| Fantasy |
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| 06:09pm 25/04/2008 |
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mood:  productive
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She'd come dangerously close. Luckily, she had him at bay. As long as he left her alone. She would certainly never touch him.
It would be her undoing.
But, sometimes, she wanted to let him hold her close. To just give in and and see where it took them.
If only she could be sure nothing bad would come of it. |
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| Reality |
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| 10:26am 25/04/2008 |
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mood: accomplished music: Sound of one hand clapping
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"Christ!", she thought. Would this asshole ever leave her alone? Show someone a little kindness, and they attach themselves to you like a leech.
What was in that other stupid book he had gotten her to read? He was a psychic vampire. She really didn't know what to do.
So she let him ride with her. Endured his stupid, pathetic romantic nonsense.
She could handle it, up to a point. But basically, he gave her the creeps. She disliked everything about him. His looks, his body, his personality.
She secretly hoped he would kill himself, and soon. |
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| Doomed |
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| 11:04pm 24/04/2008 |
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mood:  discontent
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He was doomed.
He couldn't have her and he couldn't leave her. The whole episode had pushed him over the edge. He lashed out angrily at the world, alienating himself further.
Eventually, he reached a kind of middle ground. Not acceptance, he would never accept things as they were, but he tried to look at things in a positive manner.
Circumstances, he told himself. She can't. She's married. He was married.
He was quite sure her husband had cheated on her already, and would do so again. Poor, silly loyal girl, he thought. What a sad world, where something so good could feel so bad.
She was both the problem and the solution. He tried to focus on everything she had given him in spite of the circumstances. It really was a lot.
His own wife had told him that he constantly expected more and more from people, and when they couldn't give anymore, he reacted badly. Very badly.
Luckily, he focused most of his (anger?) back at himself. But he had behaved horribly toward her at one point, and had agonized over it ever since. Was this his fate? To hurt the people he loved the most? He wanted to change.
He's done more than hurt his wife. He'd killed her. The fact that these two women still accepted him somewhat in spite of his monstrous behavior should have proven to him once and for all that they did care for him and love him.
Was he really so insecure as to need constant reassurance? He was.
He knew it wasn't fair to keep asking her for help. It was also dangerous. He tried to keep his requests small, and to ask (beg) only when absolutely necessary.
Sometimes, and it came more often now, more intensely, he desperately wanted to beg her to come inside and hold him for a few minutes. To not pull away from him first. To tell him she loved him.
But he was too afraid. |
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| Hole |
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| 10:46pm 24/04/2008 |
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mood:  blank
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He was born with a small hole in his chest. He was generally regarded as a freak as a result. It didn't bother him. People only saw it in the shower in gym class.
Like he cared what a bunch of sweaty teenage boys thought of him. If you weren't warm and soft and female, he didn't want to know you.
One day, the hole was a little larger.
"That's peculiar", he thought, "I wonder why that is?"
He thought nothing of it until the next Monday, when it was larger still. He could nearly fit his entire fist in there now. "Shit", he thought, "this is serious."
So he tried to fill the hole. He put pounds of weed into it. Thousands of hits of acid. Forty ounces, cakes, candy, books, music. He even put a mother and child in there.
Nothing helped.
In fact, it made it worse.
So, one day, when the hole was big enough, he crawled into himself and disappeared. |
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| JUST FUCKING KILL ME ; ) |
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| 10:17pm 24/04/2008 |
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mood:  cheerful music: led me to my sorry fate
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I only wanted to feel loved, he cried
Knowing full well he was about as lovable as a razor-filled Hitler teddy bear that spat poison
And as desirable as flesh-eating bacteria
I'm not such a bad guy, he lied
Knowing that somewhere in hell, the devil himself feared his arrival
He wasn't always like this, another lie
He had harbored the seed within him since birth
Adding layers of complexity like an exquisitely evil black pearl
Or at least a rotten onion |
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| 07:59pm 24/04/2008 |
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This was written in 1994, but it might as well have been written yesterday, in a sense.
Ka like a wheel.
He had to have her. He wasn't even sure why, but he had to have her. She wasn't particularly nice, and she'd stopped flirting with him long ago, leaving him twisting in the wind like a hanged man.
What was it about her that made him feel this way? He asked himself every day.
She was certainly attractive in a non-conventional way, but it went a lot further than mere lust. He loved her. He wasn't sure what love was, but he definitely felt something very strongly, and love was the generally accepted term for it.
What's worse is that he TOLD her he loved her. Worse still, she said she loved him, twice.
He had given her every opportunity (well, one or two) to retract or back out of that misstatement, but she had weakly insisted it was true.
Very weakly, to be sure, but she wasn't exactly brimming with passion about anything. She hadn't acquired the secret nickname "Flatline" for nothing.
He didn't take such things lightly. Only one other person had ever said that to him, and he had been by her side ever since, long after the declarations of love had turned to screams of hate. |
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| Untitled Emo, 1994 |
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| 08:29am 24/04/2008 |
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mood: accomplished
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It doesn't hurt
So bad anymore
Or at least I hide
It better
It's sad to think
You face the world alone
And no one cares
And no one will care
Writing helps |
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Post |
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| Captain Dan and his Scurvy Crew Make Good |
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| 07:10am 24/04/2008 |
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mood: sympathetic music: SUCKS
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The captain stood at the rails of his ship, sternly and stoically surveying the choppy waters.
"Sir, we're just about out of fuel. We don't have enough for another pass, and make it back to port before she hits, sir", Yeoman Clancy pointed, out, respectfully, in accordance to his duties.
"Yeoman", the captain said through gritted teeth, never taking the binoculars from his eyes. "If you don't shut the fuck up with your fucking bullshit concerns, I am going to throw you the fuck overboard." All delivered calmly, evenly, seriously.
Clancy imperceptibly nodded, to a man who wasn't looking, and dismissed himself in silence.
His own reaction gave the captain pause. He wasn't known as "The Highest High-C On the Fucking High-Seas" for nothing. Whatever they actually meant by it. He knew his crew loved him like no other, harsh taskmaster or not.
Still, all this for a stowaway?
20 minutes later, Clancy returned.
An observant captain would have noticed the liquid courage on his breath, steeling himself with alcohol as he did to gain the confidence for another confrontation with his mentor.
It always came to this, in the student/teacher relationship.
It's like he told his sons, before the world forced him to relocate permanently to the ocean in order to save a shred of his fading humanity. You’re not a man until you kick your dad’s ass.
"Sir, we c- ngh", Clancy emitted, as Captain Dan's left hand raised up, silently, from nowhere, with the comedic actions reserved for cartoon zombies rising from the grave, and backhanded Clancy into unconsciousness.
He saw...something, out there, in her. "Her", being the sea. Everything was a She when you lived on the ocean with a bunch of hardlegs.
But he KNEW his feelings. He trusted them above all. His instincts and feelings made him who his was. And he was the best rogue pilot the NAU Navy could afford.
He radioed the contower. "Kill the engines, and drop some boats", he said. "I want everyone awake, in these fucking boats, ROWING and SEARCHING until we find her again. "NOW", he gritted. "MOVE".
Thirteen tired, angry men stirred. Had they a little less respect, he would have been the next one overboard.
But he saw something out there, in her. His imagination? No. That speck, that slightly discolored portion of ocean too far up ahead to be sure it was REALLY a speck of a different color, represented his salvation. He had lost crewmen and passengers before. But he wasn't losing this one without a fight.
"Radio for a tanker to rendezvous at 0600.", he snapped into the radio. "We're going to be here the rest of the night, until we find her."
And, some thousands of feet away, held aloft by pure human will, a frail, scared, nearly unconscious young lady with a rebellious streak as wide as the Mississippi called out with the last of her strength, "help".
No one heard her. But he wasn't going to lose another one. |
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| The Girl In The Lab |
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| 09:02am 22/04/2008 |
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mood:  flirty
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This is a longer form piece I started, recently.
I can only write when I am in love, I think. If I don't have a person to write for, to write to, I don't write.
I am lucky to have someone to write for, right now. For however long it lasts.
This is sort of interactive fiction, as not all of the words are mine, but also hers. Pretty cutting edge, not the words, but the way it is being written.
It may never progress past this point, though. We shall see.
The Girl In The Lab: Chapter 1
The light had gone out of her life. She had become so myopic that she hadn't noticed. What she was sustained by was an after-image, a trick of the light and human frailties.
The man who had loved her was dead, and she had killed him. He existed, in memory, even as he was still physically present.
But he was not the person she believed him to be. For at this moment, when her mind was so totally on him, he was elsewhere.
Running free through fields of flowers, he was essentially dancing on her grave.
He didn't deserve to be so happy. His callous disregard for the well-being of others, as manifest by his desire to rip the foundation away from the person who had stayed with him for some twenty-two years, through all manner of turmoil. She had lost her looks and her health to him, acquired weighty burdens, and now she had lost him.
Never knowing what he meant, he thought that by giving all of his income, and remaining on the premises, he was fulfilling his obligations.
But a transference had occurred. He had removed his love from one and begun to implant it in another. He could only hope the operation was a success.
He was writing his life's story hour by hour, now. Turning it into his greatest work of interactive fiction.
Unfortunately, it was an extremely disturbing piece he was writing.
He had, so near at hand, the most stunning female specimen on the planet. Perfect in every way, her every strength and frailty meshed against his with the totality of two pools of mercury reuniting.
He wanted to think he was doing it for the wrong reasons. To find fault with himself. He said his interest was largely sexual. Because she was the perfect submissive. Perfect, in that she wasn't at all submissive. She was active in her role as his counterpoint. She controlled the universe. She got what she wanted. Her need was to be his need. And so she was.
The parts of her that yielded to him created new strengths within himself. Strengths to which she further merged herself into the embrace of.
And her strengths outnumbered his own. Only her tender age frightened him, at this point, not the consequences of marrying her.
Was he taking advantage of a girl powerless to resist his promises and charms? He'd acquired an arsenal of skills in his lifetime of living the secret romantic life of private writer.
He was armed for bear, so to speak, and it was now that he unleashed the full brunt of his emotion, in the hopes of spurring her into further adoration of him.
Chapter 2
She had left her iPod on the table beside a microscope and some slides. She was in a rush; it had begun to rain, as was expected, and the sky was darkening.
The iPod was left on a certain playlist, titled "Playlist_01." This is what was heard:
04/20/2008 04:31 AM 4,202,496 Ashanti - Happy.mp3
04/20/2008 03:27 AM 3,801,338 Bangles - Eternal Flame.mp3
04/20/2008 04:06 AM 5,751,256 Christina Aguilera - Love For All Seasons.mp3
04/20/2008 04:09 AM 4,031,634 Christina Aguilera - We're A Miracle.mp3
04/20/2008 04:24 AM 4,387,485 Danielle Bollinger - Kiss The Sky.mp3
04/20/2008 04:31 AM 5,353,600 Debbie Gibson - We Could Be Together.mp3
04/20/2008 04:36 AM 5,091,194 Dido - Here With Me.mp3
04/20/2008 03:28 AM 4,123,584 Expose - Seasons Change(1).mp3
04/20/2008 04:16 AM 7,857,062 Laura Paulsini - The Extra Mile.mp3
04/20/2008 03:44 AM 3,696,977 Roxette - Fading Like A Flower.mp3
04/20/2008 04:27 AM 4,453,817 Roxette - Spending My Time.mp3
04/20/2008 04:27 AM 4,933,632 Samantha Mumba - Lately.mp3
04/20/2008 04:23 AM 5,453,295 September - Looking For Love.mp3
04/20/2008 04:41 AM 3,258,842 Shania Twain Notting Hill Sndtrack - You've Got a Way With Me.mp3
04/19/2008 09:55 PM 6,601,050 Sia - Breathe Me.mp3
04/20/2008 04:37 AM 3,299,497 The Corrs - Breathless.mp3
04/20/2008 04:40 AM 7,771,387 Within Temptation - All I Need.mp3
04/20/2008 04:17 AM 3,477,450 Xscape - Who can I run to.mp3
She hadn’t intended to, of course. Not consciously.
But subconsciously? He was the hottest professor on three campuses, after all. Part of her wanted him to find it. To wonder about her. Because these songs were the key to understanding her.
She should be so complete, at her age. She faced a rewarding career ahead. She was tops in her class, in a field dominated by men. She was nearing graduation. The future should have seemed bright.
But there was something lacking. It was him, she had decided. Not a thing, but a person. And not just any person. Him.
Boys left her cold. She didn’t want to have to tell someone what to do, and how to do it. She needed someone who already knew how to be a man. But she required honor in her life. Such dilemmas she faced! It was hardly fair. She told herself that anything worth doing required effort. Nothing worthwhile was easy. Even doing the right thing, when it came naturally.
A turmoil existed below the calm surface exterior of the picturesque lake surface that was her appearance. Swans? Alligators? And which was which? Or were there any such things, or only the purity of water and air?
Sometimes it was difficult to view the world with the heart of a poet. She tried to not let the world damage that part of her. The part that still believed in romance, and happiness, and destiny. The poetry.
She had to have it in her life. In a myriad of forms. She wanted her life itself to take on the qualities of an epic poem. With the wit of Chaucer, the passion of Shakespeare, and the length and strength of Beowulf.
Hence, he was the only logical choice. This was not a normal thing, like Mr. Physics and Biology would undoubtedly claim.
It was a calculated choice, drive by logic and reason. So few possessed those skills, she had found. And they were life-shaping tools. Once you learned to code, you looked at life differently. Like men must view the world, she thought.
She knew what his reaction would be, already. She had spent two years in his service as his most trusted grad student, research assistant and lab partner. They were peers.
He would lean back in his chair, and puff on his pipe, a parody of a professor’s pipe, as it was only ever used for marijuana.
“Angel,” he would say, (Never knowing, each time he used her first name, she started to drip).
“What you are experiencing is a biological imperative. You, the vulnerable, breeding-age female, in the face of very uncertain times, are simply following your programming.
Nature dictates that you survive. Nurture. Replicate.”
He would pause.
“Everything you do in your life works in this direction”, he’d finally say.
As if that explained everything.
Chapter 3
He idly fingered the iPod. He really did have work to do. But he knew who owned this device.
He smelled it.
That was her. The scent of vanilla.
It stirred him, somehow. What girl, in this modern age, knew the simple device of a dab of vanilla behind her ears?
It was intoxicating. His classes were starting to fall apart. He couldn’t focus on work for very long at a time.
He smelled her deeply, one last time, and put the mp3 player in his desk drawer. He would wait for her to come to him. |
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| Flash #4, 1994 |
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| 08:45am 22/04/2008 |
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mood:  pessimistic
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He had a theory. He postulated that when he was "insane" (and he really was totally fucking insane at one point in his life), he felt and saw and heard things that were not real. Not hallucinated it, he knew what hallucinations were, obviously. This was actual laying of hands on the illusion. The line crossed.
Reality was filtered through your senses. If you brain says it's real, IT'S REAL. So life was a consensual hallucination we all shared.
The problem last time was the Haldol, of course. He looked up the side effects: INSANITY! Heh.
He scored one hundred hits of Berkeley pure. No bullshit white blotter, either. Acid without artwork on it was worthless. He's sooner be straight.
He tried to recreate what happened last time. He ate ten hits to start.
He wasn't sure on what day it occurred, but he crossed over again. It wasn't just the acid, but the exhaustion and lack of nutrition. He stepped out of his apartment into a perfect world. Perfect. He had everything he had ever wanted, without limits. And he would live forever.
"Get this fuckin' chickenhead back in his room, he's drooling on himself again!" |
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| Flash #3, 1994 |
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| 08:43am 22/04/2008 |
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mood:  cynical
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Machine
He was in the grips of a machine. A great mind-mangling, soul-crushing machine of his own making. Uhh, that's it. |
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| Flash #2, 1994 |
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| 08:40am 22/04/2008 |
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mood:  apathetic
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The Man Who Loved Shit
There was once a man who loved shit. He wasn't a coprophile or anything. He lived in a shitty, shit-coloured house, working at a shitty job in a shitty town, et cetera. But he had an idea, a dream, which he pursued. After several (need I say shitty?) years of work, he had done it. He had built an engine that ran on shit. "It runs on shit!", he would exclaim loudly and often to anyone who would listen.
The world did not beat a path to his door. |
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| Flash Writing, 1994 |
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| 08:40am 22/04/2008 |
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Flash writing, I think, is a story told in 200 words or less. Something like that little toad taught me that. I never knew it was a style, much less a hot, modern style. I am always so far ahead of the pack, I just get bored and wander off into the woods. Then the marathoners pass me by, and think they were always in the lead.
But I like writing. I have too much inside to keep it all in, anymore. And precious little else to do with my time, anyway.
So, contextually, these were written when my daughter was born, and I as in a tawdry three-way affair with my married boss and my wife, in a sense. Emotional three-way, anyway. I lost out on all of that, big time, of course. And I think I wrote these, and one or two more, at that time. No one has ever read them, and they are embarrassingly bleak.
Still, I feel they are good writing, and I want to share good writing with people who like good writing. If that's not too pretentions of me.
J. Claiborne
He lay trapped, broken and bleeding at the bottom of the abandoned well.
"Dolores Claiborne, you fucking CUNT!" He wondered idly if she would retain his name after he was dead. He thought he could have climbed out despite the broken leg, if it hadn't been for the rock the BITCH dropped on his head. He was thinking in caps now, like Cujo. He knew he deserved it. Didn't make him feel any better at this point. He regretted every day of his life, every harsh word, every stupid action, every bad decision. He used the last of his energy to scream obscenities at the top of his lungs.
Unsurprisingly, no one came to his rescue. |
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| Nerdapalooza 2008 - Orlando, FL, July 4 & 5 |
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| 08:28am 22/04/2008 |
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http://www.fulldeity.com/robisfunny/sexorgan/nerdIndex.php
I guess I bought a headliner slot, sort of. I pay my own way, of course, and I'm housing a bunch of other MCs. It's basically my last big show, as far as I'm concerned.
Captain Dan and his Scurvy Crew
CSHC
DJ Snyder
Dual Core
Emergency Pizza Party
Former Fat Boys
funky49 and Redvoid
High-C
Killer Robots!
Krondor Krew
LogicOne
Magitek
MC Frontalot
MC Gigahertz
mCRT
Myf
Nora Ricci
Pixelh8
Random Beats
The REAL DefCon 4
Rocket Propelled Geeks
Schaffer the Darklord
Select Start
Sudden Death
Whoremoans
Wordburglar
ytcracker
ZeaLouS1
Zombies! Organize!!
Plus Harry and the Potters, Uncle MonsterFace and more. Expect drama, Surprises, Love, Arm-Wrestling!
In some crazy way, Nerdapalooza is because of me. So I do have something to take to the grave with me. |
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| I'm a writer again |
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| 08:22am 22/04/2008 |
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mood:  awake music: be the food of love
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Hi, you handful of people here who know me.
Someone I know has convinced me that I need to go with my strengths, which is writing, basically, and not rapping. She didn't say that last part, but I know, guys. I know.
So, here I am. I have some old flash from 1994. I have some new stuff. And surprises. Mean, scary old Jason Gortician is primarily a romance writer. Naturally. |
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| Nerdcore Hip-Hop Compilation CD |
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| 09:03am 17/04/2006 |
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mood:  tired music: Not yet
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Announcing the first ever Nerdcore Compilation CD...
http://www.bedoper.com/nerdcore
Banding together from around the globe, the most talented Nerdcore hip-hop artists who weren't too big, busy or full of themselves are contributing tracks for this monumental event in the making. More artists are signing on daily.
Artists slated to appear include:
1337 G33k B3at (1GB) - New track
Andrew Octopus
Beefy - New track, plus "Internet Celebrity"
Benjamin Bear - New track, plus "Joystickin'" (license)
DJ Manticore - "St. Roman's Passion" (instrumental)
Doctor Popular - New track (instrumental)
Funky49 and Red Void - New track, "RPG"
futuristic sex robotz - "WoW" (license)
HamSTAR - Hamstar Rap (with DJ Phonicoid)
High-C - New track, "RIAA Criminal", plus "Flame Extension"
Incredibad - "I Think I Might Have Killed The President" (High-C's Minimalist Remix) (license)
INTERGALACTIC GHETTO BLASTERZ
Jesse Dangerously - New track
MCDJ - New track, "Lossy Compression"
MC Dope Dope - New track (license)
MC Hawking - New track, "01000101" (tentative title)
MC Plus+ - New track
MC Wreckshin with JeffMK - New track
Meter Versus Yard - New tracks, "La Violencia", "Divided States"
Monzy - New track
Oddioblender - New tracks,
Old Scratch - "Proud to be Wack"
Rappy Mcrappperson - "Grocery Store"
Shael Riley - New track, "Miss Information", plus "Bit Pop"
shagrugge - "Ain't Sayin Nuthin (Sleepy Holophlo mix)" (license)
DJ Snyder - New track
Spamtec - New track
Ultraklystron - New track
YTCracker - New track
Wally Glutton - "In A Way"
ZeRoBiTrAte - New track, "Arkanoid"
Everyone is trying to contribute new, unreleased material for this disc, but there may be a few previously released tracks on there that you might not have heard before. Now, here's where it gets even more interesting.
Skinnable and Decentralized
The CD will be freely available by Bittorrent when it's released. There may be a few tracks that are Internet only, due to Creative Commons licensing considerations. But each artist will also have the option of selling copies at shows, etc. if they want to.
Finally, there will probably be several different pieces of cover art, and even different CD titles. For what it's worth, the version that will be released here will be called 'Rhyme Torrent'.
Are you as excited as I am? Good. If things go as planned, the disc will be available here via torrent on 6/6/06. We might as well make that day eventful...
If you'd like to appear, or have changed your mind, email me here.
It looks like this will definitely be a double CD... One old track and one unreleased track from many of the performers is the new goal. We're drawing the line at four CDs. After that, it'll be mp3 downloads.
Recent press: Boingboing.net | Doubleviking.com | G4TV (sort of)
Wikipedia Nerdcore Hip-Hop Edit War...
But wait, there's more... Creative Commons may promote the work, if we can determine who is under what CC license. I'll be contacting each of the artists involved in turn to sort this out. In the meantime, take the time to consider licensing original works under one of the Creative Commons licenses. This means the discs will be sorted into "sellable", "freely distributable, but not for sale", and "straight-up pirate" categories.
Creative Commons
The discs, as it stands:
H1pCr1m3
(Legal To Sell)
Rhyme Torrent
(Freely Distributable)
WarezGruppe
(Pwn3d!)
(Bands are linked from the site. Anyone else rap in a geeky fashion?) |
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| GUNTGRUTCHER meets Jason GORTICIAN Christie (Non-Fiction) |
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| 09:37pm 30/08/2004 |
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music: The sound of a dying refrigerator compressor.
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(Note: This is about me, not by me. It details the night Brian Magar of Guntgrutcher and Brad of The Black Method and I partied in New Orleans.)
Halloween 2000. Brad (Chemical) and I are scheduled to be in New Orleans. I made plans to meet the infamous JASON GORTICIAN a month in advance. So the whole time before "the day" we were waiting in anticipation. Wondering what this guy was actually gonna be like. To give some background. I have been corresponding with Jason Christie for about 5 years via email. He's always been down with what I've been doing and vice versa. Not familiar with GORTICIAN? Poke around on a search engine for a few minutes. I'm sure you'll be able to find some kind of press on Gortician.
So anyway. It comes down to "the day" we are supposed to meet. Brad and I are conjuring up all these scenario's of what this guy will actually be like. Laughing and bonding away on Bourbon Street until he calls. "He's on his way." We meet Jason in the lobby of the Marriot right off the French Quarter. He comes strolling in with a beat up leather jacket. Leather top hat, and a GUNTGRUTCHER shirt. FUCK YES!!!. We get his wife and kids squared away in our hotel room and go hit the streets. Halloween in New Orleans is surreal. Big floats and shit. Everyone is dressed up, drunk, naked and crazy as fuck. This definitely added to the insanity.
First stop was a craphole strip joint. We go in and I buy Jason 2 beers, a shot of jagermeister and a long island iced tea. He kills these in 5 minutes. We hang out and watch some big breasted stripper dance for 3 seconds. Then some crackhead broad comes out and dances. The whole time Jason is talking about virtual reality and concepts for DOT COM companies. To be honest I am not a tech guy, so I didn't understand a lot of the technical lingo. Later on Brad confirmed that Jason was no joke in the tech department. The strippers and belligerent hillbillies weren't giving us a good vibe at this place, so we left.
On to the next strip club. On the way there. Jason says, "Hey man, you know how you can tell it's not Mardi Gras?" I say. "No?". He says "Watch this." Jason proceeds in pinching this really hot girl's ass who was walking down the street. She turns around and says "Get the fuck off of me you sick-o." All three of us were laughing. It was about at this point that I realized that Jason's online persona is actually quite tame compared to the real deal.
So we all go to this other strip club. Once again. I take care of a large round of drinks for Jason. All in all. I think I spent about 60 bucks on Jasons drinks. So we're sittin there, Shootin' the shit about all things death metal and gore. Just chillin. Watching a few HOT strippers in action. Jason says "Man, I need to go smoke some weed. I'll be back." He goes in the back of the club and fires it up in the bathroom.
5 minutes later he's back in action. "Oooo..Ok man..You don't know me." This is what Jason said and moved to the back of the stripper wheel. I had no idea what he was talking about. Just then Brad bumps my shoulder and says "Hey man, Check out the wheel." I look up and see this stripper perched on a spinning wheel with GUNTGRUTCHER, GORTICIAN and 3 pentagrams slapped on the side. Turns out that Jason was sitting back there tagging the shit up as the stripper was dancing. I hear the bathroom has some nice tags as well.
Jason moves back and Brad goes in the VIP for some Lap dance action. Jason and I are shooting the shit some more. All the while I'm tipping this chick. Just then Jason stands up and says "Here, you want my fuckin' money? Here..Take it." He crumbles dollar bills up into little balls and proceeds to throw them as hard as he could at the womans ass. "Here...here's your fuckin' money!!!" It was pretty insane. Only because it isn't everyday that you see someone literally throwing money at someone's ass.
So we all get bored of that shit and decide to go out and try and find us a show. The Misfits where playing at the House of Blues that night. But It didn't really seem like the thing to do. So we walked around into uncharted territory. Jason fires up a joint like 5 feet away from a cop. Then he blows it in someones face. Walking around like the mad hatter. It was surreal in a way that I cannot really describe. Then we came across a huge group of hippies burning shit in the street around a drum circle. This wasn't our scene. We end up sitting in front of some store for a few hours just shootin the shit. It's like 6 am at this point and I'm tired.
We go back to the hotel and Jason hooks Brad and I up with some GORTICIAN CD's and a FESTERING SORE (Jason's other deal. Kind of reminds me of Bathory mixed with Venom) promo. ROCK!!!
I remember reading a short clip on the BRUTAL TRUTH newsletter a while back about Jason. It said something like "Special thanks to Jason Christie for the shirts and the killer time in Louisiana." That stuck in my head all night for some reason. Now I know why they felt the need to thank him for the good time. A few words come to mind when thinking about Jason. CULT is one of them. Jason is total CULT. A one man army fueled by insanity. Words cannot describe it. Jason is a man truly living the underground. |
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| Toward Ultimate Reality (research paper - Augmented Reality) |
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| 04:12pm 06/07/2004 |
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Abstract: This study explores various uses of virtual reality goggles in conjunction with consumer level items: color cameras, video effects, luminance keying and videotape, in an effort to ascertain what is feasible at the present time regarding consumer and industrial applications. As a measure toward eventual home theater display prospects, the viability of keying video into a see-through head-mounted display to form a virtual, wall-sized television will be determined. Another portion of the research will attempt to communicate aspects of the psychedelic experience into electronic form.
"When we apply the power of networking to the VR world, the potential for stretching the limits of human abilities becomes very powerful." —Jaron Lanier
Introduction
Virtual Reality (VR), its "newer" cousin Augmented Reality (AR), Enhanced Reality (ER), Simulated Environments (SE), Myron Krueger’s Artificial Reality and other terms each attempt to describe unique sets of experiences and phenomenon that promise to radically alter the process of human communication. It is my belief that these various disciplines will continue evolving parallel with related technologies until a critical mass is achieved, resulting in a coalescence of unprecedented magnitude, which I have termed Ultimate Reality, in deference to Ivan Sutherland’s pioneering efforts described in The Ultimate Display.
Mr. Sutherland’s first head-mounted display (HMD) was in fact a see-through design. Through clever use of half-bright mirrors, a video display was mapped over the user’s field of vision. This was the first implementation of what is now known as Augmented Reality. I contend that this original incarnation will ultimately prove to be more useful to mankind.
Few fields have shown as much promise, while failing to deliver in the way of actual product, as Virtual Reality, thus thwarting the potential for rapid advances in human communication. While proving to be invaluable in the fields of science, medicine, and computing, what was once seen as a marketplace panacea has proven to be a commercial black hole. Various attempts to penetrate the U.S. consumer market have inevitably resulted in withdrawals and bankruptcies. From the fall of the pioneering VPL Research to the 1997 bankruptcy filing of Virtual I-O, VR has failed to attain a sizable niche in the marketplace beyond industrial and medical applications. Despite VR’s inability to gain a foothold in the consumer realm, the industry is still estimated to gross $1,000,000,000 in 1998 alone.
There has yet to be a compelling use for VR/AR in daily life. Games apparently are not driving factors in moving this technology into homes. In true paradoxical fashion, we won’t have better displays until there is a large demand, and we won’t have a demand until we have better displays.
Japan, however, has a healthy market for VR, and relies heavily on American research and development, primarily importing foreign gear for various consumer uses. As far back as 1993, the National Trade Data Bank Market Report painted a bright future for VR in Japan, somewhere in the neighborhood of $174-$435 million in projected sales and revenue from VR related fields, entirely within the realm of entertainment. It could be that the Japanese are culturally more ready for artificial reality experiences because of their preferred television viewing distance being half that of Western preferences. In other words, there is less reluctance to having a display near the eyes. While VR theme parks are a burgeoning industry in Japan, they have not caught on well in the United States, with few exceptions (Virtuality’s early success with Dactyl Nightmare and Chicago’s BattleTech center.)
In the 1980’s, time base correctors (TBCs) averaged a minimum cost of about $5000 each. With the advent of desktop video, in particular, Newtek’s Video Toaster, the demand for TBCs increased to such a level as to lower prices to the extent that today you can you can easily equip a computer with four TBCs, not to mention a video switcher, for less than $5000. If industry, by way of consumers, creates a demand for luminance and chromanance-based solutions, this pricing shift could occur with AR systems at a much higher rate, resulting in a product that remains affordable, but offers high quality images.
The ultimate artificial reality experience would be a direct mind link. Scientists are now able to view brain wave activity patterns as they occur. As the neuromagnetometers that perform this task become more sensitive, and the computers that interpret the data more sophisticated, it will be possible to think "apple," and cause the representation of an apple to appear in virtual or augmented reality. Thus, I posit that it will one day be possible to record actual thoughts and dreams. It is at this point that things begin to get interesting, in the sense that we will be able to create other realities through our own thoughts.
Stereolithography is the process whereby 3-D objects are made into physical objects through the use of "object printers," machines that convert the 3-D data into solid objects by treating a volume of resin with lasers to harden it into specific shapes. The future promises us a world in which solid objects can be transmitted via a 3-D "fax machine," eminently useful in design and prototyping work. Coupling this process with MRI "mind-reading" could result in the ability of humankind to create solid objects out of pure thought. While not exactly "deus ex machina," it is a seductive prospect.
The technology that will tie these many disparate processes together into a unified whole comes from both academia and Hollywood. Engineers seeking to increase flexibility in film editing have developed a process whereby each element in a frame of film is digitized separately and is thereafter treated as a fully editable object. The coming technological convergence will utilize such processes, operating at faster than real time speeds, to provide an experience that is visually indistinguishable from actual reality.
Literally, anything will be possible. The real and "other" worlds will begin to blur together, and form a synthesis that I refer to as Ultimate Reality. With ultra high-resolution cameras, a full field of vision (180 degrees) and a very high-resolution display (at least 9600 x 9600 pixel resolution), combined with accurate tracking and motion prediction, the interface will become transparent. It will then be possible to trick the human mind into believing that the virtual is actual. Indeed, it will become very difficult to distinguish between the two. In a realm worthy of Disney, broomsticks will dance across the room, you will converse with Alice in the tea room, and have the ability to instantly transport yourself to another point in time or space, whether across the country, or to a place that exists only in the ether. If the medium is indeed the message, we’re in for a wild ride.
LITERATURE REVIEW
While there is a wealth of information about Virtual Reality on library shelves, Augmented Reality has scarcely been given any attention there. It would seem the speed and immediacy of the World Wide Web has outpaced that of library database maintenance. The best data on the subject comes from the individuals who are developing these technologies on a daily basis. The Web offers a close cadre of AR researchers making their findings available via University servers.
Virtual Reality - Scientific and Technological Challenges, from the National Research Council, is an in-depth examination of a wealth of issues related to the topic at hand. A weighty and technical tome, it is not directed towards the layman. Their recommendations, particularly in the area of promoting networked simulated reality development. are heartening. They seek to actively encourage research and development in the area of networked VR applications.
A look at current trade journals indicates a growing interest in AR applications. E-Library retrieved some 20 popular press articles regarding augmented reality applications. Various sources for background include from The L.A. Times, and many trade journals in the field of video and 3-D animation. Metacrawler and Dogpile are meta-search engines, returning results from all of the other major search engines.
Best results were obtained with the University of Southwestern Louisiana’s licensed site access via the library’s homepage. A few academic search engines worthy of mention includes Lexis-Nexis, which didn’t have as many article references as I would have expected, given the sites weighty credentials. Web of Science is a research paper archive that provided a great deal of in-depth studies.
In 1995, Michihiro Uenohara and Takeo Kanade achieved real-time registration in AR at 30hz via a method of computer vision. These researchers, as well as the scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, have initiated invaluable studies regarding the medical applications of augmented reality. X-ray vision is at hand, as physicians will one day soon be enable to peer within your various internal organs and systems, with the ability to view specific aspects such as the circulatory or respiratory systems alone.
One book I found invaluable was The Virtual Reality Casebook, a collection of writings from a number of theorists, engineers, artists and other Artificial Reality denizens. Diverse and well rounded, the text was possibly the single-most consulted book in my research. It gives keen insight into the minds of the researchers and theorists that move the state of the art forward.
Despite a slight amount of product placement (the book is published in part by microprocessor giant Intel), Virtual Reality - Through the New Looking Glass (2nd edition), is a great starting point for anyone interested in the wide world of alternate realities. In all fairness, the authors are conscious of the possibility of perceived bias, and seem to go out of their way to be inclusive of the role of Apple’s Macintosh and even Commodore’s Amiga in the development of these technologies.
Virtual Reality Applications, edited by R.A. Earnshaw, J.A. Vince, and H. Jones, all from the U.K., also provides a well rounded perspective on the field, in a detailed manner that goes well beyond most American VR textbooks. Myron Krueger, speaking of idealized hardware to come and the necessity of real-time interaction in an interview with Jas. Morgan, said: "Ultimately, a low-cost head-mounted display with the resolution of an OmniMax theater will be irresistible—if it’s as unencumbering as VIDEOPLACE. It is my expectation that the two approaches will merge. The lightweight goggles will fit within ordinary eyeglasses. They will superimpose graphics on the real world. They won’t cut you off from your colleagues—you’ll be able to make eye contact with them."
This is the crucial communication element that is missing from VR and, ironically, one that many people are currently working at adding to the experience. Until we reach the point of networked VR experiences, immersion equals isolation. Will we come full circle and try to accurately represent our facial expressions using models? If the purpose is realism, then it becomes logical, and more efficient, to use one’s actual face via video. As video manipulation becomes more prevalent, we will gain the ability to alter our appearance slightly or dramatically, and do it in a photo-real environment.
In a more abstract or representational framework, akin to today’s chat, non-realistic presentations of the self can be advantageous. I expect in the interim to see polygon-based avatar chat capturing the subtleties of facial expression available in the next few years. In the same way object scanners have slowly migrated down to the desktop, technology that is now used for producing real-time cartoon actors for Saturday morning will be integrated into the coming networked virtual reality experience. The levels of interaction will be such that the future of entertainment as we know it may be headed the way of the drive-in movie. In the same respect, I fully believe that the future of mass and interpersonal communication will make television and the Internet seem like radio and black and white movies in comparison.
Augmented reality is approached in two diverse fashions: a digital display superimposed over clear glass, allowing a literally see-through display, and by use of various combinations of video cameras and HMDs. Each has proven to be tremendously empowering to the individual, and to a similar extent, the corporate entity.
NASA’s work in correcting corneal defects via AR is a good example of what advantages the individual may gain. Telescopic sight, night vision, microscopic vision, and even more specialized abilities will eventually be commonplace, and currently exist on the market. How long before the technology becomes available in implant form?
Already, there is a growing gap between the computer literate and non-literate. As technology increases exponentially, so increases the disparity between the rich and poor. Are we to become superhuman, able to exist in and see worlds the less fortunate cannot fathom? It would make the idea of "class warfare" outlandishly one-sided.
Boeing Corporation in particular has been the first major corporation to wholeheartedly embrace the concept of augmented reality, applying it to the field of aircraft production, which is imaginably a complex process. AR allows the Boeing worker to consult a vast array of manuals and documentation without having to leave the work area, or indeed, stop what he or she is doing at the time. The fuselage of the plane is located and tracked by the computer, allowing for the superimposition of construction details, such as the type that can tell a mechanic where to drill a hole, or an electrician how to wire a section.
Idealized AR/VR is transparent, seamless. Integrating the power of computers with real-world displays presents us with a future reality in which all the world’s knowledge will be available to each of us, and delivered in such a fashion as to integrate into our lives as painlessly as a new cable box. Moore’s law being what it is, the day of the "VR Man" will soon be upon us. Are you prepared for the cultural shifts ahead? Already, your computer can be considered an extension of your brain, or your self. Ongoing advances will soon empower you to actually augment your own mind through wearable computing. Do you think the Internet is useful? Can you imagine having it on a contact lens?
While the advantages seem obvious, the pitfalls remain hidden. Imagine if you will an age when such devices become ubiquitous as wristwatches, or at least laptop computers. The possibility that your very location could be tracked at all times has alarming implications, as does the concept of torture induced via AR/VR pseudo hallucinations. This type of application, perhaps administered along with conventional mind control techniques (drugs, sleep deprivation, etc.) could very well be the sort of re programmer sought by the CIA project group MK-Ultra, and the "virtual torture" ominously predicted by George Orwell in 1984.
Another fact that we must resign ourselves to is that VR and AR offer as much to the military and police as they do to industry, science, and consumers. The earliest research into telepresence, as in driving a vehicle remotely, began in the 1940’s. Remote viewing and telepresence will be one day result in persons being killed via a tank operated by a crew who remain removed from the actual battlefield. Janez Strehovec; characterizes an experience such as viewing the impact of a laser-guided, camera-equipped missile as "A paradigm of genuine techno-druggedness, caused by the identification with smart eyes’ view, and obsession with the success of a seductive action, fascinating also to the senses."
Even when we examine alternate realities in less metaphysical detail, a number of inevitable problems arise. The potential for not only viewing material others may deem offensively for a variety of reasons, but to actually become immersed in, will no doubt one day cause a furor, much in the way rock and roll, horror movies, and the Internet have in the past. The potential to now record experiences for others to view is a vast frontier for future friction between groups who would presumably restrict what others may experience immersively. Clearly another existential argument, ironically derived from what is in its simplest form, a hopped-up television set.
The exciting notion that William Gibson’s Cyberspace is here, or around the corner, is one that I find to be demonstrably true. The science of data visualization allows for the graphic manipulation of large amounts of complex data in intuitive fashion, rendering the operator theoretically in charge of vast tokenized empires. Whether sensitive data should ever actually be open to manipulation via such methods is questionable, but remains a probability. In the end, there is little difference whether data is altered via a spreadsheet or a VR interface, each method maintains weak points open to malicious alteration. The programming interface offered by tradition data entry would likely never fully be replaced, but VR and AR offer an extremely favorable ratio between power and intuitiveness.
Some research that I feel will have a great deal of impact is occurring at Stanford University. There, researchers have created a virtual workbench area that is superimposed over the room they are in, allowing them to interact in 3-D space with different objects of their choosing, such as the architecture of a building, or the construction of a molecule. By locking the virtual and actual displays together and tracking them effectively, the result is one that can truly be considered approaching "Holodeck"-type reality. It is inevitable that we will one day view Shakespeare’s plays as they unfold around us, projected into the room. The obvious step beyond that would be interaction.
By combining this approach with the concept of telepresence, individuals will have the ability to "project" themselves to almost anywhere in the world. This branch of teleconferencing, still in its infancy, will one day make problems of time and distance largely irrelevant.
When augmented reality merges with artificial intelligence, computers will be able to solve problems in the real world on their own. A plant supervisor could survey a job-site while reviewing data overlaid onto their field of vision, while a computer working in conjunction with that person could potentially recognize patterns or phenomenon that might escape their own attention.
By augmenting our own minds, and automating the augmentation process, we will be in a sense behaving as the brain itself does while learning. That is to say, when the brain learns a new task, the basal ganglia portion is utilized in this process. At some point, dependent upon the complexity of the concept to be learned, this knowledge is transferred into another part of the brain, the motor cortex, where it becomes more or less an automatic function, a learned response to a given situation. By one day using a computer as an extension of our own bodies, we will be able to solve and automate tasks by simply looking at them; Inventories controlled, factory floors monitored, and security operations supervised, by the electronic extensions of actual people.
One ongoing set of problems in all approaches remains that of display. Eyestrain, lack of resolution and field of vision, disorientation and other technical impediments to truly free flowing other reality immersion plague researchers the world over. While great strides have been made in identifying and overcoming potential health risks, a great deal of details remain to be worked out. Nevertheless, as technology reporter Karen Kaplan points out, "those obstacles don’t stop hard-core augmented reality fans from envisioning a wide range of applications."
RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND HYPOTHESIS
In 1991, I became convinced that the video approach to AR offered much more in the way of practical applications than did the heavily hyped field of VR. With all of the complexity inherent in the real world, why then would you try to re-create such splendor using polygons? Even with the hundred fold advances in processor power, VR either remains at the Nintendo level of consumer usefulness, or stunningly cost prohibitive. As Simon Penny reminds us: "A criticism leveled at computer graphics…was that it was a cold space unable to persuasively represent the natural world."
While both approaches to AR offer solutions to specific problems, for the purposes of my study I postulate that a video approach is best suited for this research. Indeed, much of what I propose to investigate cannot be achieved via see-through optical displays. As is stated in Ronald T. Azuma’s "A Survey of Augmented Reality": "Since both the real and virtual are available in digital form, video see-through compositors can, on a pixel-by-pixel basis, take the real, or the virtual, or some blend between the two to simulate transparency. Because of this flexibility, video see-through may ultimately produce more compelling environments than optical see-through approaches." The same survey shows us that predictive motion algorithms must be employed to overcome the effect of system-induced delays inherent in both systems.
One attractive aspect of some forms of AR is real-time updating. Superimposing textual data over your field of vision imposes no unnerving delays or lags, if it does not require registration. Registration error continues to be one of the biggest problems facing AR researchers. A millisecond of delay in updating the display can result in up to a millimeter of visual error.
RESEARCH QUESTION #1: Can an affordable AR system utilizing luminance keying deliver a satisfying experience to consumers in regards to Virtual Theater displays? While I recognize that at least one potential problem results from video’s full-frame nature, I feel this approach has merit mainly for the fact that it is affordable enough to be incorporated into consumer electronics in the near future.
While chromakeying provides a sharper key, its reliance on color is disadvantageous in the home setting. The somewhat cruder method of brightness based mapping allows for much more flexibility in regards to where video can be mapped, and to what extent. I do recognize the inherent value of chroma keyed video, however, and simply view it as a price/performance issue. This study will attempt to determine the value of mapped video as a form of mass communication delivery, as well as for use in industrial applications
RESEARCH QUESTION #2: Through the use of simple visual devices, can AR deliver an experience not unlike the hallucinations associated with psychotropic drugs such as LSD and DMT? While it remains a touchy subject, the concept of electronic drugs, or electronics that mimic the effect of drugs, has established value in the field of psychotherapy. There is an interest in certain segments of society in bringing such devices to fruition, but driven by two entirely different imperatives: the need to eliminate drug use versus the desire to share the psychedelic experience with others. Indeed, theorist Terrence McKenna has stated in an interview with Mondo 2000, "The VR researchers have it all wrong. I want virtual DMT trips!"
The study of perspective video (video filmed at human’s eye view), has been initiated by research such as the original work of Ivan Sutherland and NYNEX‘s Intelligent Interface Group’s Empathy Training. There is unquestionably a huge number of potential applications for video capture and playback utilizing HMDs. Education, training, not to mention entertainment, will soon be experienced via such methods. Given the eventuality, I submit that a see-through display will generally be preferred by end users. An example I use often: "Would you want your child’s babysitter wearing a helmet and being unable to see anything else?"
The added dimension offered by immersion, such as full peripheral vision (resulting in much more realistic feelings of motion) and enhanced feelings of identification with the camera/protagonist, will enable us to communicate experiences and emotional viewpoints in entirely new ways. Unfortunately, time constraints did not allow me to explore this usage of HMDs. Nevertheless, video is the language of AR/VR and its hybrids, and will become a chief focus when these products finally reach the consumer level.
METHODOLOGY
The hardware involved in these experiments was as follows. The HMD for display was a Virtual Research VR4 operating at the relatively modest resolution of 742 x 230, displaying an S-VHS video signal. The input device was a Panasonic color video camera, small enough to sit comfortably on the head, or easily be held in the hand without fatigue. In this trial run, the camera was simply held in the user’s hand. The video signal from this camera, as well as a signal from video tape, was fed into a Amiga 2500/Video Toaster configuration, and the resultant signals sent out to the HMD for viewing.
The Video Toaster is a video card capable of luminance keying and numerous real-time digital video effects, allowing for the blending of four time base corrected video signals (videotape or camera). By manipulating the various effects, an array of possibilities becomes apparent. It is not my intention to demonstrate an end product, but rather a proof of concept for further research.
The video camera served as the subject’s eyes, and the signal was fed into a TBC I from Digital Processing Systems in conjunction with the videotape signal. These synchronized elements were then fed into the Video Toaster inputs one and two. The program out from the Toaster was then fed into a Panasonic S-VHS deck to provide the signal necessary to drive the VR goggles’ Liquid Crystal Displays (LCDs). Once this configuration is wired, it is simply a matter of turning on the luminance keyer or digital effects to generate the desired effect.
Eight test subjects were brought in to demo the various applications, ranging in age from nineteen to sixty-five, six males and two females. A simple survey was conducted among them regarding the quality of the experience, the usefulness of the device, and their comments on the project.
RESULTS
Generally, the findings were encouraging. If nothing more, my research confirmed my beliefs that both virtual theater and electronic LSD are viable using essentially consumer gear. The VR4 goggle input being S-VHS or RGB was the biggest contributing factor regarding cost, requiring the use of an S-VHS deck that was otherwise unnecessary. A realistic estimation of the cost of the equipment involved (assuming the substitution of affordable goggles with composite inputs) would be $1500.
Several factors that detracted from the experience were derived from the nature of HMDs. Because of the size of the screens involved, and their distance from the eyes, an impression is given of having your eyes located four to six inches in front of your face. The relatively low resolution coupled with the pixilated nature of LCDs diminishes the sense of realism necessary for an effective display. The participant’s criticisms of the HMD itself included a sense of isolation, the resolution/display problems, and an overall dissatisfaction with the bulkiness of the device.
Regarding the luminance keying portion of the research, the video signal was mapped onto several closed sets of black venetian blinds. With very little adjustment being required, a more than adequate display was achieved. The users saw their own hands in front of them, a desk with a workstation, and behind the desk, the video-mapped window shades. As stated, several factors detracted from the overall effect, but the desired result was attained.
As this technology migrates downward in price, it will be implemented more commonly in an industrial training capacity, such as the assembly of complex parts. There exists an immediate market regarding turnkey installation of AR stations to aid in the inspection of circuit boards for the oilfield industry. When inspecting circuit boards using traditional analog tools (magnifying glasses), eye strain and failure are problems. By tightly focusing a camera from above onto a workbench area, problems of magnification are eliminated.
Contrary to my expectations, there was more interest regarding the psychedelic effects than there was in the television display, in both sexes and all age groups. Of the seven who participated in that portion of the research, all would consider wearing such a device on occasion, were it less obtrusive. This research has led to new theories on improving the experiences, in large part due to the response of participants. The next iteration of electronic LSD will be stereo 3D, the most common request, with the ability to combine digital trail and color effects. Enhanced Reality?
Likewise, the virtual theater display could be improved immensely by using two cameras to provide a stereo view, as well as by having a higher resolution display device. As one of the participants pointed out, the content displayed on the device plays a crucial role in determining the amount of immersion the user feels.
DISCUSSION
There currently seems to be a race between three competing technologies as the next-generation display device: Projectors and liquid crystal shutter glasses, VR/AR, and flat panel displays. New nanotube technology has the potential to make some virtual theater applications largely irrelevant. Perfectly formed glass crystals can now be quickly grown in arrays that are proving to be ideal for creating high-performance video displays. The race is on, and we as human beings will ultimately win, regardless of the standards of delivery that arise.
Essentially, I see no reason for a lack of a VR "underground." Currently the realm of researchers, VR has been an unassailable ivory tower to the public. Referred to in hushed tones but never experienced by most, it is the stuff of science fiction.
Indeed, the C.A.V.E. of Chicago’s is the realization of Star Trek’s Holodeck, but is cost prohibitive for consumer use, apart from theme parks and theaters. C.A.V.E. immerses participants in a "room without walls," using LCD shutter glasses and projected displays to achieve an experience unequaled elsewhere. If this system can be cost-reduced and used in conjunction with AR, we would be well on our way toward ultimate reality.
As always, bandwidth and processor power determines the parameters of the experience. Considering the ongoing trend towards faster-than-real time video rendering, it would seem that the power of video-based AR systems could soon surpass that of polygon rendering VR. When you consider that the two disciplines will one day be unified, such distinctions lose their relevance.
I seek to destroy the barrier that stands before the hobbyist and these new vistas of human communication. It is discouraging to consider waiting another ten years for such products to begin to appear on store shelves. Using a video camera, a VCR, and a HMD, people could begin trading experiences on tape for others to enjoy in the present term. Considering the potential benefits we may reap in the fields of entertainment, mass communication, interpersonal communication, education, medicine, and industry, I am curious as to why VR/AR research seems to be so localized in the U.S.
There is an enormous amount of basic research waiting to be done by adventurous researchers and hobbyists. HMDs have applications in each division of college, and must cease being thought of as solely the domain of computer scientists. I believe the industry would advance much more quickly with more input from visual artists, videographers, and end users. With the goals so clearly defined as to what VR/AR should ultimately resemble, I feel it is urgent to redouble our efforts to find workable solutions to the many problems facing this potential-laden, but under-utilized hardware setup. |
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jason_gortician's journal
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