Funding a Revolution Government Support for Computing Research (1999) / Chapter Skim
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10 Virtual Reality Comes of Age
10 Virtual Reality Comes of Age
Pages 226-249
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Applications range from navigation systems that enable pilots and air traffic controllers to operate in dense fog2 to fully digital design environments for creating new car models3 (see Box 10.1~. This chapter focuses on research and development (R&D)
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The next seven sections, which are organized in roughly chronological order, discuss early development of the academic talent pool, the private sector's cautious initial approach, the role of synergy in launching visionary VR
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. The IPTO support for the development of interactive graphics was concentrated at MIT, Carnegie Mellon University, and especially the University of Utah, which received $10 million in IPTO support for interactive graphics research between 1968 and 1975 (Stockham and Newell, 1975; Van Atta et al., l991a,b)
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Sketchpad was the first system to explore the data management techniques required for interactive graphics. Roberts, meanwhile, wrote the first algorithm to eliminate hidden or obscured surfaces from a perspective picture (Roberts, 1963~.
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Students and faculty in Utah's ARPA-funded program contributed to the growth of a number of exploratory systems in computer graphics and the identification of key problems for future work (Table 10.1~. Among their notable activities were efforts to develop fast algorithms for removing hidden surfaces from 3D graphics images, a problem identified as a key computational bottleneck (Sutherland et al., 1974~.
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Cofounder of Pixar Animation Studios, a leading computer graphics company that has worked for LucasFilm and was recently involved in the production of the movie Toy Story. Received a technical Academy Award (with Tom Porter, Tom Duff, and Alvy Ray Smith)
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The effect made a surface composed of discrete polygons appear to be continuous. The work of these individuals alone reflects the high level of fundamental research performed under federal sponsorship in a variety of graphics fields, including surface rendering, simulations, computer animation, graphical user interface design, and early steps toward VR.
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Indeed, even when a company contributes lucrative new technologies to the field, the government is often the key to sustaining progress over time (see Box 10.3~. Bell Laboratories had one group of researchers, including Michael Noll, Bela fulesz, and C
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The system provided a user-oriented syntax for making computer animation, and it was important for creating film footage for advertising. The GE group built the first real-time, full-color, interactive flight simulator, a project funded by a NASA contract for the manned space program (Rouselot and Schumacker, 1967~.7 The simulator, completed in 1967, permitted up to 40 solid objects to be displayed in full color, with hidden surfaces removed and visible surfaces shaded to approximate reflected illumination.
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pursued commercial applications of VR. MAGI left the graphics field completely, failing to sustain a research capability in computer animation and simulation even though it helped launch the field.
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Each of these projects generated a stream of published papers, technical reports, software (some of which became commercially available) , computer-animated films, and even hardware that was accessible to other graphics researchers.
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Sutherland knew Evans from his ARPA days, and in 1968 they cofounded Evans & Sutherland Computer Corporation, which manufactured graphical display systems and built military flight and tank simulators under government contract. Many commercial and military pilots were trained on Evans & Sutherland flight simulators.
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The VLSI program also developed the concept of the multichip wafer, which dramatically reduced costs. It expanded the availability of the metal oxide silicon implementation service, which created a multichip wafer from designs submitted electronically from multiple sites, allowing university system designers to access state-of-the-art silicon fabrication (see Chapter 4~.
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Clark also invented the GraphicsLibrary, the graphics interface language used to program SGI's computers. Silicon Graphics is part of the commercial infrastructure for interactive graphics and VR that finally took root in the fertile ground laid by early federal funding initiatives.
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The effort was launched by Frederick Brooks, who was inspired by Sutherland's vision of the ultimate display as enabling a user to see, hear, and feel in the virtual world. Flight simulators had incorporated sound and haptic feedback for some time.
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The UNC group has pursued this idea through the development of what Brooks calls "intelligence-amplifying systems." Virtual worlds are a subclass of intelligence-amplifying systems, which are expert systems that tie the mind in with the computer, rather than simply substitute a computer for a human. In 1970, Brooks's laboratory was designated as an NIH Research Resource in Molecular Graphics, with the goal of developing virtual worlds of technology to help biochemists and molecular biologists visualize and understand their data and models.
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Over the years, the government's investment has greatly expanded the range of tools available to both the research community and industry. VIRTUAL REALITY AND ENTERTAINMENT: TOWARD A COMMERCIAL INDUSTRY At a 1991 Senate hearing, several VR pioneers noted that commercial interests, with their need for quick returns, could not merge the substantially different technologies needed to create virtual worlds, particularly while the technologies remained at precompetitive stages for so many years (U.S.
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These algorithms created images directly from 3D arrays without the typical intermediate steps of converting to standard surface representations, such as polygons. Hanrahan was the principal architect of the interface and was responsible for the rendering software and the graphics architecture of RenderMan.
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And technological innovation is the foundation of Silicon Graphics."~9 As civilian research has proceeded and the DOD has come under increasing pressure to operate effectively on reduced budgets, the traditional relationship between military and commercial VR research projects has changed. The DOD continues to be a major consumer of VR technology, but now it can draw increasingly on the commercial technologies.
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Real3D senior software engineer Steven Woodcock began his career developing game simulations for Martin Marietta, where he has been responsible for weapons code development, testing, integration, and documentation for the Advanced Real-time Gaming Universal Simulation (ARGUS) .2~ ARGUS is a real-time, distributed, interactive commandand-control simulation focusing on ballistic missile defense and theater missile defense, running on a network consisting of a Cray-2 supercomputer and more than 50 SGI workstations.
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A number of graduate students and academic researchers who received federal support have made significant contributions to the field and have established leading companies (see Table 10.1~. Research in computer graphics and VR has benefited from multiple sources of federal support, which have enabled the simultaneous pursuit of various approaches to technical problems, funded a complementary mix of basic and applied research, developed a range of applications, provided a funding safety net that has sustained emerging technology despite changes in federal mission priorities, and offered the flexibility needed to pursue promising new ideas.
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16. Scott Fisher, "Current Status of VR and Entertainment," presentation to the National Research Council's Committee on Virtual Reality Research and Development, Woods Hole, MA, August, 1993, as cited in National Research Council (1995~.
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Also see Coco (1997) , which is available online at |
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