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From: auric1@milton.u.washington.edu (Alan Stearns)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: Re: Reading text in virtual reality?
Summary: Don't worry about it
Message-ID: <6351@milton.u.washington.edu>
Date: 15 Aug 90 17:34:39 GMT
References: <25797@cs.yale.edu>
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In article <25797@cs.yale.edu> jellinghaus-robert@CS.YALE.EDU (Rob Jellinghaus) writes:
>The "office of the future" concept in virtual reality has been widely
>discussed--put on your goggles and bang you're in the office.  But one
>problem is going to have to be solved, and solved well, before the
>virtual office exists:  the technology will have to support virtual
>documents that you can _read_.

Don't worry too much about reading text in VR just yet.  We haven't got
to the point where the 2D representation of text I'm typing now is
suitable for reading hours upon end.  The virtual office is at least as
far away as the paperless office, which is remotely feasible with today's
technology but involves too many compromises to make it a widespread choice.

If it isn't easier to use a computer for a given task, then don't.  Text
display will have to get as good as paper before we should make the switch.
But even if we don't use a computer or VR for everything, they still 
have their place.

How about, for the virtual office, we have partial-immersion VR.  The VR
display is projected on a pair of see-through goggles so we can see the
real world around us, with a simperimposition of VR objects.  The real 
world could be cut off by hooding the goggles, or the VR could be turned
off so we could see only the real world.  In a meeting with another office
person, thousands of miles away, I see him superimposed in a chair in my 
office.  I can read real-world documents on my desk, look at virtual objects
he shows me, or read my computer screen (that he may be sending data to).
We can also put on our blinders to shut out the real world, perhaps to
traverse a data space or construct a presentation.