From: Doug Bowman [bowman@cs.vt.edu]
Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 1999 3:32 PM
To: 3dui List
Subject: RE: comparing VE displays

This is definitely the type of thing that I'm going after.
However, as you well know, you can't always describe something
in terms of just its component parts (that just ruins my whole
dissertation, doesn't it? :-) ). In other words, an HMD
just has a different "feel" to it than a CAVE which is not
solely due to the differences in resolution, brightness, FOV,
etc. Even a workbench in vertical orientation is qualitatively
much different than one in horizontal orientation.

I guess what I'm wondering is if we can determine some principles
that apply directly to the common types of displays rather than
using a level of abstraction - these types of principles are more
easily applied by the practitioner. For example, "Use a CAVE if
your task requires a high level of subjective immersion" is better
from the practitioner point of view than, "Subjective immersion
increases with increased field of view and decreased encumberance."

Thoughts, anyone?

> Seems like the best place to start is in decomposing "displays" into their
> critical characteristics.
>
> o   resolution
> o   field-of-view
> o   head coupling
> o   etc......
>
> These must then be tied to performance measures that can be generalized to
> tasks (applications to use your term). You would then have a reasonable
> framework for experimentation.

--
Doug A. Bowman, Ph.D.          (540) 231-7537
Assistant Professor             bowman@vt.edu
Computer Science        www.cs.vt.edu/~bowman/
Virginia Tech