From jpierce@cs.cmu.edu Fri May 8 18:25:58 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 SAA24397 for ; Fri, 8 May 1998 18:25:54 -0400 (EDT) Received: from wheaten.hitl.washington.edu (HZbAj8U8WXc/ufBWTvesSJlAIUCl4tHm@[128.95.73.60]) by burdell.cc.gatech.edu (8.8.4/8.6.9) with ESMTP id SAA27923 for ; Fri, 8 May 1998 18:25:52 -0400 (EDT) Received: from ux2.sp.cs.cmu.edu (UX2.SP.CS.CMU.EDU [128.2.198.102]) by wheaten.hitl.washington.edu (8.8.8/8.6.12) with SMTP id PAA19295 for <3d-ui@hitl.washington.edu>; Fri, 8 May 1998 15:25:46 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <199805082225.PAA19295@wheaten.hitl.washington.edu> Received: from ASYNC14-CS1.NET.CS.CMU.EDU by ux2.sp.cs.cmu.edu id aa22755; 8 May 98 18:25 EDT X-Sender: jpierce@ux2.sp.cs.cmu.edu X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.0 Date: Fri, 08 May 1998 18:23:16 -0400 To: 3D UI List <3d-ui@hitl.washington.edu> From: Jeff Pierce Subject: Re: What is 3D good for? In-Reply-To: References: <199805081833.LAA20325@wheaten.hitl.washington.edu> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Status: RO At 11:45 AM 5/8/98 -0700, Mark Billinghurst wrote: >Virtual videoconferencing makes sense if you're trying to reproduce >spatial cues lost in traditional video conferencing, or perhaps provide >non-verbal cues that cannot be transmitted over jerky video. Let me know >if you want more info .. I've looked at a lot of the literature, and even talked with one of the Bellcore scientists who worked on video conferencing. I'm unconvinced. In order to provide all the spatial cues you lose by not being face-to-face you're going to need to extract an incredible amount of information, which 4 trackers per person is not going to give you. Besides, look at what happens in videoconferences when audio and video get out of synch. Can you imagine the affect on a conversation of audio, video, and _tracking_ get out of synch? This is one area where I really agree with Jim Hollan: most people attempting to use technology for communication regard face to face communications as the holy grail they must emulate. And in doing so, I think they're missing other opportunities. The social science research shows that given the choice between showing the people or their work product, you'd better show their work product. So rather than try to show all the non-verbal cues, why not focus on creating environments for people to work together from a distance in new ways, and create techniques for them to talk and interact with the work product? >I think Augmented Reality is another application area where HMDs are >vital. In fact I think in the next 5-10 years time we'll see more HMDs >used in Augemented Reality and/or wearable computing applications than >immersive VEs. I agree that AR has the potential to be a strong growth area. I also like the work that George Fitzmaurice and others have done on hand held devices as windows into a virtual world. Consider that with a tiny camera, a better display, and some help from Moore's law you could turn my Pilot into a "magic lense" that I can carry in my pocket. Jeff