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From: cyberoid@milton.u.washington.edu (Robert Jacobson)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: Re: Cyberspace, VR, a summary of what I've seen so far...
Message-ID: <7678@milton.u.washington.edu>
Date: 17 Sep 90 07:43:14 GMT
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As Fred Brooks suggested in his paper at SIGGRAPH, "Project GROPE--
Haptic Displays for Scientific Visualization," there is no substitute
for multisensory apprehension of data.  Putting a complex image on a
CRT merely displaces the process of making sense of an abstraction
from textual translation to visual translation.  Without a sense of
spatiality or encompassing three-dimensionality, certain symbioses
of the senses -- sound complementing sight, and body motion comple-
menting both of those -- simply can't kick in.
 
The oscillating glasses/CRT image concept is very creative and it
produces a fine illusion, but you're still peeking through the
porthole.  You can't hear the waves lapping at the hull or walk
the decks of experience.
 
Bob Jacobson
HIT Lab
Seattle