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From: temerson@hitl.washington.edu
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: EPUB: Sci.Virtual-Worlds Monthly Meta-FAQ
Date: 13 Mar 1995 20:41:23 GMT
Organization: Human Interface Technology Laboratory, Seattle, WA, USA
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Summary: This is the Frequently Asked Questions post for sci.virtual-worlds, whi
Originator: scivw@stein1.u.washington.edu
Archive-name: virtual-worlds/Meta-FAQ
Last-modified: 1995/03/13
Version: 95.01
#################################################
Sci.virtual-worlds Meta-FAQ
(Frequently Asked Questions)
version 95.01
Compilation Copyright (C) 1993,1994
Aaron Kaleva Pulkka, HITLab
revisions by Toni C. Emerson
Last Update: 3/13/95
#################################################
Contents:
1.0 Scivw Moderator
1.1 Background
1.2 Biographies
1.3 Addresses
2.0 Posting Policy
2.1 Editing
2.2 Rejecting
2.3 Cross-posting
2.4 Subject-line Tags
2.5 Digests
3.0 Suggested Readings
3.1 Newsgroups
3.2 Mailing Lists
3.2.1 VIRTU-L
3.2.2 Glove-List
3.2.3 Rend386
3.2.4 HOTT-List
3.2.5 Iris On-Lin
3.2.6 PowerGlove
3.2.7 RenderWare
3.2.8 VeRGe
3.2.9 VIGIS-L
3.2.10 VIRTPSY
3.2.11 vworlds-list
3.2.12 WTK
3.3 Bulletin Boards
3.4 Periodicals
3.3.1 General
3.3.2 Technical
3.5 Books
3.4.1 General
3.4.2 Technical
3.4.3 Fiction
3.6 Bibliographies
4.0 Glossary
4.1 General
4.2 Technical
4.3 Others
5.0 Archives
5.1 sci.virtual-world's FTP site
5.2 Others
Section 1.0: Scivw Moderating Group
1.1 History
Since sci.virtual-worlds (scivw) was created by Robert
"Bob"Jacobson and Howard Rheingold early in 1990, its estimated
world wide readership has grown to well over fifty thousand ["USENET
Readershipreport for Nov 93", news.lists]. Rheingold, the first mod
erator, sawscivw as a
...scientific newsgroup for discussing research and
development in virtual reality on a less formal, more frequent, more
highly distributed basis than the welter of professional
organizations, conventions, conferences, and journals that served as
commun ication media for the individualdisciplines that were
converging on VR. [199-200, Chapter 9: Reality on Your Retina,
"Virtual Reality"]
From the beginning, the Human Interface Technology
Laboratory(HITLab) has sponsored the newsgroup by providing the
necessary resources to facilitate and archive its discussions. The
director ofthe HITLab, Tom Furness, has been eager to foster the
exchang e ofinformation between VR researchers and to develop an
on-line database of VR information.
As the newsgroup's scope and readership have
grown, administration has progressed from the single moderatorships of
Howard Rheingold and Steve Aukstakalnis to the moderating group that
serve it today. The switch to co-moderation occurred when Bob
Jacobson promoted Mark DeLoura from the resident moderation software
hacker to full co-moderator, in charge of the archive and FAQ
construction. A personal reflection on the history of
sci.virtual-worlds, by Mark DeLoura, can be found in the
HITLab Knowledge Base:
ftp.u.washington.edu:/public/virtual-worlds/faq/other/scivw-history.part1
In 1992, Sci.virtual-worlds.apps was created as a spin-off of
sci.virtual-worlds, "...for the discussion of pending and
actualapplications of virtual worlds technology in industrial,
commercial,educational, and entertainment settings" [Bob Jacobson, RFD
forsci.virtual-worlds.apps]. This group was active until 1994.
In 1993, the Scivw Moderating Group was created. The staff
included seven members of the HITLab team (a balance of staff and
students) led by the Research Librarian, Toni Emerson: Michael
"Squish" Almquist,Daniel Pirone, Jerry Prothero, Aaron Kaleva Pulkka,
T.M. Ramstad, and Mark Takacs. The final member of the group, Gregory
B. Newby at UIUC, has been maintaining the newsgroup's email
redistribution list since 1991. The group was disbanded later that
year, as the majority of the group left the HIT Lab and homogenous
moderation was difficult.
The current Moderator is Toni Emerson, with the assistance of
Dr. Gregory Newby.
1.2 Biographies
TONI EMERSON - Since 1991, Toni has
been participating in the HITLab Knowledge Base project. Now she
works full-time as the lab's Research Consultant, content webmaster of
the HITL WWW and caretaker of the sci.virtual-world s ftp site. She
has a Master of Librarianship from the University of Washington and
two Bachelor of Arts degrees in Spanish and Drama. Primary interests
are in technology transfer, information design and information systems
on the Internet.
GREGORY B. NEWBY - Greg is an Assistant
Professor in the Graduate School of Library and Information Science,
and a Research Scientist at the National Center for Supercomputing
Applications, at the University of Illinois at Ur bana-Champaign.
Greghas been involved with VR since his days at Syracuse University,
where he received his Ph.D after establishing the VR lab.
1.3 Addresses
Newsgroup submissions should be sent to:
Questions, comments, or suggestions should be sent to:
Snail-mail may be sent to:
Scivw Moderating Group
c/o Toni Emerson, HITLab
University of Washington, FJ-15
Seattle, WA, 98195
USA
Section 2.0: Posting Policy
2.1 Editing
We will not edit portions of submissions to correct spelling,
grammar, or content.
We may reformat articles so that each line contains less than
71 characters and ends with a carriage-return/line-feed [you can save
us some time by doing this before submitting]. Oversized signatures
may be truncated [please respect the general Usenet guideline of 4
lines, maximum].
We may edit the subject-line for clarity and consistency [see
section 2.4]. We may edit the comment portion of followups to
previous postings, if it is too long or not pertinent to the reply.
2.2 Rejecting
Although we expect most submissions will be posted, we do have
certain guidelines by which we will reject articles. We will not
post: - articles that are not coherently related to virtual reality -
flames (any posting that directly attacks person and/or idea without
objective, analytical content) - comments directed to the moderators
(unless of general interest) -multiple postings expressing essentially
the same idea, the first posting will be accepted the others will be
rejected. -postings considered to be personal comments, not of group
interest.
ANYTIME we decide not to post a submission, we will send a
message to the author indicating why it is not being posted.
2.3 Cross-posting
We do not allow cross-posting between sci.virtual-worlds and
other moderated newsgroups, unless the articles are submitted
separately (this is due to a limitation in the way the Usenet handles
moderated newsgroups).
We do not allow cross-posting of copyrighted material (such as
articles from the ClariNet News Services) without proper
permission. You may, however, submit a summary of, review of, or
pointer to such material. Since we are unable to check the copyright
authority of each submission, we rely on you to use good judgement
when posting.
2.4 Subject-line Tags
2.4.1 Announcements
ADMIN: Related to newsgroup administration.
ANNOUNCE: Miscellaneous.
CONF: Conference descriptions, dates, deadlines, etc.
CFP: Call for papers (for conferences/journals).
EDUC: Description of educational opportunity.
EPUB: Electronic publications, reports, papers, etc.
EVENT: Descriptions of various, non-conference events.
JOB-OFFERED: Employment opportunities.
JOB-WANTED: Shameless self-promotion.
NEW-PROD: New product announcements (commercial ads).
ONLINE: Online services, ftp sites, etc.
PUB: Books, journals, etc.
2.4.2 Discussions
APPS: Applications of virtual worlds in various domains.
DESIGN: Human factors, standards, and other design issues.
ENTERTAIN: Entertainment/game applications.
INDUSTRY: Where the industry is, or is heading.
MISC: Items that don't fit into any other category.
PHIL: Philosophical musings about reality, etc.
PROD: Discussion of products
REV-PROD: Non-commercial reviews and evaluations of products.
REV-APPS: Review of experience with an application.
REV-CONF: General review or report on a conference.
REV-ENTERTAIN: Review of experience with an entertainment app.
REV-EVENT: General review or report on an event.
REV-ONLINE: Reviews of online services, publications, etc.
REV-PUB: Review of books, journals, etc.
SCI: Scientific issues such as health, physics, etc.
SOC: Social phenomena and culture.
TECH: Hard technology, data, software, hardware, etc.
2.4.3 Digests
DIGEST: Weekly digests containing related messages.
DIGEST: Virtual Interface Marketplace
FOR-SALE: Products/items for sale/re-sale.
MARKETING: General marketing announcement.
WANTED: Entities wanting to obtain hardware/software.
DIGEST: Virtual-worlds Info Booth
INFO: General information requests/answers.
TERMS: Questions and answers about terminology.
WHO: Searching for people involved in the field.
DIGEST: Scivw Request
COMMENT: A comment concerning the admin of scivw.
QUESTION: A question about scivw, of general interest.
SUGGESTION: A suggestion for how things "should" be done.
2.5 Digests
The two digests, "Virtual Interface Marketplace" and
"Virtual-worlds Info Booth," are weekly posts containing a collection
of related messages (posted Monday and Wednesday respectively). Since
we will not post empty digests, a skipped issue indicates that we
received no relevant submissions that week.
The first part of each digest will include a list of the
subject lines from the posts contained in the digest, allowing for a
quick check to see if the digest contains anything of specific
interest to you.
These digests may be plodded through on your newsreader or you
may use your mailreader to read each message in the digest separately
(assuming your mailreader can read folders in 'mailbox
format'). Reading a digest in mailbox format requires these simple
steps:
From your newsreader:
- save the digest to a file,
Using your favorite text editor:
- open the file,
- delete everything before the '=cut here=' line
(including the line itself),
- replace all strings ">From " with "From "
(between, not including, the quotes),
- save the file,
From your mailreader:
- open the file as a folder.
Now the individual posts will appear as if they are separate
mail messages, and can be treated as such. The subject lines will
coincide with those on the posts and can be used to determine which
ones to delete and which ones to read. To respond to an author
directly:
reply as you would with e-mail. To post a follow-up: change
the "To: " header in your reply, replacing the author's address with
"scivw@hitl.washington.edu"
Section 3.0: Suggested Readings
3.1 Newsgroups
There are many Usenet newsgroups which contain information
relevant to various aspects of the diverse virtual-worlds community.
Newsgroup: Description:
comp.graphics Computer graphics, art, animation, image processing.
comp.human-factors Issues related to human-computer interaction (HCI).
comp.multimedia Interactive multimedia technologies of all kinds.
comp.realtime Issues related to real-time computing.
comp.research.japan The nature of research in Japan. (Mod)
comp.robotics All aspects of robots and their applications.
comp.simulation Simulation methods, problems, uses. (Mod)
comp.sys.sgi.graphics Graphics packages and issues on SGI machines.
comp.theory.dynamic-sys Theory of dynamic systems.
sci.cognitive Perception, memory, judgement and reasoning.
sci.med.telemedicine Clinical consulting through computer networks.
sci.optics Discussion relating to the science of optics.
sci.research Research methods, funding, ethics, and whatever.
sci.virtual-worlds Virtual Reality technology and culture. (Mod)
3.2 Mailing Lists
3.2.1 VIRTU-L
VIRTU-L is the mailing list mirror of sci.virtual-worlds.
GregNewby OR is
the administrator for the and can be contacted if you experienc e
problems with the automated system.
To subscribe to the list, send an e-mail message to the
automated list server OR
on Bitnet, with the following text in the body of
the message:
subscribe listname Your Full Name (of course you need to
replace "listname" with "virtu-l" and you need to replace "Your Full
Name" with your actual name, do not use quotes and do not use your
userid). For more information consult the lists' FAQ in the
sci.virtual-worlds ftp site:
/public/virtual-worlds/faq/other/FAQ_virtu-l.
3.2.2 Glove-list
The glove-list was created in 1991 to provide a rapid
communication channel to hackers adapting the Power Glove for use in
low-cost VR systems. J. Eric Townsend was the
administrator for this list.
The actual PowerGlove Mailing list is nonactive. To quote the
administrator, "The PowerGlove mailing list is dead. (It fell on its
head)."
However, there is a great HTML doc available, a current Glovelist FAQ
at:
URL=http://wiretap.spies.com/jet/faq-0.3.html
According to J. Eric Townshend,
"This is probably the last version of the PowerGlove-specific FAQ. It
will probably be consumed by a HomeBrew VR FAQ, if things go well. (I
recently (Jul 94) changed jobs. Much of my free time is consumed with
work here at General Magic, Inc., making the world a safer place for
personal communicators.)"
For more information, consult the Glove-list FAQ in the
sci.virtual-worlds' ftp site:
/public/virtual-worlds/faq/other/FAQ_glovelist.
3.2.2 Rend386
There are currently two mailing lists related to rend386: one
for announcements, and one for discussion. If you encounter trouble
using the automated server, you may contact the administrators at
. To get the complete instructions
on subscribing, send e-mail to .
To simply subscribe to either list, send e-mail to the
automated list server , with either or
both of the following lines in the body of the message:
subscribe rend386-announce
subscribe rend386-discuss
3.2.4 Homebrew-VR mailing list:
The Homebrew-VR mailing list is a listserv maintained on
sleepless.acm.uiuc.edu by Jonathan Stark (jks@uiuc.edu). The purpose
of the list is to promote the development of homebuilt virtual reality
devices and applications. Through this list, people can exchange ideas
and questions, and hopefully everyone will end up the better for
it.
Subscribing to the Homebrew-VR mailing list is very easy. Simply send
mail to homebrew-vr-request@acm.uiuc.edu with a subject of
"Subscribe". You will automatically be added to the list, and will
receive all mail that is sent to the group.
To post, send mail to homebrew-vr@acm.uiuc.edu. Your mail will then be
resent to all of the people on the list. A copy of your message will
also be sent back to you.
Homebrew-VR FAQ is available as an HTML Document:
URL=http://www.acm.uiuc.edu/homebrew/faq.html
3.2.5. HOTT-List
HOTT - electronic magazine Hot Off The Tree -- is a FREE monthly
electronic newsletter featuring the latest advances in computer,
communications, and electronics technologies. Each issue provides article
summaries on new & emerging technologies, including VR (virtual reality),
neu ral networks, PDAs (personal digital assistants), GUIs (graphical user
interfaces), intelligent agents, ubiquitous computing, genetic &
evolutionary programming, wireless networks, smart cards, video phones,
set-top boxes, nanotechnology, and massively pa rallel processing.
To subscribe send e-mail to: listserv@ucsd.edu and leave the "Subject"
line blank. In the body of the message input: SUBSCRIBE HOTT-LIST. If
at any time you choose to cancel your subscription input: UNSUBSCRIBE
HOTT-LIST
3.2.6 Iris On-Line
This is a mailing list based on the SGI monthly news magazine. The
types of articles published are: SGI press releases, SGI and related
product announcements, technical articles, training course schedules
and general information regarding SGI products an d services. To
subscribe, E-mail: list-manager@sgi.comm and put the message
"subscribe nyn-emag".
3.2.7 PowerGlove Serial Interface (PGSI) Send mail to "pgsi@uiuc.edu
3.2.8 RenderWare List (ftp site at ftp.canon.co.uk).
A mailing list for information about RenderWare If you want to join
the list send mail to listproc@canon.co.uk with the first line:
"subscribe RW-LIST . There is also an ftp site at
ftp.canon.co.uk.
3.2.9 VeRGe-Events
To subscribe to the VeRGe-Events mailing list, send a
message to: "listserv@netcom.com " with the message: "subscribe
verge-events" in the body of the message.
3.2.10 VIGIS-L
Moderator: Thomas Edwards. New newsgroup for discussion of
uses of VR interfaces for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and spatial
information support systems. To subscribe e-mail
with message .
3.2.11 VIRTPSY - Virtual Reality Psychology
VIRTPSY is open to researchers, practitioners, and students of
psychology who are interested in the social contracts and interactions
within the enviroments known as Virtual Reality. It shall explore the
impacts of both text and graphic based enviroments
on these new avenues of interpersonal relations. VIRTPSY is available by
free subscription. To subscribe, send an email message to:
LISTSERV@SJUVM.BITNET or LISTSERV@SJUVM.STJOHNS.EDU No subject heading is
needed. In the BODY of the message write th e following: SUBSCRIBE
VIRTPSY First Name Last Name
3.2.11 vworlds-list
The vworlds-list is an unmoderated list with the charter to discuss
the aesthetic and artistic aspects of virtual worlds freed from
technical constraints. To subscribe, send mail to
vworlds-list-request@netcom.com for instructions. List Owner: Kevin
Gold smith (kevin@unitcircle.org).
3.2.12 WTK Maintained by NASA Ames Research Center,
sig-wtk@artemis.arc.nasa.gov.
3.3 Bulletin Boards
There are many other mailing lists and discussion groups which are
relevant to the discussions taking place here, such as:
- America On-line: VIRTUS
- CompuServe: GRAPHDEV
- GEnie: Cat 16, Top 6
- WELL: VR
- BIX: virtual.world
Diaspar Virtual Reality Network
For more information on these and more, consult the latest
issue of the "Information Resources in Virtual Reality" (IRVR) on the
HITLab WWW server and at the ftp site:
URL=http://www.hitl.washington.edu/projects/knowledge_base/irvr/
URL=ftp://ftp.u.washington.edu/public/VirtualReality/HITL/papers/tech-reports/ir
vr.txt
3.4 Periodicals
3.4.1 General
CyberEdge Journal: The World's Leading
Newsletter of Virtual Reality. Newsletter 6/year. Ben Delaney, editor
[Email: bdel@well.sf.ca.us].
Virtual Reality Report: The International
Newsletter of VR. Newsletter 10/year.
Now published by the Cobb Group.
Wired. Magazine 12/year. San Francisco, CA: Wired USA Ltd. ISSN
1059-1028 [Email: subscriptions@wired.com; pure culture, nothing
technical].
3.3.2 Technical
AI Expert. San Francisco, CA: Miller Freeman,Inc [August issues
feature Virtual Reality; they have also been publishing a Special
Report on Virtual Reality in July, for the last two years].
Computer Graphics. Journal published by the Special Interest Group on
Computer Graphics of the Association for Computing Machinery. ISSN
0097-8930.
Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments. Journal 4/year.
Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press. [Email: hiscox@mitvma.mit.edu; unsurpassed
technical resource.] ISSN 1054-7460.
Real Time Graphics. Newsletter
10/year. CGSD Corporation [Email: roywlatham@cup.portal.com]. VR News -
The Virtual Realty Newsletter. Mike Bevan, editor. Published ten times
per year. Cydata Limited, PO Box 2515, London N4 4JW, England; Tel & Fax:
(44) 81-292-1498.
VR News - The Virtual Reality Newsletter. Mike Bevan,
editor. Published ten times per year. Cydata Limited, PO Box 2515,
London N4 4J2, England. Tel/Fax: 44-81-292-1498. WWW Home Page:
URL=ftp://ftp.netcom.com/pub/hitchner/vrnews.html
VR World:
Meckler Publishing, 11 Ferry Lane West, Westport, CT 06880-9760.
ISSN 1060-9547. Internet: meckler@jvnc.net; CompuServe 70373,616;
AppleLink: Meckler. WWW Home Page:
URL=http://www.mecklerweb.com/vr.htm
3.4 Books
3.4.1 General
Ellis, S.R. (ed.) (1991). "Pictorial Communication in Virtual and Real Environme
nts." London: Taylor & Francis. ISBN: 0-748-40008-7.
Jacobson, Linda (ed.). (1992). "Cyberarts: Exploring Art & Technology." San Fra
ncisco, CA: Miller Freeman, Inc.
Pimentel, Ken and Teixeira, Kevin. (1993). "Virtual Reality: Through
the New Looking Glass." New York, NY: Intel/Windcrest/McGraw
Hill. ISBN: 0-830-64064-9. Rheingold, H. (1991). "Virtual Reality:
Exploring the Brave New Technologies." New York, NY: Simon & Schuster
Trade. ISBN: 0-671-69363-8.
3.4.2 Technical
Laurel, B. (ed.) (1990). "The Art of Human-Computer Interface Design."
Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley. ISBN: 0-201-51797-3.
Sheridan, Thomas
B. (1992). "Telerobotics, Automation, and Human Supervisory Control."
Cambridge, MA & London: The MIT Press. ISBN: 0-262-19316-7.
Shneiderman, Ben. (1992). "Designing the User Interface: Strategies
for Effective Human Interaction." 2nd Edition. Reading, MA:
Addison-Wesley. ISBN: 0-201-57286-9.
Stampe, Dave and Roehl, Bernie
and Eagan, John (1993). "Virtual Reality Creations." Waite Group
Press. ISBN 1-878739-39-5 [includes Rend386 on a PC-disk].
3.4.3 Science Fiction
Card, Orson Scott. (1991). "Ender's Game." New York, NY: Tom
Doherty Associates. ISBN: 0-812-51349-5.
Gibson, William. (1984). "Neuromancer." New York, NY: ACE Science
Fiction. ISBN: 0-553-28174-7.
Gibson, William. (1993). "Virtual
Light." New York: Bantam Books. ISBN: 0-553-07499-7.
Jacobson, Karie
(ed.) (1993). "Simulations: 15 Tales of Virtual Reality." New York,
NY: Citadel Press.
Stephenson, Neal. (1992). "Snow Crash." New York:
Bantam Books.
Vinge, Vernor. (1987). "True Names...and Other
Dangers." New York, NY: Baen.
3.5 Bibliographies
For a more complete list of publications, consult the latest
issue of the IRVR in the HITLab Knowledge Base:
URL=http://www.hitl.washington.edu/projects/knowledge_base/irvr/
For a list of citations of specific articles on VR, consult
one of the bibliographies in:
URL=http://www.hitl.washington.edu/projects/knowledge_base/
Section 4.0: Glossary
4.1 General
Many of the terms listed in this glossary do not have a
single, universally accepted definition. The definitions listed below
have been compiled over years of discussions and borrowed from other
more comprehensive glossaries.
"Virtual Reality Terms" (1993), compiled by Joe Psotka and
Sharon Davison, can be found in the HITLab Knowledge Base:
/public/virtual-worlds/faq/other/VR-glossary
Another useful collection of definitions, called the "Virtual
Reality Glossary" (July 1992), was compiled by L. Jacobson for the
Virtual Reality Special Report of AI Expert [see section 3.3.2].
Artificial Reality: This term was coined by Myron Krueger in the
mid-1970s to describe his non-immersive "computer-controlled
responsive environments." The full body motion of the participant
effects the computer generated environment, displayed on a screen.
For more infor mation, see "Artificial Reality II" (1991).
Augmented Reality: The use of transparent HMDs to overlay computer
generated images onto the physical environment. Precisely calibrated,
rapid head tracking is required to maintain the illusion.
Cyberspace: This term was originally coined by William Gibson, in
"Neuromancer" [see section 3.4.3], to describe the shared virtual
universe of the world's computer networks, where both participants and
data could be seen, heard, and touched. This term has come to
describe the more familiar global information space. Our telephone
conversations, Usenet discussions, and ATM transactions all take place
in cyberspace.
MUD: Multiple User {Domain, Dungeon, or Dialogue}. These are
typically text-based environments which allow many users to
communicate and build worlds in "real-time." There are many different
types of MUDs: discussion, fantasy adventure, science-fiction adven
ture, and others.
For more information, consult the three-part FAQ on Muds and
Mudding in the HITLab Knowledge Base:
/public/virtual-worlds/faq/other/FAQ_mud.{1,2,or 3}
Presence: The feeling of actually being in an environment, whether
it is real, augmented, or virtual. This is a defining characteristic
of an immersive VR system.
Projected Reality: A computer system which uses projection
televisions to provide an individual or group with a window to a
virtual environment.
Teleoperation: The remote operation of a robotic system. If the human
interfac provides an immersive environment, then it can also be called
"telepresence."
Virtual Reality (VR): This term is attributed to Jaron Lanier, to
describe an immersive, interactive simulation of realistic or imaginary
scenes. Common usage of this term would indicate that the immersive
component is not required. However, many researchers strongly believe
that immersion is as important as interactivity.
Virtual World: A specific interactive model comprised of a set of
objects or entities.
4.2 Technical
BSX: Bram Stolk's X-windows based graphical MUD system.
CyberMan: A low-cost 6d stationary input device made by Logitech.
DataGlove: A gesture recognition device developed by VPL Research.
HMD: A Head mounted display strictly refers to a graphical display
device, although it is usually coupled with position tracking and
earphones for 3d sound.
PGSI: The PowerGlove Serial Interface provides users the ability to
connect their glove to a personal computer.
PowerGlove: Out of production interface device developed for the
Nintendo Entertainment System by Abrahms/Gentile Entertainment and
licensed to Mattel Toys.
REND 386: A real-time polygon renderer for Intel 386s and up. Used in
combination with a 3d display device, such as Shutter Glasses, and a 3d
input device, such as the PowerGlove, hackers can create virtual
environments at home.
Shutter Glasses: Liquid crystal glasses which cover each eye
alternatively, in sync with the alternating display of images for each
eye, produces a 3d effect.
Spaceball: A 6d stationary input device.
VEOS: The Virtual Environment Operating {System, Shell} was
developed at the HITLab as a foundation for building virtual
worlds. Paper available in the HITLab Knowledge Base:
URL=http://www.hitl.washington.edu/publications/veos/veos-project.html
VRD: The Virtual Retinal Display, developed at the HITLab, is a
display approach wherein lasers are used to scan images directly onto
the retina. This has the potential of greatly reducing the size,
weight, and power consumption of displays, while increasing the
resolution. Paper available in the HITLab Knowledge Base:
"A Retinal Display for Virtual Environments" by Joel Kollin
URL=http://www.hitl.washington.edu/projects/vrd/sid-vrd.html
4.3 Others
CAVE: CAVE Automatic Virtual Environment is the name of the
"virtual reality theater" in the Electronic Visualization Laboratory
at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
HITLab or HITL: Human Interace Technology Laboratory in Seattle,
Washington.
UIUC: University of Illinois at Urbana Champagne.
UNC-CH: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Section 5.0: FTP Site
5.1 sci.virtual-world's FTP Site
The site is currently accessible by anonymous ftp (use the
login name "anonymous" and use your email address as the password) at:
ftp.u.washington.edu directory hierarchy:
/public/virtual-worlds/
There is an HTML document designed to access the site, if you have
access to an information browser such as Mosaic or Netscape.
URL=ftp://ftp.u.washington.edu/public/virtual-worlds/WWW/scivw.html
The intial efforts to organize this information was by Bob
Jacobson of WorlDesign and Mark A. DeLoura of the University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill. Many thanks for their efforts. This archive
is now being reconstructed by the Toni Emerson, moderator. The
contents and organization of this archive will be changing on a daily
basis, please forgive us for any inconvenience this may cause. Current
contents of /public/virtual-worlds/: META-FAQ: Latest version of the
sci.virtual-worlds Frequently Asked Questions post.
cheap-vr/: Information on SEGA glasses, cheap
PC VR programs,and the like.
citations/: Bibliographies of interesting VR-related material.
conferences/: Call for Participation and conference programs
posted to sci.virtual-worlds.
faq/: An extended Frequently Asked Questions
directory, which contains product descriptions, research developments,
conferences, school information and other useful items.
faq.tar.gz: The previous directory, in one file.
fly/: Demonstration code for a terrain database fly-through software
package. multiverse/: An X-windows based multi-user
graphical environment with sample worlds.
papers/: Papers posted to the newsgroup.
postings/: All past postings to sci.virtual-worlds. virtus/: Four demos of
Virtus Walkthrough for the Mac.
5.2 Others
The site listed above is the only one maintained by the Scivw
Moderating Group. For a list of other sites, try the "VR Sites List" in
the HITLab Knowledge Base:
/public/virtual-worlds/faq/other/vr_sites.yy.mm
yy=year of last update
mm=month of last update
For a comprehensive listing of WWW VR sites, see
"On the Net: Internet Resourses in Virtual Reality", written by
sci.virtual-worlds moderator, Toni Emerson's:
URL=http://www.hitl.washington.edu/projects/knowledge_base/onthenet.html
__ ______________ __ _^_
/ /_/ / _/_ __/ / ___ _/ / <(===)> Toni Emerson
/ __ // / / / / /__/ _ `/ _ \ \|/ Moderator, sci.virtual-worlds
/_/ /_/___/ /_/ /____/\_,_/_.__/ H