Considering the technologies at the time, the people seemed to have made use of every trick, using special effect upon special effect in an effort to create a specific state of consciousness to focus the human mind's attention on the information. Also, more precise input devices have been developed for enhancing the experience. These environments have gone far in providing the settings for making the computer become transparent to allow focusing on the information. The next step is to reduce the cost of these tools, extend the domain space so that more than a few individuals can collaborate, and improve the resolution and precision of interaction. In these CAVEs, as in the caves at Lascaux, people in an altered state of consciousness can be educated in the use of tools for creating and maintaining knowledge.
Real environments require people to be in the same space at the same time.
VEs will hopefully get rid of the real space requirement allowing humans in distant settings to collaborate. We are going to use this new communication medium to take us beyond the boundaries of our minds and push our society to create and transmit information from generation to generation. Upgrading from a 2D to 3D interface About three decades have passed since devoting a single computer to the use of one person was a revolutionary idea. Today, the word computer brings to mind monitor, keyboard, and mouse attached to a desktop machine. VE s are supporting technologies that will explode that image.