90 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
90 lines
4.6 KiB
Plaintext
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"Is it real or is it technical expertise?"
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by Tom Steinert-Threlkeld
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printed by the Dallas Morning News
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Saturday, October 14, 1989
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"Virtual" is one of the most overused words in technology, not to
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mention the English language in general.
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It means that something exists in its essence - but not in actual form
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or fact. Almost, but not quite.
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Take its usage in telecommunications. "Virtual private networks" use
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a combination of private phone lines and public phone lines, managed
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by sophisticated software, to give corporate customers the benefits of
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private lines at costs more like public lines.
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Then, in telecommunications alone, there are "virtual call
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capabilities", "virtual circuits," "virtual machine facilities,"
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"virtual routes" and even "virtual storage." Maybe that means
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information that gets stored in its essence but not in actual fact.
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Almost, but not quite.
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Well, computing has the same phenomenon. Only its repercussions are a
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bit wider spread.
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Welcome to "virtual reality."
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Does Dr. Robert D. Ballard of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
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risk his own life and limb anymore exploring for treasures on the
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bottom of the sea?
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Hardly. He sends a robot named Jason as his eyes, ears and arms. He,
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his colleagues and a nation of schoolchildren get to see the results
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as Jason labors. Virtual reality.
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Doctors have long used sound waves to get early pictures of new life
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inside pregnant women. But now doctors are moving beyond using
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electronic devices as mere tools of observation. Now, fiber-optic
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cables are inserted in the search for colon cancer. The doctor
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watches, and if a growth is found, an instrument can take a sample of
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what he sees for him. Virtual reality.
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People with paralyzed limbs no longer are as handicapped as they used
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to be. They can don headcaps that let them point at things they want
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to do, listed on a screen. With a twitch of the head, they can open
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doors, boil water on the stove, turn on the television, change
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channels, even type lengthy documents. Virtual reality.
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But the most intriguing examination and possible redefinition of
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reality is going on at the National Aeronautics and Space
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Administration Ames Research Center in Moffet Field, California.
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There, reality-nauts don special display screens on their heads and
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movement-sensitive gloves on their hands. The special helmet allows
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the wearer to see what a remote robot in space or someplace else sees
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through cameras. The "data gloves" allow the wearer to send
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instructions to the robot. In effect, the reality-naut sees what the
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robot sees and makes motions as if he or she is there. Virtual
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reality.
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The applications are enormous, if the technology can be perfected.
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Put on some "data shoes," and Troy Aikman could guide a Troy Aikman
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robot on the Texas Stadium field, without ever bearing the danger of
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an injury. Construction workers could guide robots working on the
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48th floor of the skeleton of a skyscraper, without risking a fall.
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Explorers could go to the end of the world without worrying about
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heat, cold or the absence of water.
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These are the ultimate simulations. Supercomputers already model
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everything from wind tunnels to weather flows. Now they will not just
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simulate reality - but try to transfer the experience directly to
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human beings AS IT HAPPENS. Wearing computers, instead of watching
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them, changes the game dramatically.
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The benefits are as obvious as for other means of simulation. Such
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computer suits may cost a quarter-million dollars. But how much
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cheaper it is to send a robot into space as a proxy body and keep the
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human body on the ground. For that matter, a glove much like the
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"data glove" being used by the Ames Research Center soon will be
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available for you to play video games on your NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT
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SYSTEM.
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Really replicating live environments on helmet screens and perfecting
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the feedback between robot and human hands will take several years.
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But if research keeps picking away at the differences between reality
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and "virtual" reality, the next best thing to being there soon may be
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being there.
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