Virtual Reality and Artificial Intelligence
Reg Barclay, a popularized character in the popular 90’s science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation, has more than a few neuroticisms which brings his character to life. For one thing, Reg is autistic; he’s socially challenged and unable to communicate verbally with his fellow crew members, impeded consistently by an annoying stutter that even 200 years in the future, medical treatment is apparently unable to fix. Reg is also a low ranking computer programmer, whose idea of an exciting day is staring into a computer screen in a lonely corner of the spaceship’s engineering deck, making little or no contact with the ship’s crew. Finally, in addition to being an overly sensitive recluse, Reg is addicted to a fantasy world he uses to escape reality using a holographic room called the” holodeck,” which is more typically used by crew members to simulate pleasant vacations, whereas Reg uses this computer generated world as a compensator for his many insecurities and personality flaws. It’s no wonder that Reg is addicted, since in this fantasy world Reg can feel the things he so desperately needs in his daily life, he can simply alter reality to whatever he wishes, becoming an important ship’s captain, an outstanding lover, anything he wants. But when it comes time to return to work at his station, Reg has to face the reality as known by the average, run of the mill computer programmer.
During the 1990’s Reg represented a growing public interest in an explosive new technology called Virtual Reality, which is best described as immersive computer generated stimulation where the user is posited in an computer generated world, and provided means to interact with objects in this place. In 1995 a british investor specializing in computer entertainment, foreseeing the awesome increase in public interest in VR dropped millions of dollars in a small firm in Palo Alto, California called Virtuality(II), in hopes to marry the growing technology with the growing multimedia trends portrayed on television and movies (Lawnmower Man (IV), a movie starring Pierce Brosnan depicted VR technology as a medium to unlock psychic powers innate in humans through advanced learning techniques) which would result in major capital gains for those who pioneered such research and development. This, however, proved not to be the case.
Virtuality created a new arcade game in which the user wore a helmet that sent visual images to the user, who could turn their head and see a three dimensional environment, and use a variety of methods to maneuver through the computer generated scenery, typically by leaning forward on a small stationary platform, or using hand-held joysticks. At 30,000 dollars per machine these games were a significant investment for even the most lucrative arcade store owner; the average price passed onto the consumer to play being roughly one to five dollars per minute, access was limited to an older audience with a heftier penchant for video games, and a loftier disposable income than the average arcade-going kid. What Virtuality would quickly discover, is that this sort of audience simply didn’t exist, and that their expensive games were extremely prone to malfunction and required high maintenance, and within two years of their conception, and after releasing less than a dozen titles for their console, including less than popular titles like Pac-Man 3D, Dactylmania, and Alphaworld (the more popular and violent first person shooter game produced which involved two users playing interactively trying to shoot unimpressive enemies like flying eyeballs), Virtuality filed chapter 11. Almost as quickly as the VR trend had appeared, it vanished with nothing but a few crappy video games and an army of broke investors to show for it.
Morton Heilig, had he been alive to witness it, might’ve warned investors against the danger of getting swept away in media trends. Heilig created a similar financial Frankenstein in 1962 called Sensorama, which enabled the user to sit down in an immersive multi sensational experience of riding a motorcycle through the streets of New York City. The user strapped on 3d glasses which supplemented visual immersion, small blowers shot air out at strategic times to give the illusion of feeling accompanied by rumbling handlebars that seemed to react according the cinematography, and even typical motorist odors were emitted by small pumps near the users face. Despite it’s creative innovation, Sensorama, like it’s postern Virtuality, found no audience and quickly died out without making a dime.
Although VR seems to have squelched into nothingness since the 1990’s, headstrong gaming manufacturers continue innovations with multimedia, this time around with a renewed skepticism in consumer appeal. But although VR seems to hit the general public hardest in the form of games, this is only the proverbial “tip of the ice burg,” and although not too many video gamers latched onto the limited appeal of VR, the United States government was quick to solicit those responsible for the growing technology and became extremely willing to fund further research, not in the game medium this time, but in three very diverse applications which are still being used and developed by branches of the Armed Forces and by the National Aeronautics and Space Institute to this day.
The Battlefield Augmented Reality System, or BARS, represents a culmination in virtual reality resulting in all too economical application of the same technology developed by Heilig in 1962. Not to be confused with the more simplified VRBS system which trains green recruits in field combat using the same gaming principles found in flight simulators, the BARS is a system which the Naval Research Laboratory in DC hopes will empower soldiers in a way which will change the entire idea of urban warfare, by equipping them with a transparent heads-up-display which is able to project critical data overtop of tangible objects. A soldier equipped with BARS might be able to see a well-hidden sniper superimposed onto their visual field based on the feedback of from other BARS units, combined with satellite data and other contributing inputs. The BARS prototypes, or at least those that have been declassified dating back as far as 1997, relied on technology that prevented real world application; the ability of the unit to synchronize positions and therefore project images accurately required a finite space, a square room filled with active sensors. New technology has enabled geo-synchronization on an entirely new level, predictably reducing the size of the units to small backpack and a helmet. The advantages a soldier equipped with this backpack include literally seeing through objects that the enemy cannot, never getting lost in mazes of urban rubble by following visual aids which coordinate with instant external inputs, and continuously updating information being fed onto the display such as textual data, maps, and virtually unlimited technical data which requires nothing on the part of the user to obtain. It should be noted that BARS is not fictional, but indeed very real technology which could prove to change the outcome of urban combat in years to come.
Not all perpetual applications of VR are violent in nature. Reg Barclay, the fictional autistic computer programmer we spoke of earlier, designed Holodeck personalities that satisfied higher needs as well. One particular instance proved extremely embarrassing for Reg when the ship’s captain intruded on his romantic holodeck fantasy with the beautiful Counselor Troi. Although we may blush to imagine what the future of virtual reality holds in terms of sexuality, perhaps a day will come when cyber-sex becomes so indistinguishably real that it will influence our arousal in the same addictive manner that it influenced Reg Barclay. Teledildonics is a field of VR in development which is aims to make it’s product economical by limiting it’s personal application to only those who lack a sexual desire, which means almost no adult can fail to see the appeal of virtual sex. “Josey,” a student at the University of Utah, and a member of the Utah chapter of the liberal group AASG, American Artificial Sexuality Group, told the magazine Hustler in a recent interview “We’re on the verge of a sexual revolution; masturbation is no longer looked down upon in our society, in another decade cybersex could be the same way.” He argues unabashedly that masturbation is a necessary part of sexual development, and although there’s is a significant risk for addiction, cybersexual play allows people access to a safe and typically healthy method of experimentation. As cybersex becomes more sophisticated and immersive, it could continue to build on this growing medium of sexual experimentation, and create a new brand of social deviants like Josey and Reg Barclay with a less traditional sexual preference.
Pleasure, although not always sexual in nature, seems to be the major motivator in non-violent applications of VR. Dr. Bruce Blumberg, head of the Media Laboratory at MIT, developed a new sort of VR application in 1999 called “Silas.” Silas is the name of a dog created in yet another immersive computer generated world, this one much more sophisticated than that predecessors. Users can interact with an enormous variety of objects in this virtual world, but none are so complex and interactive as Silas T. Dog, who displays all the intense emotional needs and behaviors as a real dog. If the user pays attention to the hampster, Silas becomes jealous and tries to redirect their attention. If the user abuses the animal, it shrinks out of sight and will be reluctant to approach the user until trust is restored. Here’s a completely different type of application of virtual reality grounded in research, which finds it’s funding necessitated through social psychology. Silas, while appearing like another video game, is far from just another form of interactive entertainment. The user quickly understands this when they hold still for too long and the dog loses interest, or when the user pretends to throw the ball and quickly hides it behind their back and watches the dog scramble to discover the discrepancy, then returns to the user with curiosity. Silas exhibits intelligent behavior, the same seen in real animals, and although the graphics transmitted to the user haven’t reached the immersive authenticity of a Holodeck simulation, the latent social interaction between the user and the program feels no different than the user interacting with a real dog.
Silas represents the newest offspring of technological trends of the new millenium: artificial intelligence. Again gaming platforms are making development practical by sponging funds from special interest investors to perpetuate their research, and again the game industry represents only the very tip of the iceburg. The MIT robotics lab is making major headway in the area of cognitive science by using social interaction with their heuristic machines. “Kismet,” a talking head robot fully equipped with facial expressions and programmed for interactive response requires a technician to supply social stimulation on a regular basis, otherwise it’s working memory slowly fills up with useless data, weakening the desired responses they’ve worked so hard to elicit from the machine. The system that makes up Kismet’s senses allows it to observe and imitate the behavior of others, and although it’s brain is only barely beginning to show the signs of a refined “intelligence,” it exhibits the genuine appearance of interactive personality similar to that of Silas, except Kismet exerts it’s augmented personality into an existing reality, and Silas requires augmented reality in order to exert it’s personality.
AI personalities like Kismet require the interaction of real people in order to learn, which brings us to the final redemptive application of VR: virtual sensation. The same equipment needed to help real people like Reg experience things that they normally couldn’t experience, undistinguishable sensation leading to positive responses that normally wouldn’t exist, can be used inward on the same technology that helped make it possible, and maybe eventually make it better. Kismet and Silas may be two artificial personalities which are very healthy for each other. After all, how many possible scenarios could a small talking head in a laboratory experience? In a virtual world robots like Kismet can experience unlimited opportunities, and therefore create a world of responses without physical limits. Reg Barclay, the fictional holodeck addict, eventually overcame his addiction by finding confidence grounded in achievements in the real world after which his character faded quickly to the background, until he reappeared many seasons later when the ship encountered a strange alien race which threatened the entire crew, Reg stepped up to the task of being a hero and used the holodeck in extremely inventive ways which used virtual reality as a medium for manipulating the ship’s computer.
Reingold, Howard: Virtual Reality (1991. New York: W.H. Freeman & Co.)
Blumberg, B: Old Tricks, New Dogs (1996. PhD Dissertation, Mass. Institute of Technology lab.)
Simon Julier, Dennis Brown, Yohan Balliot, Lawrence Rosenblum: Augmented Reality as an Example of a Demanding Human-Centered System (EC/NSF Advanced Research Workshop, 1-4 June 1999.)
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