EETimes_19930208.htm

Electronic Engineering

TIMES

Monday

February 8,1993 Issue 732

■

A CMP Publication

THE INDUSTRY NEWSPAPER FOR ENGINEERS AND TECHNICAL MANAGEMENT

Tech Files

Linen glove is new

twist on virtual reality

New York — Moving closer toward the simplicity always envisioned for virtual reality, the Corporate. Communications Group (CCG) recently demonstrated VR system that requires participants to don only a linen glove.

. The trick is substituting video feeds for complex computer-rendered scenes, and image recognition for high-priced input devices. CCG's system works by using a video camera, video disk player and a color-coded linen glove. . "The first thing we do is put you against a color keyed background while the computer scans you and suggests a glove color," said Tim O'Donnell, chairman arid creative director of CCG. The glove color selected will be different from any colors worn by the participant. With the colorkey process, the participant's image will be removed from the final display image. A 486-based PC tracks the moving glove; while another generates VGA graphics images to overlay the video feeds from the camera and video player. Recorded video is the background against which the participant views his hand on a TV monitor. Gesture-recognition software tracks the movement of the participant's hand and calculates its interaction with computer-generated overlays.

The first demonstration of the system was for a drug company client that commissioned the creation of a game called Microbe Battle. Two participants competed with each other to see who could kill the most magnified germs (projected from a laser disk) with labeled canisters of drugs (generated by a PC). Participants, one in Anaheim, Calif., and one in New Orleans, stood in front of identical video walls (made of nine TV monitors tiled together). The two were linked by an analog fiber-optic link spanning over 2,000 miles, each appearing to stand on each other's screens during realtime competition. —R. Colin Johnson



	Electronic Engineering TIMES	Monday February 8,1993 Issue 732 ■ A CMP Publication

	THE INDUSTRY NEWSPAPER FOR ENGINEERS AND TECHNICAL MANAGEMENT

	Tech Files Linen glove is new

	twist on virtual reality New York — Moving closer toward the simplicity always envisioned for virtual reality, the Corporate. Communications Group (CCG) recently demonstrated VR system that requires participants to don only a linen glove. . The trick is substituting video feeds for complex computer-rendered scenes, and image recognition for high-priced input devices. CCG's system works by using a video camera, video disk player and a color-coded linen glove. . "The first thing we do is put you against a color keyed background while the computer scans you and suggests a glove color," said Tim O'Donnell, chairman arid creative director of CCG. The glove color selected will be different from any colors worn by the participant. With the colorkey process, the participant's image will be removed from the final display image. A 486-based PC tracks the moving glove; while another generates VGA graphics images to overlay the video feeds from the camera and video player. Recorded video is the background against which the participant views his hand on a TV monitor. Gesture-recognition software tracks the movement of the participant's hand and calculates its interaction with computer-generated overlays. The first demonstration of the system was for a drug company client that commissioned the creation of a game called Microbe Battle. Two participants competed with each other to see who could kill the most magnified germs (projected from a laser disk) with labeled canisters of drugs (generated by a PC). Participants, one in Anaheim, Calif., and one in New Orleans, stood in front of identical video walls (made of nine TV monitors tiled together). The two were linked by an analog fiber-optic link spanning over 2,000 miles, each appearing to stand on each other's screens during realtime competition. —R. Colin Johnson