VR at work – applications
Big Money in Cyberspace

by Ben Delaney

This article first appeared in CyberEdge Journal #11, September/October 1992. © 1992 CyberEdge Information Services, Inc.

One of the first inroads of virtual reality into the corporate suite has happened in New York. There Maxus Systems International has developed a VR applicaton that lets managers of financial portforlios fly into and around a virtual landscape made up of equities and other instruments. Maxus builds separate worlds, which include different groups of investments, for various clients. The system, called Metaphor Mixer, has been on line since June, 1992, and was built using Sense8's WorldToolKit software.

The system runs now on a 486-50 PC clone, equipped with an Intel DVS 2 card; Spaceball, and color monitor. The system will also support HMD, or BOOM displays, and a high resolution projection version is planned. It is able to display 5,000 to 10,000 stocks in one world, and provides close to 20 frames per second update rate. WorldToolKit was chosen for its platform independence and modularity. Says Paul Marshall, co designer of the system with partner Sean Manefield, "WorldToolKit is just a fabulous application for doing this, and the people at Sense8 were really helpful when we needed technical assistance."

The design of the world is a grid, with the industries categories in rows, and the financial markets (London, Tokyo, New York, etc.) in columns. Each stock is represented by an icon: a polygon that has its shape assigned by the user. In the initial implementation, the colors of the icons change to show current price trends; red means the stock is headed down, blue means up and gray indicates little or no change. In addition to different colors and shapes, each stock can be blinking or spinning, indicating that a predetermined condition has been met. The distance of the shape above or below the grid surface shows the relative price of the stock as compared to others in the group.

VR as an idea generator

According to Marshall, Metaphor Mixer is "a vast improvement over looking at pages of numbers. We see the virtual reality system as an idea generator for our clients because it lets them look at all of the possibilities in the market, examine potential outcomes and make the best decision." The system gets its data from a Windows based application developed previously by Maxus, called Capri, that accepts and analyzes financial data coming off the wires, then feeds it to the VR system in real time.

Metaphor Mixer is being used now to manage the US$106 billion portfolio of TIAA CREF, a college teachers' pension fund, where it has proven to be valuable in helping mangers spot trends and movements in Pacific rim markets. The characteristics of the stock icons are user definable, so that blinking could indicate that a certain price/earnings ratio has been achieved, or color could indicate a upsurge in market activity in the particular issue. As development proceeds, Marshall tells us, the capability to fly into the icons will be added. Inside, the user will find traditional stock charts and other textual data, providing even more information.

The system is currently available only to Maxus' clients on a lease basis. Maxus provides financial consulting services to clients with portfolios over us$100,000,000.

Contacts: Maxus Systems Intl., Paul Marshall, 25 Fifth Avenue, Suite 6F, New York, NY 10003 USA. Sense8, 4000 Bridgeway, Suite 101, Sausalito, CA 94965 USA, 415 331 6318, FAX: 415 331 9148.

Questions? More Info? Email the Webmaster

407 M. L. King Jr. Way, Oakland, CA 94607 USA
+1 510 419-0800

Our privacy policy may be read here.