Week 9 - SIGGRAPH Day 2

After my 9km run around the harbor, I got right into the half-day course on Spatial Augmented Reality: Merging Real and Virtual Worlds (0830 -1215). Three presenters gave a very good review of the state-of-the-art display techniques of blending the real with the virtual on a display system dismounted from the viewer. They briefly discussed the evolution of VR compared to AR with an illustration to show how the two disciplines converged in the last decade. One presenter showed video of experiments and projects that investigated AR using the user's blowing (wind) ability to control VR objects on screen, electrically induced vestibular sensations that caused users to veer left or right at the whim of the person controlling the electrical inputs, and an olfactory simulator where two vortex scents intersect at a precise volume of space to create localized and ephemeral odors. After lunch, I met with Leonard Daly (Daly Realism) to discuss business models and application architecture regarding my grant. He had a couple of suggestions for both that I will note in my report. Repeated discussion of this topic affords me the opportunity to speak concisely about what I'm investigating and why. Leonard was able to tell me what I am exploring with few exceptions. I tell people, I am investigating X3D's capability to support three fundamental possessions of human 1) land 2) labor and 3) capital. Moreover, I'm exploring an application architecture for the operation, acquisition and goal setting behaviors