INDUSTRY: Kaiser to promote VR over cable
Robert Jacobson
Techwire reports on clari.tw.electronics that Kaiser Electro-Optics
Inc. is working with startup VR1 Entertainment Inc. to bring "virtual
reality" to the home via cable television.
VR1 gets exclusive rights to the Kaiser VIM headset. VR1, based in
Boulder, Colorado, will transmit virtual worlds over Time Warner's HBO
sometime in mid-1994.
The programming will comprise computer-generated, stereoscopically
filmed [filmed?] 3D home entertainment.
The article goes on to say that Kaiser is offering the $10,000 VIM to
the arcade industry but that the price will drop dramatically with
consumer production. [I find this difficult to believe, if Kaiser is
referring to its complex and complicated top-end display unit.]
VR1 is attempting to license software for virtual reality to cable
systems and producers of 3D programming. VR1, privately held, is
going to put out a decoder box, eventually, according to president
Richard Schmelzer. Reportedly, VR1 has a $60 million satellite uplink
in Denver, from where its programming will originate.
[Does any of this make sense?]
Diego Montefusco
>VR1 gets exclusive rights to the Kaiser VIM headset. VR1, based in
>Boulder, Colorado, will transmit virtual worlds over Time Warner's HBO
>sometime in mid-1994.
>
>The programming will comprise computer-generated, stereoscopically
>filmed [filmed?] 3D home entertainment.
I phoned to VR1 guys and this what they told me: they'll give, along
with the display, a kind of decoder, through which you'll download the
software for the decoder itself (obviously a computer, with the power
of a 486, they say, even if it is not based on the intel proc). When
on the decoder, the software will run locally. In other words they
are using the cables only as a mean of trasmission for the softwre
programs.
In a first phase the software won't be interactive and they'll ship a
kind of "experiences", later they'll support interaction.
>The article goes on to say that Kaiser is offering the $10,000 VIM to
>the arcade industry but that the price will drop dramatically with
>consumer production. [I find this difficult to believe, if Kaiser is
>referring to its complex and complicated top-end display unit.]
Definitively not. They are talkin about VIM (Vision Immersion Module)
the latest Kaiser product. It is LCD based (190,000 COLOR pixels,
570,000 primary crystals), 30x100 of FoV, 15 ounches of weight, very
slim and quite well designed, although we italians are used to much
better desings (right Bob?) ehehe It sells now for $10,000 and will be
used also by Visions of Reality systems.
>[Does any of this make sense?]
Now it should.
Cheers,
Diego
BTW I am not affiliated with Kaiser (not yet at least!), but if they
want to give me a VIM for free I won't refuse... thanx and bye bye...
Chris Shaw
>that Kaiser is offering the $10,000 VIM to
>the arcade industry but that the price will drop dramatically with
>consumer production. [I find this difficult to believe, if Kaiser is
>referring to its complex and complicated top-end display unit.]
VIM is their new HMD that seems to have more than 2 color LCDs and
looks like a cross between the Virtuality headset and Geordi's visor
thing from Star Trek. I've only seen a glossy sheet, not the actual
product. They were supposedly showing it at SIGGRAPH. I'm guessing
more than 2 LCDs from the phrase "tiled images" in their blurb, plus
the numerous monocular, biocular, binocular configurations they refer
to. However, I am on vaporware alert, because they talk about how
great the resolution is on the VIM, but the photos they use to show
the difference are faked. They are not screen shots, high-quality
photos with resolutions reduced to illustrate the difference.
Actually, the glossy is amusing. They claim the VIM is light, so they
have a picture of a guy with a brick tied to his face with a caption
like "Other HMDs are like wearing a brick on your face!"
>VR1 is attempting to license software for virtual reality to cable
>systems and producers of 3D programming. VR1, privately held, is
>going to put out a decoder box, eventually, according to president
>Richard Schmelzer. Reportedly, VR1 has a $60 million satellite uplink
>in Denver, from where its programming will originate.
>[Does any of this make sense?]
Thinking of the cable/satellite angle, I get the impression they are
going to broadcast VR. Or something.
Where's the interaction? Where's all this 3D entertainment going to
come from? Why do we care if Kaiser is making headmounts unless people
at home are going to wear them? Where are all these graphics computers
going to come from to render all this stuff? We're not talking a $100
box yet, folks.
My experience with the average person watching VR (as opposed to
experiencing it directly, with the HMD on) is that most people get
bored in 5 minutes. It's like watching golf on TV with no putting
footage. You have to be pretty excited about golf to watch more than a
little.
--
Chris Shaw University of Alberta
cds...@cs.UAlberta.ca CatchPhrase: Bogus as HELL !
Peter Churchyard Peter Churchyard
transmit a 360 degree picture and then use a HMD to allow the viewer
to choose what direction they look.
You might want to limit the view to 270 or 180 so that the camera crew
can hide out of view (:->
On another tack.. I can program / build electronics, but how do I
start with the optics of a HMD?
Pete.