Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!ogicse!milton!jellinghaus-robert@CS.YALE.EDU
From: jellinghaus-robert@CS.YALE.EDU (Rob Jellinghaus)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: Re: The VR Entertainment Industry
Message-ID: <25674@cs.yale.edu>
Date: 29 Jul 90 15:24:12 GMT
References: <9007172028.AA03530@case.MENTOR.COM>
Sender: hlab@milton.u.washington.edu
Reply-To: jellinghaus-robert@CS.YALE.EDU
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Approved: hitl@hardy.u.washington.edu



In article <9007172028.AA03530@case.MENTOR.COM> mbutts@mentor.com (Mike Butts) writes:
>Star Tours is the latest hot ride, and it's distinctive because it provides a
>more intense experience for fewer people (a few dozen) at a time.  Indicative
>of a trend.  How soon will we see such rides spin outside of the parks?  Also
>look at the convergence of theme parks with the movie business.
>
>I imagine that once virtual reality systems are really perfected and
>widespread, that the 20th century theme park will seem as quaint and clumsy as
>a 19th century circus side show seems to us today.

Probably true to some extent.  But one thing that occurred to me when I
was riding my last amusement park ride:  most such rides are big mechanical
contrivances designed to give your inner ear a thrill.  The sensations of
going upside down, being at an angle to the ground, feeling yourself be 
shoved this way and that in your seat, are all so unusual and outside
everyday experience that people are willing to pay for them.

I haven't been to many big theme parks, so I don't know about the convergence
of the movie and amusement industries of which you speak.  But if VR is going
to try to simulate (for example) fighter airplanes, in which you travel upside
down, do outside loops, and experience large accelerations, some way to fool
the inner ear (just as the eyes, ears, and hands are fooled) will have to
be found.  For cheap.

>Michael Butts, Research Engineer         KC7IT          503-626-1302(fax:1282)
>Mentor Graphics Corporation, 8500 SW Creekside Place, Beaverton, Oregon  97005
>!{ogicse,sequent,tessi,apollo}!mntgfx!mbutts             mbutts@pdx.MENTOR.COM
>Any opinions are my own, and aren't necessarily shared by Mentor Graphics Co.



-- 
Rob Jellinghaus                | "Next time you see a lie being spread or a
jellinghaus-robert@CS.Yale.EDU |  bad decision being made out of sheer ignor-
ROBERTJ@{yalecs,yalevm}.BITNET |  ance, pause, and think of hypertext."
{everyone}!decvax!yale!robertj |     -- K. Eric Drexler, _Engines of Creation_