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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: Toward a Typology/Topology of Virtual Worlds
Message-ID: <11729@milton.u.washington.edu>
Date: 26 Nov 90 20:08:43 GMT
References: <11583@milton.u.washington.edu>
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In article <11583@milton.u.washington.edu> cyberoid@milton.u.washington.edu (Rob
ert Jacobson) writes:
> 
> Has anyone thoughts along the lines of how we might create a typology,
> based on the topology, of virtual worlds?  This typology might include
> everything from the static "world" of the written page to the ultra-
> dynamic, interactive virtual worlds that we more often speak about
> here.

There are several categorizations of virtual worlds which ought to be
explored:

    1) The quality of the interface: the typology which Bob Jackson refers
       to in the above posting.  I can think of a number of axes you could
       use to distinguish interfaces:

        a) single vs. multiple users

        b) static vs. user-modifiable environments (can I pick up that
           wrench, and if I put it in the next room, will I find it there the
           next time I enter this world?)

        c) sensory modalities:
            a) visual - submodalities include color, stereo, coverage of
               field-of-vision, etc.
            b) auditory - submodalities include directionality, control of
               "presence" (reverb, differential attenuation of echoes, etc.)
            c) haptic (touch, temperature, texture)
            d) olfactory (anybody remember Smell-o-Vision?)
            e) kinesthetic (force-feedback, externally-imposed
               accelerations and orientations wrt gravity

        d) similarity to the "Real World" (lots of dimensions here!)  It
           might be simplest to constrain this categorization to deal only
           with the question of fidelity, and open up the
           variations-of-reality worm-can separately.

        e) how are symbolic objects handled? (voice ouput, letters of fire
           in the air, etc.)  Come to think of it that's a great idea for
           the system icon: a burning bush :-).

    2) The application to which the interface is put.  This will determine
       some of the requirements for the interface design, e.g., if you are
       limited to maintaining a known database, you'll need a less open
       (extensible, flexible, etc.) interface than if you are exploring
       databases whose format and content is initially unknown to you.  Some
       application areas:

        a) games and interactive fiction

        b) database manipulation and maintenance

        c) database exploration

        d) data analysis and visualization (also process and system simulation)

        e) total system user interface (the Virtual WorkPlace (tm) :-))

        f) teleoperation

        g) operator-training simulation

        h) "walk-throughs"


    3) The extent to which the system is distributed geographically across
       host computers, sub-databases, etc.  This categorization raises
       interesting design requirement and implementation questions like
       synchronization, interface latency, background processing, and
       replication of objects.

> With your permission, I would like to archive these ideas for possible
> inclusion in an invited proposal for a conference possibly to be
> sponsored by the U.S. National Science Foundation on the science of
> virtual worlds.
> 

Permission gladly granted.
--
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Speaker-to-managers, aka
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