Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!rutgers!orstcs!mist!ruffwork
From: ruffwork@mist.cs.orst.edu (Ritchey Ruff)
Newsgroups: sci.space
Subject: Re: 1992 moon base - Teleoperation
Message-ID: <9385@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU>
Date: 12 Mar 89 18:44:37 GMT
References: <553934.890311.MINSKY@AI.AI.MIT.EDU>
Sender: usenet@orstcs.CS.ORST.EDU
Reply-To: ruffwork@cs.orst.edu (Ritchey Ruff)
Organization: Oregon State University - CS - Corvallis, Oregon
Lines: 30

In article <553934.890311.MINSKY@AI.AI.MIT.EDU> MINSKY@AI.AI.MIT.EDU (Marvin Minsky) writes:
>[...] NASA should have done
>it already, but it is never too late to start.

Well, some people at NASA Ames Human Factors are working on the hardware
for this.  Mike McGreevy and Scott Fisher have been working on a
"virtual workstation environment".  It includes 3D head mounted display
with motion and positional sensing, gloves that allow the computer to
track the hands (it's "shape"---finger positions---and its location)
and they are working on sound (so that as you walked around in the
virtual environment any sounds would seem to stay stationary).

They are also working in cooperation with JPL on a remote controlled
hand: you move your hand in the glove, and the robotic hand mimics
your action.

There was a Scientific American (10-87) that talks of this work.

They list possible applications like: 
	- ad hoc repair and/or retrieval of GEO-sync satellites, 
	- remote exploration of planets from orbit,
	- supervising automaticed robots.

>P.S	I propose the verb to "teep", for operating things by remote control.
>	Teeping is fun and safe.	
>	Marvin Minsky

I always liked "waldo" (trivia: which sci-fi author came up with this term?).

--Ritchey Ruff			ruffwork@cs.orst.edu