environments provide a MEDIUM where the possibilty of the
INTERACTIVE COMMUNICATION of INFORMATION can occur. This MEDIUM
differs from existing MEDIUMS in that it provides the possibility for
 of PARTICIPATORY INTERACTIVE AUDIO, TACTILE, VISUAL STIMULATION. In
other words it is a medium of interactive experience, where experience
is defined as direct personal participation.

Thus a DEFINITION of VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS ( & therefore I suppose By
expansion VR) BECOMES :

A MEDIUM FOR THE COMMUNICATION OF INFORMATION BY  INTERACTIVE
PARTICIPATION WHICH OFFERS THE POSSIBILITY OF AUDIO, TACTILE & VISUAL
STIMULATION TO THE PARTICIPANT.

In this sense the environment does not have to be computer generated (
that is just one form), it does have to provide some form of
experience, it can exist in the mind of one person (communicating
ideas to themselves :aka thinking) or many, similarly it broadly
includes media forms such as Sci.Virtual-Worlds. Sadly though it does
not have to be inspiring  (unlike Sci.VW of course!)!
                      ***************

16.Since the funding for research and development in VR has come
largely from the military, scientific, entertainment and business
establishments, the ideology that drives work in VR reflects the
ideologies of only those institutions. What do you think, are the pros
and cons of this ideological dominance? How will the ideologies of
these institutions shape future developments in VR?
                    
                  *********Answer*************

_Since the four ideologies dominate most (if not all) technological development
you can examine existing technologies and view their uses for a
represantative answer. Computers and broadcast technology are probably
two of the prime examples of technologies which have broken away from
the funding ideologies. Military, science, entertainment and business
by their nature tend to be the most productive technologies, but this
said they also cover a hue of many colours. VR if anything will
represent this spectrum, social idealogies such as eduction will
eventually subvert the medium, as it has done with other technologies
such as computing and broadcasting. ( The UK's distant learning
establishments such as the Open University are good examples of this.)

Within the military, scientific, entertainment and business
ideaologies exist many differing viewpoints and goals - If anything VR
will represent this - a myriad of applications from the myriad of
interested disciplines. 

                   ************************

17. Do you see a need for theoretical work in VR? What theories currently
   inform your thinking on VR? Are they adequate?

                     ****Answer******

Yes - though it is dependant on the area. Much of the present theory
is more a case of empty rhetoric where no one konws and no one can
fortell the answers to the questions postulated - this said they are
often entertaining, pass the time, and attract other perspectives to
the field.

Current theories which will effect and inform  thinking upon VR
(hopefully more so than now) include :

James J Gibson's work and thoughts on the nature of visual perception.
As well as other Cognitive and Perception researchers.

Current theory on the design of distributed databases. (Especially
that of Chris Date/) 

Theory of parallel distributed processing systems.

Various works on First Australians and their World views.
 ( Aboriginal peoples and their ideaologies.- and other native peoples.) 
 
Theories and work in the field of Human Factors.

Japenese philosophy especially - those dealing with Kansai ('Harmony
with nature','resonance and senativity with the environment')

Thus theory which helps implement Virtual Enviroment technologies and
addresses the problems we face in building them, designing better ones
and problems we may have when we use them are at presently useful.
Others dealing with their social effects when ungrounded by supporting
study tend to be empty speculation and help divert attention from what
is really going on and its true implications.

                  ************************* 

18. While participating in virtual realities, the likelihood of a
participant redesigning those realities as s/he pleases, is bound to
become more and more feasible. What kinds of opportunities will
present themselves in the future that will enable participants/users
to manipulate 'given' artificial realities and create newer realities
that the original designer might not or could not have planned for?
What will, then, the implications be for designers and artists?
         
                  ********Answer***********

There are two ways in which the participant is likely to 're-design
their realities' :

One is that they merely change their own personal representation of
that environment. Here the rendering system ( or display) mechanism
would merely substitute one representation for another. The reality or
environment that the participant virtually exist in, would appear as the
standard representation employed by the original designer to other
participants (as long as they had not changed the nature of their
personal representations.) ie, it lets the user customize how their
own user interface looks and reacts!

The Second method would involve the participant changing the ACTUAL
virtual environment by changing values in the environmental data. To
do this firstly the participant must have access to this data. This
may be prevented as part of the security of the system. If access is
available then suitable tools that allow, assist and implement these
changes to occur will have to be available. Such tools would have to
be simple to use in order not to distract from the task in hand.  

Eventually tools to design better tools should also be available -
allowing dramatic changes in environmental design to occur.

Implications :-

The implications of the first type of change - personal environment
representation - means that the participant can taylor the
representation to themselves, it will provide faciliities for making
the user interface of the system more personal and comfortable. It
also means you can taylor environments and the data's symbolic
representation to suit your mood, sense of humour & individuality.

The Second type of oppertunity to 're-design your reality' has more
far reaching possibilities. If the Participant can re-design the
environment, not only how it looks, but its spatial + structural
relationships as well as its governing rules, WE shall see new ways in
working within environments that were not thought of by the
environmental designers.

Environments used for working in, will have new tools added by the
participants to speed up what they do and provide shortcuts to complex
procedures , they wil make their environments moreaesthetically
pleasing. We may find that changes will be made by consensus of opinion
 - thus if the original designer implements a datastructure, where the
spatial representation is difficult to use then the participants of
the environment would be able to restructure the datastructure 
accordingly, provided their were tools available to preserve special
structural relationships.
   
                     ****************

19.What do you think is the future of VR art? What kind of new
   aesthetics called for?

                     *****Answers*****

Artists will subjugate the Virtual Environment medium as they  have
others, the aesthetics they emplo will be down to themselve and or
their school of thought. What ever they do, it will depend on personal
taste and opinion, some will be amazing and some will be .....

Some artists are already experimenting with the media -check out the
work of both Jeffery Shaw and Myron Kruegar - there is also a
thoroughly charming young lady who works with Jeffery Shaw inthe field
of computer animation who's name I cannnot rember but will post
soon...
                   ***********************

20.Will VR art be about mirroring reality (simulating reality to an
even greater degree till one is unable to distinguish 'reality' from
'artifice') or will it be about questioning conventional assumptions
about 'reality'? Or creating 'unrealities'?

                   *********A**************

Probably a mixture of all three. 

Though I can't see the simulating reality type stuff becoming lifelike
within the next ten years, though I have no doubt that some
interesting things could be done in the meantime.

Personally I think the more interesting stuff will come from the
latter two area's, these are probably more attainable as well.
                     *********************

21.To the extent that virtual representations are more 'realistic' are
they more 'truthful'? Is realism synonymous with truthfulness? Or
can there be a cleavage between the two concepts where virtual
representations are concerned?

                     *********Answer******** 


'Truth is subjective' I remember my highschool history teacher tell me
this and its one of those comments that I can never shake. The
dictionary definition of realism is 'to make something appear as if
real life'. A virtual representation can never be more realistic than
reality itself and is only as true as those rules which govern its
degree of realism. Thus a model of a persom walking which looks
realistic to the eye , is no more truthfull than a model of a person walking
which uses mechanisms designed to function the same way as muscles and
sinew, the latter may appear slower or stilted due to computation time
or whatever. The truth's in either system are subjective. If you want
a person who LOOKS as if they are walking naturally then the first
system is more 'truthful' to the required objective than the latter.
And vice versa is true if it is functionality that you wih to look
for.

In a more powerful system that functions as a natural system and is
visually correct ( ie, the legs use muscle functions and look okay)
there is not a greater degree of truth, but rather a greater
number of world views and truths applicable to them are supported.

THUS :- The truthfulness of a model is related to the criteria used to
appraise the model not the degree of realism. The degree of realism in
a virtual representation just increases the probility that that set of
judging criteria is supported, NOT the degree of truthfulness.
  
So yes the two concepts of realism and truthfulness can be separated.

                       ******************

22.In a MORE philosophical vein how do you perceive VR? As
extending human perceptual faculties? As solving medical, chemical,
bio-physical, architectural, educational problems? As the artistic medium
of the future? What are your dreams and aspirations about virtual worlds?
What are your fears?

                      ****ANSWER********

Virtual Environment technologies are another tool. More flexible than
some tools we have had before. They will let us visualize our thoughts
more easily. The technology will let us mix our thoughts with real
data, we can manipulate the data and information in an environment, in
ways never before open to us. IN this manner we can experience
problems on differing scales, and in differing situations, through
experience and our own natural abilities we will be able to gain a
greater insight into any problem. This greater insight will help us
solve problems be they architectural, biological, medical,
educational.

As an art medium it will serve the same function as other present art
mediums, it will serve to communicate ideas of artists which
entertain, enchant, disturb and most of all evoke a reaction.

Personal Dream : The Elctronic LIBRARY OF ALEXANDRIA - a place where I
can learn everything about anything and have intelligent agents guised
as Einstein, Plato, Von Neumann as librarians, guides and gurus.

Personal fear : WE miss the oppertunity that we have now and that
Virtual Environment technologies get resigned to back water research
fields the way much of the useful work done in the name of artificial
intelligence  has in recent years.

                      ********************

23.Do you see a blurring of conventional occupational roles such as
scientist, artist, businessperson where VR is concerned? Please
elaborate on the reasons.
                      
                       ******Answer*******

Since the disciplines which are used in Virtual Environment technologies
are multidisplinary by there nature - Computing, architectural design,
psychology, ergomics, optics, audio engineers (to name but a few who
combine to  produce systems which aid in solving real world problems -
usually the province of scientists and businesses (amongst others), in
manners which involve visual representation and aesthetics (the domain
of the artists) there is an inevitable blurring of the traditional
roles.

Developers must learn the skills from many different disciplines and
users will subconsciously begin working within the frame work produced
by these combinations and therefore within the domains of the
contributing disciplines.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~