Highlights of the First Industrial Symposium on Virtual Worlds Technology
The Big Kids Play With VR
by Ben Delaney

This article originally appeared in CyberEdge Journal #2, March/April © 1991

The first Industrial Symposium on Virtual Worlds was held at the University of Washington's beautiful Seattle campus. The two-day gathering was sponsored by the Human Interface Technology Laboratory (HIT Lab), a member of the Washington Technology Centers. The object of the symposium was twofold: First, to show off the new lab, Second, to solicit members to the Virtual Worlds Consortium. We describe the Consortium below.

The Symposium was well-organized and smoothly run. According to Bill Wiseman, Planning and Design Analyst at the lab, the turnout "surpassed our expectations, both in numbers, and in the quality of those who attended". There were 260 attendees.

The symposium started with welcoming speeches and an informative and entertaining videotaped overview of the HIT Lab, produced by US West Communications. The tape traced human advances from tool-making to virtual worlds technology. It explained the HIT Lab's goals and methods and presented interviews with several staff members. It previewed "Virtual Seattle", a VR world the HIT Lab had built for the symposium.

From Wright Patterson to the HIT Lab

The man who is largely responsible for the shape and direction of the HIT Lab, its director, Tom Furness, Ph.D.. He is well-suited for his role. As one of the world's most experienced researchers in virtuality, he has spent years developing new ways of presenting complex data.. He discussed, with warmth and humor, the history of VR, from a early attempts to represent abstract information to the ambitious goals of the Lab.

Furness discussed the Super Cockpit project, begun in 1981 at Wright Patterson Air Force Base. It is a science-fiction environment that enables fighter pilots to manage an incredible amount of information. It includes a high-resolution, virtual-world, heads-up display, 3D sound, a "super glove" worn by the pilot, and a "god's eye" viewer which provides an "outside-in view", showing the plane and its environment as seen from above.

In describing the 3D sound interface which is integral to the Super Cockpit, Furness cited the "low fuel" warning. He said pilots ignored, and then became irritated with the various bells, whistles and voices that warned them of low fuel or similar emergency situations. But when a representative sound came from beneath them, they responded correctly. The 3D sound concept is now being applied to teleconferencing applications at the Lab.

Furness concluded by explaining how the groundswell of popular interest resulting from media coverage of his Wright-Patterson work ultimately resulted in the HIT Lab. After taking a yearlong sabbatical to study the feasibility, he proposed a national laboratory to facilitate the transfer of the virtual worlds technology to the private sector. The University of Washington and the Washington Technology Centers liked what they heard, which lead to the founding of the Lab.

Boeing Builds Better

A.D. "Burt" Welliver, Corporate Senior VP of the Boeing Company gave the luncheon address. He discussed Boeing's increasing reliance on advanced technologies and experiments with new visualization techniques.

"We're looking for advanced technology to help us make some major paradigm shifts in the future. We're sitting on the edge of a new era - an era of a new view of information and how we use it", he explained.

Boeing has just embarked on its first 100% digital design - the 777 commercial aircraft. Boeing is also undertaking digital pre-assembly and testing, as well as checking maintenance procedures with solid models. Thanks to these procedures, Boeing anticipates major savings, both in design and construction, and throughout the life of the plane.

Welliver concluded by pointing out that it is essential to consider how one takes new technology from the technical breakthrough level to a deliverable product. He cited the lost profit from camcorder technology, which was invented in the US but brought to market by the Japanese. Getting it from the lab to market our challenge.
Organization of the HIT Lab

After lunch several staff members discussed how the HIT Lab is organized and the focus of its work. Robert Jacobson, Ph.D., Associate Director of the lab, talked about some of the philosophical underpinnings of the Lab.

Dr. Jacobson pointed out that cooperation is going to be more valuable to the VR community than competition. He sees the Lab becoming a "virtual salon", providing cross-cultivation of ideas and information. This, he maintained, is necessary to help prevent the Not Invented Here (NIH) Syndrome from hobbling the young industry. He urged the audience to see the Lab as a resource which will benefit all involved.

Then Tom Furness returned to the podium to explain the functional organization of the Lab. This he divided into three thrusts; Infrastructure, Technology and Applications, and eleven projects. (See diagram.) He designated target application areas: Design and Manufacturing, Scientific and Medical Visualization, Telecommunication, Education, Prosthetics, and Entertainment. He was especially passionate when talking about the lost productivity of America's disabled citizens. He feels that VR technology may bring many of these people more satisfying lives.

VEOS and Other Tools

Following Furness, William Bricken, Ph.D., Principle Scientist, discussed the technical requirements for useful VR and outlined the functions of the Virtual Environment Operating System (VEOS). He made the point that "psychology is the physics of VR. We are no longer in a material realm".

Bricken listed his immediate objectives at the HIT Lab. They include:

• Inclusive 3D CAD: Designed to create worlds, not individual objects
• Persistent Objects: Whose "lives" continue when unwatched
• Integrated Cybernetic Interface: Permitting seamless, two-way interaction with the system
• VR Tools: Evaluating what is available and building what is not
• Standards: But which encourage diversity
• New Algorithms: Including experience and immersion in the expression

One new tool he postulated is a "magic" wand; a manipulator with which one would direct movement in a virtual world, as well as pointing, measuring, connecting and grouping objects.

Dr. Bricken then briefly described the functionality of the HIT Lab's VEOS. Central to this operating system is "entity-based modeling", in which each entity possess the resources of an entire system, including processing power, memory, descriptive characteristics, combinational characteristics and the like. (See sidebar: What is VEOS?, page 9.)

He went on to discuss some of the challenges inherent in developing VEOS, including the incredible bandwidth required for transmitting "experiences".

OK, but try not to break anything!

Following Dr. Bricken's talk, the assembly was set loose in what one participant characterized as the "VR Playroom". This was two large spaces in the lab where various technologies were available for hands-on interaction.

Demonstrated were Virtual Seattle, the lab's full-immersion tour of a synthetic Seattle, and a VEOS prototype linking several disparate workstations. Also shown was a 3D audio-conferencing system developed by Gehring Research Systems of Toronto, a separate 3D sound demonstration by the HIT Lab, a Flying (3D) Mouse shown by SimGraphics of South Pasadena, California, tactile feedback devices shown by TiNi Alloy Company of Oakland, California, and various video tapes, toys, papers and T-shirts.

Day Two - Getting down to business

John W. McCredie, the Director of External Research for Digital Equipment Corporation, made an engaging presentation to start the second day. He spoke of the importance DEC places on supporting outside research and on getting technology to market.

McCredie stressed the importance of finding new ways to deal with massive amounts of data, and discussed their efforts to determine how much reality is needed to make the VR methodology work.

DEC has a bottom-line approach to research. Technology transfer is of major importance to them. McCredie declared, "technology transfer really is a body contact sport", and urged the audience to stay in touch with their colleagues to learn of new concepts and developments. He concluded by urging that those in the audience support the Virtual Worlds Consortium by becoming members, as DEC has.

VR at work - real-life examples

After a coffee break, we heard four speakers discuss real-life uses for VR technology. The panel included Dr. Martin Touri, Vice President for Strategic Research for Alias Research, Dr. Keith Butler, Manager of the Human-Computer Interface Project at Boeing Computer Services, Jim Elias, Executive Director of Technical Operations at US West Communications, and Dr. Michael Good, who heads the Presence Products Group for DEC.

Dr. Touri spoke of Alias's plans for their VR group, which include research into design interfaces and entertainment applications. He cautioned, that while embarking on VR research "demands an extraordinary [enthusiasm and] suspension of disbelief", we must take care not to over-sensationalize our progress, and to "avoid being cast into the dumpster with cold fusion". Touri concluded with a brief video tape which demonstrated the photo-realistic quality that VR will be expected to deliver.

Following Touri, Dr. Keith Butler discussed Boeing's use of VR to visualize and test fly an aircraft, before it is built. He showed a VR demo of the VS20 tilt-rotor VTOL aircraft which allows one to experience the plane's characteristics as a virtual crew member. While the action was quite jerky, and the level of detail low, this demonstration was fascinating and shows the value of the concept. The not-too-distant promise of this technology is great cost savings, in the design, testing, and lifetime maintenance of aircraft (and other complex machines), due to better design.

The promise and the challenge

The next to speak was Jim Elias. His talk hit on three main points: the educational problems he thinks VR technology will alleviate, the technical problems associated with telepresence, and the importance of commercializing the work that is done..

In emphasizing that the educational system is a mess, he presented the view that VR would improve the quality of education and help keep kids in school.

If I hear, I forget; If I see, I remember; If I do; I understand.
Ancient Chinese Proverb, from Jim Elias' presentation

Discussing the technical requirements for cyberspace networks, he relied on Bricken's figures to calculate that such a network would be required to move 109 bits per second per workstation. He compared this massive data stream to the current phone system; 109 bits/second = 15,625 voice circuits.

Elias concluded with a warning. He quoted from the September 10, 1990 issue of Japan Economic Times, discussing the newly formed Japanese research consortium;

The United States reportedly considers the research and development of artificial reality and tele-existence as one of the most important technologies of the 21st century. The [Japanese] Consortium Chairman claims that "there is an excellent possibility that Japan will lead the world in this field."

The formation of the Virtual Worlds Consortium and similar groups in the US dedicated to bring VR technology to market is our best hope of avoiding this fate, he told the group.

The customer is always right

Dr. Michael Good of Digital Equipment Corp. then spoke about what he called "participatory design"; putting system designers at the work-site of the end-users. He talked about how this process guides what DEC calls "presence research", which is their quest to alleviate the distance between the person and the computer.

He pointed out the tendency of system designers to design based on their own knowledge and experience, instead of what the actual user of the system needs to do. DEC has formalized the technique used by the best system designers: involve the customer in design as early as possible.

In our opinion, this is far from a revolutionary concept. A lot of the current malaise of American industry springs from the lack of participatory design. It is refreshing though, that a major corporation has finally seen the need to officially sanction this process. Dr. Good presented several examples of this concept at work. Not surprisingly, it resulted in more useful products.

After lunch, Sun came out

The Symposium's concluding speaker was Dr. John Gage, Director of the Science Center at Sun Microsystems. His talk was entertaining and thought provoking.

His decidedly nonlinear presentation was loosely organized in three sections: Why is This Important, Technology Trends, and Changes Resulting from the New Technology. Dr. Gage touched on many of the concepts mentioned during the symposium, and presented many new ideas

He stressed the importance of new metaphors. He pointed out that we are making a change as drastic as the transition from oral to written culture, to an information-based society. the new media will require new ways of seeing and experiencing, and of organizing information.He discussed Sun's high-volume networking plans, which like several other proposed schemes, move the least possible amount of data by sending tokens and change indicators rather than complete data streams. He expressed his belief that massive parallelism, open systems and multiple CPUs will solve computing problems in the future, through ever-more powerful systems. He was optimistic and enthusiastic.

Amazing indeed

Our overall impression of the Industrial symposium on Virtual Worlds Technology? As Keith Butler said to us after the event, "It's pretty amazing".We left the Symposium with two thoughts. First, the meeting and mixing that occurred at the HIT Lab was wonderful. It is sure to give birth to important new ideas, collaborations and developments. Second, this fledgling industry has a long way to go. The state of the art is still pretty crude. We must not be blinded by the glare of over-wrought media attention. There is a lot of nitty-gritty work to be done here, both in development and in marketing. The representatives to this symposium have a big challenge before them, but one which we believe they will meet well.

The date of the next Industrial Symposium on Virtual Worlds has not yet been set.

VR material available from the HIT Lab includes memoranda, reports and presentations on various aspects of VR research, their nifty HIT Lab T-shirts, and video tapes from the symposium. Welcome to Virtual Worlds, the introductory tape, including reactions to the demonstrations, costs $100, and the tape of the full proceedings costs 500.

Contact: Human Interface Technology Laboratory, Bill Wiseman, University of Washington, FU-20, Seattle, WA 98195, USA, 206 243-5075, FAX 206 543-5380.

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