"Is it real or is it technical expertise?"
                           by Tom Steinert-Threlkeld
                      printed by the Dallas Morning News
                          Saturday, October 14, 1989

   "Virtual" is one  of  the  most  overused  words in technology, not to
   mention the English language in general.

   It means that something exists in its essence - but not in actual form
   or fact.  Almost, but not quite.

   Take its usage in telecommunications.   "Virtual private networks" use
   a combination of private phone lines and public phone  lines,  managed
   by sophisticated software, to give corporate customers the benefits of
   private lines at costs more like public lines.

   Then, in telecommunications    alone,    there   are   "virtual   call
   capabilities", "virtual circuits,"   "virtual   machine   facilities,"
   "virtual routes" and  even  "virtual  storage."   Maybe   that   means
   information that gets  stored  in  its essence but not in actual fact.
   Almost, but not quite.

   Well, computing has the same phenomenon.  Only its repercussions are a
   bit wider spread.

   Welcome to "virtual reality."

   Does Dr. Robert D. Ballard of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
   risk his own life and limb anymore  exploring  for  treasures  on  the
   bottom of the sea?

   Hardly. He sends a robot named Jason as his eyes, ears  and arms.  He,
   his colleagues and  a  nation of schoolchildren get to see the results
   as Jason labors.  Virtual reality.

   Doctors have long used sound waves  to  get early pictures of new life
   inside pregnant women.   But  now  doctors  are  moving  beyond  using
   electronic devices as  mere  tools  of  observation.  Now, fiber-optic
   cables are inserted  in  the search  for  colon  cancer.   The  doctor
   watches, and if a growth is found, an instrument can  take a sample of
   what he sees for him.  Virtual reality.

   People with paralyzed  limbs no longer are as handicapped as they used
   to be.  They can don headcaps that  let them point at things they want
   to do, listed on a screen.  With a twitch of the head,  they  can open
   doors, boil water  on  the  stove,  turn  on  the  television,  change
   channels, even type lengthy documents.  Virtual reality.

   But the most  intriguing  examination  and  possible  redefinition  of
   reality is going   on   at   the   National  Aeronautics   and   Space
   Administration Ames Research Center in Moffet Field, California.

   There, reality-nauts don  special  display  screens on their heads and
   movement-sensitive gloves on their  hands.   The special helmet allows
   the wearer to see what a remote robot in space or someplace  else sees
   through cameras.  The   "data   gloves"   allow  the  wearer  to  send
   instructions to the robot.  In effect,  the reality-naut sees what the
   robot sees and  makes  motions  as  if  he or she is  there.   Virtual
   reality.

   The applications are  enormous,  if  the  technology can be perfected.
   Put on some "data shoes," and Troy  Aikman  could  guide a Troy Aikman
   robot on the  Texas  Stadium field, without ever bearing the danger of
   an injury.  Construction workers could  guide  robots  working  on the
   48th floor of the skeleton of a skyscraper, without  risking  a  fall.
   Explorers could go  to  the  end  of  the world without worrying about
   heat, cold or the absence of water.

   These are the  ultimate  simulations.   Supercomputers  already  model
   everything from wind tunnels to weather flows.  Now they will not just
   simulate reality -  but  try  to transfer the experience  directly  to
   human beings AS  IT  HAPPENS.   Wearing computers, instead of watching
   them, changes the game dramatically.

   The benefits are as obvious as for  other  means  of simulation.  Such
   computer suits may  cost  a  quarter-million dollars.   But  how  much
   cheaper it is  to send a robot into space as a proxy body and keep the
   human body on the ground.  For that  matter,  a  glove  much  like the
   "data glove" being  used  by  the Ames Research Center  soon  will  be
   available for you  to  play video games on your NINTENDO ENTERTAINMENT
   SYSTEM.

   Really replicating live environments  on helmet screens and perfecting
   the feedback between robot and human hands will take several years.

   But if research keeps picking away at the differences  between reality
   and "virtual" reality,  the next best thing to being there soon may be
   being there.