In the VIDEOPLACE environment, you can interact with graphic creatures and the images of
Myron W. Krueger · NASA Technical Reports Server (NASA) · 1985
A TWO DIMENSIONAL ARTIFICIAL REALITYMyron W. KruegerArtificial RealityVernon, ConnecticutIThe current presumption is that is necessary to don goggles, gloves and a data suit to experienceartificial reality. However, there is another technology that offers an alternative or complement to theencumbering techniques associated with NASA. In VIDEOPLACE, your image appears in a 2Dgraphic world created by a computer. The VIDEOPLACE computer can analyze a person's image in1/30 second and can detect when an object is touched (Fig. 1). Thus, it can generate a graphic orauditory response to an illusory contact.VIDEOPLACE technology exists in two formats: the VIDEODESK and the VIDEOPLACE. Inthe VIDEODESK environment, the image of your hands can be used to perform the normal mousefunctions, such as menuing and drawing (Fig. 2). In addition, you have the advantage of multippointcontrol. For instance, you can use the thumbs and forefingers of each hand as control points for aspline curve (Fig. 3). Perhaps most important, the image of your hands can be compressed andtransmitted to a colleague over an ISDN voice channel to appear on the remote screen superimposedover identical information. Likewise, the image of your colleague' s hands can appear on bothscreens. The result is that the two of you can use your hands to point to features on your respectivescreens as you speak, exactly as you would if you were sitting together (Fig. 4).In the VIDEOPLACE environment, you can interact with graphic creatures and the images ofother people in other locations in a graphic world. Your whole body can be moved, scaled androtated in real-time without regard to the laws of physics. Thus, VIDEOPLACE can be used to createa fantasy world in which the laws of cause and effect are composed by an artist (Fig. 5) (Fig. 6).