Grasping Reality Through Illusion: Interactive Graphics Serving Science

摘要

This document discusses three related subjects: virtual-worlds research-the construction of real-time three dimensional illusions by computer graphics; some observations about interfaces to virtual worlds; and the coming application of virtual-worlds techniques to the enhancement of scientific computing. We need to design generalized interfaces for visualizing exploring, and steering scientific computations. These interfaces must be direct-manipulation, not command-string; interactive, not batch; 3-D, not 2-D; multi-sensory, not just visual. Needed are generalized research results for 3-D interactive interfaces. More is known than gets reported, because of a reluctance to share unproven results. The author proposes a shells-of-certainty model for such knowledge. Keywords: Man machine systems, Human factors. Author. (KR)