Virtual reality gets less virtual - advances in VRML, graphics processing power make technology accessible to businesses - incudes related articles on NASA site for Mars mission, science-fiction influence on industry - Technology Information

Software Magazine, Dec, 1997 by Matthew Schwartz

New agreements over the Virtual Reality Modeling Language, and increasing graphics processing power, bring VR apps closer to business

It's Super Bowl XXXIII, the Packers and the Colts are head to head, and you, the fourth-generation descendant of German immigrant dairy farmers, are screaming

No wonder. You've had Packer fever since your wee days. You know the Packers' home stadium, Lambeau Field, like the back of your hand. You know this stadium pretty well too, even though you've never been here. In fact, you know it well enough to have chosen one of the best seats in the house. And the guy behind isn't about to complain about the on your head, because he's got a

So what's with the great seat? You interrogated one of the locals? No, a while back you previewed on your desktop a three-dimensional representation of the stadium that showed you seat location, relative sizes of players on the field, the kind of light expected for a bright day, and the distance to the nearest concession stand. You walked around, virtually, then picked some nice seats, secured them with your credit card, and received near-instantaneous verification.

A fictional scenario? Not entirely. Not that the Colts will be Super Bowl material any time soon. But by the middle of 1998, when you visit Ticketmaster's Web site, you'll be able to call up a simple virtual-reality representation of the stadium you want to attend. The technology behind the Ticket-master application, Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML -- pronounced vermal) 2.0, is now enabling some early three-dimensional applications online. Of course, to listen to the VRML evangelists, it's only a matter of months before you can use every business application imaginable in three stunning dimensions. That includes data visualization and desktop data mining, viewing mining surveys, file management in 3D, and design of your own home space -- like a VRML home page on the Web.

In truth, you won't hardwire into Netscape and execute 360 [degrees] aerials through Ticketmaster's reservation hall anytime soon. Ticketmaster's project is expedient, though, because it represents the state of virtual realty today -- as a kind of plug-in. Sure, there are VRML chat rooms where you can pick an avatar, your physical representation, and talk ad nauseam in a lo-cal space station environment, but in the end it's still just a souped-up chat room. For now, VR is merely adding functionality here and there. It will be several years before it's a mainstream interface.

3D File Managers

There's intriguing experimentation into VRML-driven productivity tools such as 3D desktop file managers, which put a more attractive face on multi-tiered information and its hierarchical interface than 2D interfaces can often achieve. For example, graphics chip maker S3 Inc. has partnered with Xerox/PARC spin-off Inxight to create VisiDrive 3D, a file-management program that adopts the Windows Explorer 2D interface but adds a 3D component as well -- either as a tree hierarchy or a wall. The tree displays files three-dimensionally: The farther right they are, the farther down the tree they reside. The benefit is in seeing groups of files, by their file names, in any given file. The wall is more for hard-drive and network management. Unlike Explorer, which will only organize files on one axis -- alpha, date, size -- at a time, the wall can plot folders and files, represented by their names, into size and date created at the same time. Such a visual display reduces the time needed to drill-down and see which programs are eating too much space -- a feature that could be a real boon for network managers.

If NASA's Mars Pathfinder Web site revved VRML's cool factor and popularized it for Web users, Ticketmaster will likely illustrate the medium's potential usefulness to business. The company recently signed an agreement with Intel to produce E-commerce functionality on the Ticketmaster site, and to offer VRML "point-of-view" technology for 100 of the biggest stadiums it serves. That capability is expected to roll out in the second quarter of 1998.

But while Ticketmaster is using the Web to potentially give ticket buyers more bang for their buck, it isn't betting the bank on E-commerce, either. President and CEO Fredric Rosen is well aware that the company has to do the VRML ticketing engine right. The fear is that a hacker could crack the app and become a millionaire overnight by walking off with 500 Rolling Stones tickets.

Ticketmaster's cautious first steps may pave the way for enhanced functionality, such as allowing users to preorder food via the Web for delivery during the game. Nevertheless, that functionality still won't exceed what's already available in the real world. The Web "isn't comparable to being able to handle the crush of 20,000 rabid Stones fans trying to get seats at a stadium," says one industry observer. Nor does it equal the functionality of ATMs in Spain, for instance, where users can debit directly from their accounts to buy tickets, which can then be verified at the ticket window with a physical receipt dispensed by the ATM.