Environmental Technology: Making the Real World Virtual (Myron W. Krueger)

Myron, W. K. (1993). “Environmental technology: making the real world virtual.” Commun. ACM 36(7): 36-37.

Summary:

This article describes research and applications that focus on letting humans act using natural human gestures in order to communicate with computers. A number of examples are given: pressure sensors in the floor track a human's movements around the room or trigger musical tones (1969). A video-based telecommunication space was found to work best by superimposing images of hands into a computer-graphic image (1970). A 2D VIDEOPLACE medium (1974-1985) serves as an interface to 2D and 3D applications, such as one that allows the user to fly around a virtual landscape by holding out their hands and leaning in the direction they want to go. Practical applications include therapeutic analysis of body motion, language instruction, and virtual exploration of other planets. 3D sculpture can be done using thumbs and forefingers. The primary use the author foresees of this technology is simply teleconferencing to discuss traditional documents.

Discussion:

This paper provides a nice introduction to some of the kinds of things that have been done in this field without giving many technical details, only describing interface design choices.

I can imagine some of these applications meshing well with the head-tracking technique using the Wii components, as in the "Head Tracking for Desktop VR Displays using the WiiRemote" video. Space exploration, for example, might work well with a screen representing a window out of a spaceship. Combining this with use of gloves to control movement might make for a fun, immersive experience, though I'm not certain it would be an improvement on a setting with VR goggles aside from lower cost and greater accessibility to average consumers. I like the idea of using a simple hand gesture to specify movement and change of direction. Maybe there would be some intuitive gesture to switch between movement and manipulation of the environment, like some sort of reaching forward to put on gloves, which could make images of gloves/hands appear in the scene.