I am the principal architect of the Digital Public Library project at
NASA Ames Research Center. This is a general-purpose library development
toolkit that is as those ads for Galaxy say: "buzzword compliant," i.e.
object-oriented, distributed, portable, client-server, etc...
The interface is completely detached from the toolkit. There are three
different interfaces: a script-based system, a children's interface, and
a "VR" walkthrough. Due to the lack of current client hardware, the current
walkthrough calls for static "shots" of a virtual environment. In other
words, a virtual high-res world is built from the ground up, but the
viewer only sees static shots at siginificant locations. This is mainly
for pragmatic reasons (i.e. to allow low-end hardware to participate, and
allow for rich visual accuracy). However, the back-end design allows for
"environment" descriptions to be associated with "areas". Areas are
currently connected as "rooms" in a library...
I have also been involved for the last two years with George Coates
Performance Works in San Francisco. This theater group integrates live
theater with high-end visuals and a variety of analog and digital media.
The latest show was the "Box Conspiracy" on the subject of the 500-channel
(and beyond) interactive theater. I've been working on projects like
audience interactivity, wireless technologies, pen interfaces, live actor
tracking, and stereoscopic systems here... This is more like "mass-VR."
My interest in the VRML group is to engage in technical discussions of
applications of VR tools to access distributed information. I hope
to hear folks' opinions on problems and issues that may be overlooked
from a purely technical perspective...
P.S. I represent myself and none of the groups mentioned above.
All standard disclaimers apply...
Cheers,
RF.
-- Ramin Firoozye' rp&A Inc. - San Francisco, California Internet: rpa@netcom.COM - CIS: 70751,252
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