From: jpc@tauon.ph.unimelb.edu.au (John Costella)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: Sci-VW: INDUSTRY: Britain VR research
Date: 22 Dec 92 22:44:25 GMT
Article-I.D.: u.1992Dec22.073745.23643
Organization: University of Washington
Originator: hlab@stein.u.washington.edu



In _New_Scientist_, 12 December 1992, p. 18:

Britain urged to coordinate reality research
--------------------------------------------
by Elisabeth Geake

   "Britain's lead in research into virtual reality will be lost
without government support, according to Bob Stone of the National
Advanced Robotics Research Centre in Salford. Stone is meeting with
the Science and Engineering Research Council and the Department of
Trade and Industry later this month and will tell them: 'You back us
up so that we keep our lead.'

   "He says that although Britain is a world leader in some aspects of
virtual reality, especially exploiting the technique commercially,
there is a great deal of duplication of effort in research. Virtual
reality in this country has largely developed in industry rather than
in universities. And because of competition between companies results
are not disseminated as quickly as in academia, so several research
groups are doing almost identical work. Stone wants the DTI and SERC
to fund and coordinate research, as they do for artificial
intelligence and neural networks.

   "Although several British companies are selling computer systems
and software to design and run virtual reality programs, almost all
the peripherals that are necessary to control them, such as helmet
displays, joysticks and gloves, are made in the US. Stone does not
think this is important: 'In Britain we have the talent to use the
technology, whether it is indigenous or not. To do that requires
national commitment. If we can get advanced manufacturing and
industries to exploit virtual reality, that's where our forte lies.'

   "Last week, the latest British virtual reality system was announced
by Division, based at Almondsbury near Bristol. The ProVision 100 is a
computer system with software which converts data such as simulations
of drug molecules or architects' designs from a two-dimensional format
into three dimensions. The 3-D graphics are viewed and manipulated
with displays and joysticks from other manufacturers.

   "Philip Atkin of Dimension claims that ProVision is the first
system using a helmet display that comes ready to convert and run
virtual reality programs. But Stone says it is not that easy yet: the
simulation data has to be in the correct form first.

   "Silicon Graphics, a computer manufacturer which specialises in
graphics, says 2-D simulations displayed on its ordinary computers
need no conversion to run on the company's Reality- Engine virtual
reality computer, which was launched two weeks ago. At [UKP]96 000, it
costs almost twice as much as ProVision.

   "Division demonstrated an astronaut training program last week
which it developed in collaboration with TNO, the Dutch government's
research organisation in the Hague. It teaches two astronauts to
manoeuvre themselves in space with small booster rockets, so that they
can remove a part on the outside of a space module. The astronauts
have to communicate and work together while they cope with the
disorientating effect of zero gravity, and the problem of moving and
stopping in zero friction.

   "Two of the company's directors gave a polished performance of
removing the part, but the journalists who tried it were lost in
space, tumbling away from each other and the mock-up of Columbus, the
planned European part of the international space-station. Atkin says
such a virtual reality system could be sent into space to keep
astronauts trained during a long mission."



(c) IPC Magazines Ltd 1992. 


[Copying of this article is legal for research purposes under 
Australian Commonwealth Copyright Laws, and so I post it here
for those purposes. If your country's copyright laws are
different, or if you wish to use it for other purposes, then 
you may not be allowed to copy this article. --JPC]