Ben Delaney: 1995 Summer Confs

VR Worlds `95, Informatique, VR & Persons with Disabilities
Summer Meetings
By Ben Delaney and Gilles Scotto di Carlo

The big news in this summer's VR conferences was that the hype is gone. Starting with Mecklermedia's VR World `95, the granddaddy of all VR conferences, there was a downturn in attendance and excitement. There were a number of explanations for this, but as far as this reporter is concerned, the reduced level of enthusiasm was the result of two distinct and significant developments. First, the fickle eye of public awe has moved on, mostly to the Internet and Worldwide Web, leaving VR to finally fail or succeed on its own merits. There were fewer wide-eyed "newbies" at each of these meetings, and many more corporate researchers and managers. This should be seen as a positive development, since it indicates that the corporate world is starting to see VR as a legitimate tool. It also means that the haggard sales-folk on the convention floors were able to spend their time more productively, talking with grown-ups about real projects, with real budgets.

Secondly, the people working in VR research and development have milked the cash cow about dry. All of the easy work has been done, and now its time to buckle down and create real applications, that perform real work, and are suitable to the real world. We've seen enough kitchens, and enough fantastic landscapes. Now is the time for some of the quiet folks, the one's who haven't been pumping the hype machine, to step forward with their solid accomplishments. We saw this happening, too.

In San Jose, California, Spring VR World

The exhibit hall was bigger, the conference admission cost more, and there was the sense that attendance was down. But there were some interesting new developments, both in the conference halls and on the exhibit floor. Most of the buzz at this meeting was about VRML and various techniques for networking virtual worlds. There were conference session and many hallway conversations, all leading to the inescapable conclusion that yes, there will be networked virtual worlds. But, on the big issues: protocols, standards, and methods, no consensus emerged. Indeed, as we saw later at SIGGRAPH, everybody is lobbying hard to have their "new, improved" standard accepted. There were DIS (Distributed Interactive Simulation) proponents, VRML fans, some proprietary implementations, and a whole slew of extensions to VRML. Only time will tell which standards prevail. As Myron Kreuger likes to say, "the nice thing about standards is that you have so many to choose from".

The show floor was definitely more subdued than at previous Meckler shows. No one was quite sure why that was or what it meant, but there were several suppositions. Several of the vendors complained that less pre-show promotion took place. Others noticed that while the overall attendance was lower, the quality of the delegates seemed better: more business people with requirements and budgets. Most vendors we spoke to were generally pleased with the quality of leads from this show.

Informatique `95, Montpellier, France
Reported by Gilles Scotto DI Carlo

This fourth year was a remarkable one for Informatique:: Interface to Real and Virtual Worlds. It marked a turning point: French companies now take a real interest in VR and as the technology and market has matured, they are ready to order. The timing of the conference was perfect: the VR industry was able to explain, then demonstrate, many applications that satisfied the potential buyers. Nearly 5,000 of them crowded the exhibit floor, eager to see the state of the VR art. Thirty-two exhibitors showed them VR applications in 20 booths.

The power of VR

This year many power companies and nuclear plant operators were showing and talking about VR applications. Gilles Fertey, from France's national power company (EDF), discussed two interesting experiments. In one, his team has developed a laser scanner that can generate 3D models, with 1 MM accuracy from 5 meters away. It has a scan rate of about 100 points per second, and is used to build models of facilities as they really exist, which often differs from the original plans. In many cases plans are not available or up to date, so this system is necessary. Another system developed by Fertey's group is a VR training system for repairs in nuclear facilities. The system, built using Division's Des software running on SGI hardware, provides two operator stations. At one, using an HMD, the trainee works at various tasks. At the other station, the instructor watches on a monitor, and is able to track simulated radiation dosage while assessing the trainee's progress on completing various tasks.

Perhaps the most exciting part of the Informatique exhibit was the number of new and growing companies. Virtools, from Paris, showed an application that they co-developed with Virtual Presence (London, England) that allows Airbus Industries to show off a virtual prototype of a new, double-decker passenger plane. Virtual Presence was there showing their Genesis World builder, a rapid prototyping tool. The French firm Prolexia came with VESVUE, a simulator for mini-submarine mission planning.

This congress was such a success that the Mayor of Montpellier said that he wanted to establish a local virtual museum for the ancient Notre Dames des Tables crypt, and perhaps even model a future tramway for the town. VR must have arrived if even the Mayor sees its value!
Proceedings are available.

VR and Persons with Disabilities

This was the third meeting of this conference, and as another example of the retrenchment in the VR conference business, the last, according to organizer Harry Murphy. His Center on disabilities will not abandon the topic, but will incorporate it in their annual Technology and Persons with Disabilities conference, held in Los Angeles each March. This latter meeting draws several thousand people, and the Center will gain considerable economy of scale, which will benefit both delegates and exhibitors.

The highlight of this year's meeting was the keynote address by Jaron Lanier. Lanier hasn't been active in VR for a couple of years, but he has obviously been thinking about it. He talked about his dream of a technology that would provide every person with whatever capabilities they lacked. However, he sounded a note of caution when he said, "in the twentieth century, nature stopped being our biggest problem, and we became our biggest problem". He pointed out that we are rapidly reaching the time where much of the work that is to be done is involved with "twiddling bits", and that for that type of work, many physical disabilities are irrelevant. Mental agility will become a key issue, as we quickly develop electro-mechanical tools to deal with the physical world.

Dealing with the physical world by means of advanced tools was an overriding theme of this conference. Pre-conference workshops addressed using VR to evaluate and train disabled youngsters, using the Internet, building assistive VR applications, treating phobias in virtual environments, and low-cost VR technology. The main conference session continued these themes.

We were a bit disappointed that so many of the presentations were still what we call suppositional, or theoretical. Many of the presenters told us about their ideas, while the audience obviously wanted to hear about applications. We caution future presenters that the time is past to expound on concepts without solid experimental evidence of their viability.

One very interesting presentation, based on an actual experiment, was by P.J. Standen of Nottingham University Medical School. There, Standen's team built a virtual supermarket, which they used to train students with developmental disorders in the tasks related to shopping. The students who used the simulator were more quickly able to grasp the concepts of choosing and paying for items in a grocery store, which enabled them to gain a new measure of independence. Axel Szymanski discussed experiments he has performed in which he uses a VR system to assist in physical rehabilitation. His system, called IMPACT (Interactive Motor Performance Analysis and Classification Tool) provides both diagnostic assistance and rehabilitation aids to a physical therapist or doctor. The IMPACT system replaces the current subjective assessment of motion with an objective measurement. Having this measurement provides a concrete baseline against which to measure progress. Szymanski's system has the patient, wearing LCD glasses and input glove, reaching for virtual objects, while the motion is recorded with high-speed, stereoscopic cameras. During treatment, more recordings can be taken, so that progress can be monitored easily and accurately. Also, the virtual objects can be moved to provide a incentive for greater or different motion. His testing with three subjects to date has been encouraging.

Proceedings are available.

Contacts:
Mecklermedia, 11 Ferry Lane West, Westport, CT 06880 USA, 203 226-6967, FAX 203-454-5840, www.mecklerweb.com.
Informatique, 275, rue Leon Blum, B.P. 9531, 34045 Montpellier Cedex 01, France, +33 67 13 60 00, FAX: +33 67 13 61 10.
Center on Disabilities, 18111 Norhoff Street, Northridge, CA 91330 USA, 818 885-2578FAX 818 885-4929, hmurphy@vax.csun.edu.