Virtual Reality

At a new media conference at the Los Angeles Convention Center last week, a session on the emerging field of virtual reality veered off course when one of the panelists mentioned that psychiatrists are exploring virtual reality to treat subjects. "I have a question," interjected another panelist, Gregory Panos, president of Sophistech Research in Beverly Hills and publisher of the "Virtual Reality Sourcebook."

The financial success of Visions of Reality Inc. depends on how well it can sell its version of reality. The 20-employee South San Francisco company, which has offices in Irvine, is trying to create the ultimate arcade-like game using three-dimensional computer graphics technology known as virtual reality. The test will come soon. Visions of Reality hopes its pod-like simulators, which are designed to look and feel like a real spacecraft, will be landing in Orange County by year's end.

Virtual reality was born in military research labs, but now that the Cold War is over, scientists are looking for new reasons to keep the dollars flowing for a technology whose development has largely been taken over by private industry. In a report released this week--sponsored by a consortium of federal agencies--the National Research Council recommends that the government get into virtual reality research in a big way.

Tired of facing another lap on the treadmill or another bicycle ride to nowhere? Got 10 minutes to go and you can't wait for this workout to end? Boredom, not self-inflicted torture, is the No. 1 reason most health club members quit after three to six months, and the industry is constantly trying to come up with new gimmicks to keep the customers. Now Tectrix Fitness Equipment, an exercise equipment maker in Irvine, thinks that it has an answer.

The lunchtime crowd at the Virtual World game center in Walnut Creek is gearing up to do battle. A guide briefs the virtual reality pilots on their mission: to annihilate each other's computer-simulated humanoid tanks. A novice player, code-named "Bruin," enters a simulated cockpit. On computer screens in the cockpit appear images of enemies manning the other tanks, "Speed," "Malik" and "Tardio."

ParaGraph International Inc., a Silicon Valley company founded by Russian engineers, will develop a virtual-reality world for Microsoft Corp.'s online Microsoft Network, the two companies said. Under the arrangement ParaGraph, based in Campbell, will supply content for the project, code-named "Magic Resort," and will license its technology for three-dimensional environments to the Redmond, Wash.-based software giant. Terms were not disclosed.

In 1991, Paul Debevec daydreamed of flying cars. The dreams were inspired by "Back to the Future" and "Star Wars," two of Debevec's favorite movies. Unfortunately, getting Debevec's own little gray Chevette into the air seemed like a problem too difficult even for a resourceful UC Berkeley computer science student. So Debevec did the next best thing.

At 25, Chris Finley is among the first generation of artists to consider his sculpture and painting to be products of virtual reality. The interactivity of the Internet and video games like Super Mario Bros. are his inspirations, much as the Pop artists of the 1960s were influenced by the then-fresh medium of television. Instead of art history, Finley looks to the possibilities of cyberspace: "I don't think about other art very much when I'm working. I'm more concerned with inventing something."

If you're convinced that an expensive computer, sophisticated software and the technical savvy of a "propeller-head" is the only route to the information superhighway, take heart. With studio development and production pipelines around town filled with close to a dozen high-tech films dealing with computers, virtual reality and the Internet, the only thing you may need is a movie ticket. And why not?

In the epic struggle among city-states over who gets to be the Multimedia Capital of the Universe, there emerged last week a new pretender to the throne. New York. Yes, New York, symbol of all that is traditional, conservative, Old World. Disregarding all that, and armed with data from a new survey conducted by accounting firm Coopers & Lybrand, the Big Analog Apple has thrust itself into a rivalry that has thus far been safely contained on the West Coast.