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From: esz001@cck.coventry.ac.uk (Will Overington)
Newsgroups: sci.virtual-worlds
Subject: Re: Databases and VR: Questions
Message-ID: <1991May30.071834.4079@milton.u.washington.edu>
Date: 29 May 91 17:09:06 GMT
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Organization: University of Washington
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With reference to

Subject: Databases and VR: Questions
Message-Id: <1991May28.053207.14012@milton.u.washington.edu>

I was interested to see the questions about VR and Databases raised
by David Anderson.

Here are my comments:

>  If anyone has some insight about the questions below or knows
>  of relevant source material please let me know.

>  One of the largest classes of computer applications is database
>  management systems.  As a database manager I'm interested in what
>  can virtual reality bring to database management and how will
>  virtual reality change how we conceptualize data.

>  One big question is what does a database look like?  Would a
>  VR database be in the standard tabular format?  A corrollary
>  question would be what types of data are better represented in
>  a VR interface?

>  In representing the data a conceptual model is needed.  Right
>  now this is the relational model.  Is the relational model
>  appropriate in a VR setting or should something like the object
>  oriented approach be taken?

>   In a VR database how would data be entered and manipulated?

I am just beginning to do some research work on the restructuring
of knowledge bases and am hoping to use a sort of virtual reality
user interface.

In my case I am not intending to use a helmet, but am more likely
to use perspective views of an apparent three dimensional scene.
I claim no great knowledge of databases as yet, but thought that you
might possibly like to know of an idea of mine.

I am now looking at producing a help system for PC users using such an
approach, but the technique may be more general.

In my research projects on the restructuring of knowledge bases I have
devised a system whereby software and data can be entwined together
by using a language based on a language (alcor) that I designed a few
years ago, which was itself based on forth.

The method is that each software word starts with a triple letter,
for example zzzif   zzzthen   zzzelseif and so on.
The zzz words are fixed in the language, but fff words are user defined
for fields within a relational database structure, for example fffquantity.
This means that field lengths do not need to be fixed.

Now, when one is explaining something to someone one often wishes to
say something like "This is not the whole story, but please just accept
it for now, because the special cases are complicated and you need to
understand the main thrust at this stage; just be aware that there are
special cases of which you are not yet aware".

I envisage using a command such as zzzfoldstart to "start a fold" and
zzzfoldend to "end a fold". The special case information would then be
placed in the fold. A piece of software analyzing the text would then
detect the zzzfoldstart and skip over everything up to and including the
zzzfoldend word, if such skipping were desired.

I have it in mind that in a virtual reality type user interface, the
presence of folds containing information could be signalled by small
jewels. That is, the layout of the database information would be
represented by solid objects, of various colours, with the text for
one or more records being shown on a field of the same colour, located
at the bottom of the screen. The presence of a fold could be shown in
the perspective view by a small jewel on or near the object.

The jewels could be colour coded for different types of information
within a fold, such as additional information, special case considerations,
and so on.

Just a thought, I have not yet developed the idea fully.

Will Overington