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From: brucec%phoebus.labs.tek.com@RELAY.CS.NET (Bruce Cohen;;50-662;LP=A;)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: Re: Who says what to whom (was Re: VR Protocols.)
Message-ID: <8836@milton.u.washington.edu>
Date: 4 Oct 90 17:12:40 GMT
References: <7801@milto <8204@milton.u.washington.edu> <8370@milton.u.washington
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In article <8511@milton.u.washington.edu> plains!tsmith@uunet.UU.NET (Timothy Ly
le Smith) writes:
> [description of learning how to use a drum set deleted] ...
>
>   As I practiced it I was able to continue for multiple counts of 4.  With
> enough practice I would have been able to do even better.  This only points
> out that with pratice it is possible for at least 2 people to learn how to
> in a more than one-step-at-a-time world.  It is possible that we are just
> more capable than others or it may be that it is easier to exist in a one-
> step-at-a-time world so that we don't create actions which require more
> steps needing to be done in parallel.  Those actions which do require
> coordination of multiple events at the same time are actions which do not
> happen in the day to day life of most people.

I don't agree: I drive a stick shift car which requires me to coordinate my
left foot and right arm to shift and my right foot to control the
accelerator, while simultaneously steering with my left hand and watching
around to make sure I don't run into something.  I can keep up a
conversation while doing this as well.  As far as I know, this is a common
ability.

> IMHO, I think that we can
> deal with as many different events as we have ways of providing controlling
> devices for those events.  By controlling devices I mean those devices
> which are directly or indirectly connected to us, fingers, toes, feet, and
> etc.
> 
> -- 

I agree with this, with the proviso that these sorts of control tasks
typically require a great deal of training and/or practice for an operator
to become good at one of them, and there's some overhead in adding one,
even one you're already trained for, to the set you can handle
simultaneously.

Personally, I would rather use mechanisms I already know, like picking
up objects, folding and spindling them, and throwing them into round
receptacles :-), then try to learn a bunch of new motor skills, each one of
which is specific to a particular step in one task which I perform as a
part of my work.  As I see it, one of the major benefits of the VR style of
user interface is that the system is designed to map itself to analogies
which are familiar to the user, so that training reduces to exploration and
existing motor skills can be used.

--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Speaker-to-managers, aka
Bruce Cohen, Computer Research Lab        email: brucec@tekcrl.labs.tek.com
Tektronix Laboratories, Tektronix, Inc.                phone: (503)627-5241
M/S 50-662, P.O. Box 500, Beaverton, OR  97077