From mconway@microsoft.com Thu May 7 13:08:21 1998 Received: from burdell.cc.gatech.edu (root@burdell.cc.gatech.edu [130.207.3.207]) by lennon.cc.gatech.edu (8.8.4/8.6.9) with ESMTP id NAA16369 for ; Thu, 7 May 1998 13:08:19 -0400 (EDT) Received: from wheaten.hitl.washington.edu (F+6cyfMQISj2lqboMCXkQm2SiJY5gQL+@[128.95.73.60]) by burdell.cc.gatech.edu (8.8.4/8.6.9) with ESMTP id NAA14346 for ; Thu, 7 May 1998 13:08:18 -0400 (EDT) Received: from mail4.microsoft.com (mail4.microsoft.com [131.107.3.29]) by wheaten.hitl.washington.edu (8.8.8/8.6.12) with ESMTP id KAA06407 for <3d-ui@hitl.washington.edu>; Thu, 7 May 1998 10:08:07 -0700 (PDT) Received: by INET-04-IMC with Internet Mail Service (5.5.1960.3) id ; Thu, 7 May 1998 10:08:07 -0700 Message-ID: <4FD6422BE942D111908D00805F3158DF05B26692@red-msg-52.dns.microsoft.com> From: Matt Conway To: "'Jeff Pierce'" , 3D UI list <3d-ui@hitl.washington.edu> Subject: RE: HMDs, CAVEs, COVEs, monitors, oh my! Date: Thu, 7 May 1998 10:08:05 -0700 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.1960.3) Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1" Status: RO At the risk of sounding like a mouthpiece for The Borg (tm) I'd have to chime in here with a dissenting opinion. In terms of cost and sheer numbers, I believe that most 3D UIs will appear on mundane setups, those with a humble monitor plus mouse. These will outnumber caves, coves, reactive workbenches, head mounts, interactive holograms (cool MIT stuff!), or even Very Large Screens for the forseeable future. If the question is where MOST 3D UI's will appear, that seems to be the clear answer. Where will the MOST EFFECTIVE 3D UIs appear? Well, that's a different question, and depends on goals in mind. Surgical simulators may very well use exotic technology (coves or workbenches, etc.) because the value of doing so is very much higher than the cost and inconvenience of sticking with the more prosaic, cheaper and more readily available platforms. (I hate having to lob caveats like this in) -- This isn't a Microsoft argument but an argument about simple economics. People will get {cove|HMD|cave etc.) when they are cheap and they won't get cheap unless you make a lot of them, and you can't do that unless there's a big market. We can't create a big demand without a compelling application or domain of applications. Games created the need for high quality sound and so we have soundblasters everywhere. Once again, games are creating a world where PCs will host pretty impressive 3D hardware. What applicaiton domain will demonstrate the compelling need for a Cave or Cove or HMD? This is our central problem: aside from games, what is 3D good for? If we can answer this in a principled way, it will become more obvious on what sort of platforms we should be doing our 3D UIs. Until then, the desktop will be the place where we will see most of the 3D UI work. Thoughts? Matt > -----Original Message----- > From: Jeff Pierce [mailto:jpierce@cs.cmu.edu] > Sent: Wednesday, May 06, 1998 10:09 PM > To: 3D UI list > Subject: HMDs, CAVEs, COVEs, monitors, oh my! > > > At 12:54 AM 5/7/98 -0700, Ivan Poupyrev wrote: > >1) The classic HMD vs. CAVEs question. I have to admit that > I am leaning > >towards the CAVE side right now (or projection/large screen > interaction at > >least). > > What do other people think on this issue? Will most 3D UI's > be created on > the desktop (Fishtank VR or even non-head tracked), in CAVEs, > or using HMDs? > > Personally, I'm leaning more and more toward a mini-CAVE > (which I believe > someone nicknamed COVEs awhile back - anyone have a ref handy > on this?). > Sit the user down and then project onto both the table and > wall in front of > him. Or stick him in a corner and project on 2 walls. I > think that until > HMDs become a lot smaller and lighter (and maybe not even > then?) working > unencumbered has a lot more appeal (and better display > technologies). The > drawback of a full CAVE is that you have to work in a special > room, and you > lose some of the nice physical affordances you get from > sitting at a desk. > > Although for entertainment applications, one of the things we > learned from > DisneyQuest is that you can't beat the drawing power of an > HMD (novelty > factor) for the common man. A CAVE is just a big theater > with surrounding > screens, sort of like a small OMNIMAX. > > Jeff > > >