the fundaments of virtual reality and its industrial use
Implied in the term 'virtual reality' Is a selection of technolo­ gies which allow a person to Immediately enter computer­ generated worlds. Designed as the man-machine cross-over point of the future, the technologies of virtual reality (VR) address several human senses at the same time - touch, hearing and the face. Today ways of applying virtual reality have already been developed in the fields of architecture and design, In the modeling of chemical compounds, simulation studies, industrial automation and medical tech­ nology.
Virtual Reality (VR), artificial reality, virtual environments, tele-presence, cyberspace, tele-existence or tele-symbosis (or virtual reality, virtual worlds/spaces and synthetic reality): these catchwords refer to new dimensions in graphic simu­ lation. Because of its science-fiction overtones, the term 'cy­ berspace', taken from Gibson's novel, The Neuromancer (1984), has a threatening aftertaste - with futuristic com­ munication between human beings taking place in 'compu­ ter-generated and computer-controlled' cyberspaces. Compared to that, the term 'synthetic world' or even 'virtual world' is too extensive to designate a world when conside­ ring what little today's most advanced computer technolo­ gies offer in the area of Illusion-generating. Since 1984, Krueger has used the term 'artificial reality', and Lanier (since 1988) categorizes various Innovations in equipment development, research work in the area of 4D computer- graphics and man-machine interfaces, under the heading of virtual reality. In this context we prefer the term virtual reali­ ty (VR) which, historically, is Influenced by a substantial increase In the development of new equipment. But wiser and more precise here is to speak of virtual environments, meaning computer-generated and controlled environments for man-maschine communications, and which emulate, more than they abstract, human Intuition through menus and windows generated by 'desktop intersection points'. This lecture presents the essential technologies of virtual reality and sketches out their use In industrial projects for testing their application.
Dr. Martin Göbel