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Peter Cochrane's Hard Drive 1996 Virtual TV We are moving towards a world of everything on demand; information, interaction, and experience through visual and acoustic immersion. TV technology can deliver much of this to the home and office by the coalescing of computers and communications. In a first step in this direction we see Video On Demand services being tested in trials world-wide. Here the viewer could ultimately have access to all the video material imaginable, with extensions into shopping, museums, art galleries, libraries, medicine, care, education - into the complete world of information. For any chance of success, it is essential that the user interface surpasses the dreaded VHS controller, or for that matter the PC. If this is not the case we shall see a high proportion of the population effectively frozen out of this information future. Making information available to anyone aged between 3 and 90 is the great challenge - the technology has to be humanised. The way in which this is being addressed has already moved beyond the Graphical User Interface (GUI) to the Shopping Mall, street, store or library paradigm. Here the user moves into familiar surroundings with information access framed as a real, rather than artificial, electronic book; a furniture store instead of a catalogue; travel agent instead of a brochure. In such an environment you have nothing to learn as all is familiar and intuitive. Beyond the interface we will be confronted by a vast choice with thousands of virtual shops and stores across the planet. Selecting a programme from a choice of a few tens of channels is manageable, a few hundreds is difficult, but 10,000 is impossible! This can be overcome with artificial intelligence primed to learn our changing interest profile. Such a system could even provide a degree of serendipity as it learns about us, and offers opportunities to see this or that film, purchase this or that watch, tie, dress, shirt, tie, etc. An electronically generated short form preview - the essence of the film, or opportunity, compressed into a few minutes - is already possible. For a significant step beyond all of this we have to move to immersive systems with large (wall size) flat panel, head or eye mounted displays - a saturation of the visual, acoustic, and ultimately the tactile to realise total interaction. With such technology we will no longer be spectators, but participants, part of the feature film, totally involved. This might seem far fetched, but there is nothing here that has not already been tried in research laboratories today. A more immediate and available technology, employs miniature TV cameras mounted at eye level, with microphones above the ears - a surrogate head! The output of this device can be coupled to a VR headset. So, if you wear the VR headset, and I the surrogate head, then you effectively stand inside me looking out. What I see you see, what I hear you hear, and soon - what I feel you will feel. Why be limited to two people when we can broadcast to millions? In the 21st Century perhaps we will all go to the Olympic Games without leaving home, and we may stop watching and start participating. Peter Cochrane holds the Collier Chair for the Public Understanding of Science & Technology at the University of Bristol. His home page is: |
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