CyberGate a VRML based information space with hundreds of URL links
As this book went to press, VRML was undergoing major changes. In a oneyear period, VRML went from an interesting but pie-in-the-sky Web format to a mainstream application. Sun, Silicon Graphics, and Microsoft are all putting significant investments and marketing resources into the concept of 3D graphics for the Web. All these players, quite naturally, have different perspectives on the direction of the specification. Only time will tell how it will all play out. Several things are clear, however. First and foremost, VRML will become not merely another 3D graphics specification, but one which allows networked interaction. Objects can be imbued with behavior and users can interact with
these objects which often will be standins, or avatars, for their human counterparts.
One example of the true potential of these integrated technologies comes from Starbright World. The Starbright Pediatric Network is an experiment at connecting seriously ill children, in hospitals, with an avatarbased virtual world. In this world the children can talk to other seriously ill children and play games with each other in the virtual world. These types of distractions and interactions can lessen the boredom and isolation felt by children experiencing long hospital stays.
The Starbright World home page, a pediatric network for sick children.
The two major approaches to adding behavior are epitomized by the SGI-Sun approach and the Microsoft approach. SGI, Sun and Netscape have all agreed to use Sun's Java as a language to program behaviors and embed them in 3D objects. Microsoft has come up with its own proposal, known as ActiveVRML, based on a functional programming language called ML. All these parties will battle it out in the marketplace.
With Netscape's release of Live3D integrated applications are starting to appear. One demo shows the lunar lander on the moon. Clicking on the astronaut of the lander causes a connection, via RealAudio to play back, out of NASA archives, actual audio from Apollo 11.
2 . 4 . 5 Microsoft's ActiveVRML
Microsoft's entry into the 3D Web world comes via a technology called ActiveVRML. ActiveVRML is part of a suite of "Active" Internet technologies called ActiveX. It appears that ActiveX is really Microsoft's answer to Java, but we'll have to wait and see who wins that battle.
ActiveVRML is based on a functional programming language. It is elegant, but not the successor to VRML 1.0. Another proposal, "Moving Worlds," was selected as the one upon which to "standardize". From the Microsoft document "A Brief Introduction to ActiveVRML":(9)
To allow the creation of interactive animations to be as natural as possible, ActiveVRML
is based on a simple and intuitively familiar view of the world; that is, as a hybrid of continuous variations and discrete events. For example, the behavior of a bouncing ball consists of continuous trajectories and discrete collisions. Trajectories cause collision events, and collision events cause new trajectories.
Using ActiveVRML, one can create simple or sophisticated animations without programming in the usual sense of the word. For example:
• Although many frames are generated in presenting an animation, the author is freed from any notion of sampling or frame generation, but rather describes how various animation parameters vary continuously with time, user input, and other parameters.
• An author describes events influencing an animation and the effects of these events on the animation. The author is freed from the programming mechanics of checking for events and causing the effects to happen.
• Although animations involve an extremely high degree of simultaneity (concurrency), the author is freed from such programming issues as multithreading.
• Linguistically, there are no statements (commands) that are executed for their effect, but rather expressions that are analyzed for their value. ActiveVRML uses this approach to make specifying animations as natural as possible, while simultaneously retaining maximal opportunities for optimization. (10)
Here's a sample fragment of ActiveVRML code:(11)
So in AVRML we will create a transformation that changes with time, and attach that transformation to a new copy of the ball. The result is a new ball with the inherent property (just like color or texture) that it has a position at all times specified by the transformation applied to it, which is itself dependent on time. Here's the code fragment...:
// read in a ball from disk Ball = readGeometry("sphere.wrl");
// create something that moves objects Motion = translate(time, 0, 9 - (time - 3)^2);
// make a new ball that moves over time FlyingBall = transformGeometry(Motion, Ball);
The second line creates a thing called Motion. You can think of this as a property, as yet unattached to anything, that describes a 3D path in space; it can be sampled at any time.
The value of Motion is some thing that can translate 3D geometry. The three arguments specify how that geometry should be moved along the X, Y, and Z axes respectively. In AVRML, time is a special system-supplied value it's the current time of the simulation (we'll say more about this later). So Motion is now a free-running little entity, which is constantly changing as the moments pass. The third line connects Motion together with Ball, creating a new, composite 3D thing called FlyingBall. Thus, FlyingBall inherits the dynamic quality of Motion, so FlyingBall is itself a thing that is moving as time progresses, with no further help from us.
The concept of time is built into ActiveVRML. It also provides an elegant functional programming language framework. Given that Microsoft now employs many of the greatest computer graphics minds, I doubt that ActiveVRML will fade into the sunset.
2 . 4 . 6 Apple's QuickTime VR
QuickTime VR (QTVR) is Apple's technology for creating an imagebased virtual environment. Instead of using polygons to construct a space geometrically you use images. The image appearing on the computer screen is that of a photo, but you can look anywhere you want. Imagine that your head is on top of a tripod and you could spin it around with complete freedom. That's the type of view you get with QTVR. Actually, you can hop from one tripod position to another, but you can't walk smoothly. You can integrate this environment with your Web pages as yet another data type, used with a helper application.
To create this type of environment, you take photographs using an ordinary 35mm camera. The easiest thing to do (and the authoring software expects this) is to have the pictures processed and placed onto a Kodak PhotoCD. The photos are taken by placing the camera on a tripod and rotating the camera 360 degrees, taking each picture when there is approximately 50% overlap with the previous image. Depending on the lens, it takes anywhere from 12 to 18 images to complete the 360 degrees. The images, from the PhotoCD are stitched together seamlessly by a magical tool called the "stitcher," which is part of Apple's QTVR authoring kit.
The resulting panorama image is processed further into a QuickTime VR movie, which is a single QTVR "node." You can allow the user to move from one node to another by repeating the same photography and processing steps with the tripods in different locations. The closer together the tripod positions are the smoother the travel appears. In addition the user can zoom in on any section of the image, giving a reasonably effective illusion of moving closer to parts of the scene.
One novel use of QTVR was created by Honda. On their Web site (http://www.honda. com ) they let you virtually sit inside their new Odyssey minivan. You can see what the
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OK I'm a computer geek; I admit it. During a vacation in Israel, I shot several QTVR nodes. I photographed them using a handheld camera (no tripod). This caused a number of anomalies. The QTVR authoring allows adjustments for some problems; using the stitcher program in an "interactive" mode, I was able to get reasonable QTVR nodes. Check 'em out on the CD that comes with this book.
view looks like if you were on top of a hill, in a forest, by the sea shore, or by a lake!
The "stitched”panoramic 360degree image.
Normalized QTVR view in which you can "turn your head”.
The other type of image QTVR can present is a "navigable object." In this method the object is photographed from all points of a sphere surrounding the object. The object is placed on a turntable and photographed every 10 degrees or so, the camera is moved 10 degrees and so on. When the separation is 10 degrees, the result is 36 x 36 photos. The images are processed through the QTVR authoring kit, and another type of QTVR movie, a navigable movie, is created. The user can interact with the object by spinning it around or up and down. It's an extremely intuitive and effective user interface for examining objects. Usually a video camera is used to grab still frames for this technique since image quality is not as critical as it is in the panoramas.
Currently, QTVR is used on the Web as just another type of data. Clearly, it could be used in ways similar to VRML, where clicking on a particular portion of the image would link you to another part of the Web. We'll just have to wait and see.
If fact just before this book went to print Apple announced the features for QTVR Version 2.0. The new version will allow direct embedding of URLs as the hot spots in QTVR nodes, opening up a clear path to highly integrated image based virtual environments and
the Web. A much anticipated programmers API will allow simpler applications to use this technology. Sounds can also be associated with particular locations. QTVR nodes embedded in Web pages, via Apple's QuickTime plug-ins can dramatically present "real" spaces such as museums, malls, cities and so on with compelling and intuitive interfaces. This is a major development, keep an eye open for this truly exciting stuff!
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2 . 5 Macromedia Director Shockwave
Macromedia Director is one of the most successful multimedia authoring and delivery programs around. It has been used for a wide variety of "real world" products. Originally a Macintoshonly system it has migrated and become a first class PC application. Director multimedia content can be authored on one platform, either the Mac or PC, and played back on either.
As multimedia vendors start to wake up to the reality of the Web, both multimedia and Web developers are starting to cooperate in joint development and delivery systems. Netscape has announced a deal with Macromedia to allow "Director Player" documents to play in a Web page. It will accomplish this using Netscape's new plug-in architecture. Director Player documents do not have to be simply oneway playback windows, they can be fully interactive multimedia experiences.
First, a little background on Director. Back in the stone ages (you know, around 7 years ago), if you wanted to do complex animation on a Macintosh you had to use something called VideoWorks. VideoWorks eventually grew up to be called Director, and was ported to the PC platform. Today, if you want to create multimedia content playable on both the Mac and PC platforms, you would be wise to check out Macromedia's Director.
Its roots as an animation system are still quite evident. It lets you set up animations on a frame by frame basis; the frame is its unit of time. The items that move and make sounds in your multimedia presentation are called "cast members." You arrange the cast members in a "script," and the actions, you specify take place over time. Using a computing language called Lingo, similar in style to HyperTalk, you can program in an object oriented way, the actions and interactions of objects and the user. Director is not simple to use and has a big learning curve. It's been called the Swiss Army Knife of multimedia authoring packages. You can do almost anything with it. In the worst case, there are mechanisms to link with native C code. There is also a large user community; thousands of experienced people are using the system.
Shockwave is Macromedia's attempt to merge the capabilities of Director with the Web. Director version 5 includes Shockwave authoring capabilities. To view a Shockwave file, you first get the Shockwave (Netscape) plug-in. When you go to a page with a shockwave animation, it gets loaded and plays inline on the Web page. Director animations can have synchronized sounds and interactions, which should enhance a Web site when used judiciously. So far the main drawback is the amount of time it takes to load the Shockwave animation. Although it is often lengthy, it can be a valuable attentiongetter.
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2 . 6 Streaming Technologies-Audio/Video
One of the most interesting and useful technologies starting to crawl through the Web is data streaming. Data streaming is the connection of a large set of data on the server to the client, through a constantly flowing stream of data. For example a collection of audio that might be ten minutes long may be tens of Mb large. Ordinarily, you would have to wait for all the audio to be downloaded to your client browser machine before you started hearing it, with data streaming, a small portion is sent and you start hearing it almost instantaneously. While you are listening the steaming software simultaneously brings in new data...multitasking...hey what a concept!
The practicality of this streaming audio is hard to overstate. In fact, a company called RealAudio will be happy to sell you an audio server that dishes out audio streams that can be played back using free client software. Unlike much of the new whiz-bang-cool software out on the Net this software is truly useful. The RealAudio Web site serves National Public Radio. I enjoy listening to the news on NPR but I rarely get to listen to all of it. So, once in a while, I simply dial up NPR on the RealAudio site and listen to one of the many archived. It's like phone mail for radio; it just sits and waits there for you.
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Usable video conferencing is one of the major goals of Internet technology development. CU-See Me developed at Cornell University's Information Technology organization (CIT) has moved us closer to this goal. It initially was a Macintoshonly 4-bit grayscale window of conversing people. Since those days, it has moved towards color and the Windows platform. White Pine Software is commercializing the software for Windows and Win 95.
Another approach to desktop video is the Mbone. The Mbone uses a technology called multicasting, a tricky extension of the TCP/IP protocol. The Mbone is used primarily on higher-end workstation equipment with 56K or greater Internet connection. Its principal advantage is that it runs on many hardware platforms. The MBONE Information Web is a good place to find information on this technology.
A few companies are trying to marry streaming video to Web browsers. XING, a company with a significant track record in MPEG players, offers StreamWorks. The StreamWorks client is installed as a helper application for your Web browser. When you click on a video segment offered by a Web site, the StreamWorks client launches. On a 28K baud modem, the video quality is poor. However these are still pioneering days. It's amazing it works at all.
Another streaming video technology is offered by VDOLive. VDOlive is now being used by CBS News and Paramount in some novel streaming video experiments. The VDOLive system can function as a Netscape plug-in; the video appears inline, right on the Web page. They are touting concept of "desktop video broadcasting."
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A VDOLive video stream playing inline on the Netscape Web browser.
Finally, Netscape, continuing its hyper-paced introduction of product enhancements, has a technology called LiveLinks for streaming data.
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Although Microsoft was slow to warm up to the Internet, it's clear that this 800pound gorilla has woken up. Microsoft is now running through the jungle, shaking all the trees in it's effort to make the Internet another conquered territory. Simply put, the collection of technologies Microsoft is either buying or creating for the Internet is extremely impressive.
On the authoring front is, the Internet Assistant (IA) for Word, IA for PowerPoint, and IA for Excel. These extensions to already popular products make these tools capable of content creation for the Web. There is also Microsoft FrontPage (formerly Vermeer FrontPage), a highly regarded fullfeatured authoring tool.
On the browser side, Internet Explorer is gaining on Netscape's Navigator. Microsoft is adding features nearly as fast as Netscape. For Web servers Microsoft is bundling its Web server with every copy of Windows NT.
To bring more active programs to the Web, Microsoft has licensed Sun's Java and is developing its own strategy called ActiveX. Microsoft's goal is to integrate Java with Microsoft's component object model (COM). No stone is being left un-turned; the gorilla is running hard.
2 . 7 . 1 Internet Explorer 3.0
Version 3.0 of the Internet Explorer introduces a host of new features. Frames, and VBScripts (Visual Basic Scripts) are part of the new suite of technologies. Significantly, Internet Explorer 3.0 will also support the W3Os Style Sheet Specification, the Cascading Style Sheet.
VBScript is Microsoft's version of Visual Basic for Web programming. VBScript programs can be embedded in HTML. In addition, and the Web browser, such as Microsoft's Internet Explorer (version 3 or later), can interpret the VBScript.
This following illustration shows a demonstration page of an order form for Pizza. It was created using VBScript embedded in an HTML page. The form calculates the bill and illustrates some of the capabilities of VBScriptenhanced HTML as interpreted by MS Internet Explorer 3.0. The image and file are part of the sample provided by Microsoft with their InternetSDK (System Development Kit) and ActiveX(TM) Development Kit
Web page with VBScript forms in Microsoft's Internet Explorer version 3.
ActiveX Technologies are a new set of technologies being touted by Microsoft as the way to create "active" Web documents. ActiveX Controls will enable developers to create Web pages with actions such as games, multimedia, animation and video.
On March 12, 1996, Microsoft issued a press release describing these technologies.
ActiveX Technologies form a robust framework for creating interactive content using software components, scripts and existing applications. Specifically, ActiveX Technologies enable developers to build Web content easily using ActiveX Control (formerly OLE Controls), active scripts and active documents.
A key benefit of using ActiveX TEchnologies is the ability to integrate applications into Web browsers so data managed by those applications becomes accessible as Web pages. This technology, called ActiveX Documents, lets a user navigate a corporate intranet to view a department's Web page, examine the department's budget spreadsheet, query the database for sales data or write a memoall from within the Web browser and without undergoing the expensive and unnecessary process of converting that content into HTML format.
ActiveX Server Scripts can be written using a host of popular scripting languages including Visual Basic Script, PERL, and JavaScript. Together, these ActiveX controls and scripts allow Web developers, using familiar tools, to build smart, interactive server applications with little or no programming knowledge.
In addition, Microsoft has co-developed an ActiveX plug-in for Netscape Navigator with nCompass Labs Inc., enabling NetScape Navigator browsers to view active content.
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"If God wanted us to fly, He would have given us tickets." - Mel Brooks
Surfing the web is great over a highspeed line at work but that 28.8K line at home can be frustrating. For all practical purposes, the best way to increase your bandwidth at home now is to use ISDN. Approximately 80% of U.S. customers can opt for this approach. It will get you a 128K line installed for around $500 to $700. Monthly fees average about $60 to $100 for moderate use with an internet provider. It's far from cheap but it's not the thousands of dollars per month required for a T1 line.
Perhaps the most promising breakthrough is the push to develop the Cable modem. If we look at the time it takes to download a 10Mb file (say a video clip), it would take 46 minutes with a 28.8K line, 10 minutes with ISDN (128K/sec), 52 seconds on a T1 (1.5Mb/ sec) line, and 20 seconds with a cable modem (4Mb/sec)(12). @Home, the leading developer service of Cable modems, will use a 10Mb/sec connection. The 4Mb figure is the lowest speed. People are talking about speeds of 27-40Mb already.
Prototype @Home Web page
The biggest effort to promote this technology is coming from Tele-Communications Inc. (TCI), the nations largest cable TV operator. It is creating @Home, jointly developed with the Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers venture capital firm. A web site is accessible now, but it's not that interesting...yet. It is preparing to have video hosts that guide you through the site, as well as other high-bandwidth features including real time delivery and updating of content like the weather, news and other broadcasts. The @Home people have strategic relationships with both Netscape and Macromedia, which will provide a specialized browser and multimedia content.
According to information at the @Home site, the charges will be $30 to $50 per month for basic services.
TCI is not the only player in this game. Jones Intercable, a company based in an
Englewood, Colorado, is deploying Cable modem service on a test basis in Alexandria Virginia. According to a Washington Post article of February 19, 1996, Jones is providing the 10Mbit service for about $30 a month. You also have to use and subscribe to Jones for your regular cable television service. According to one user of the service, "I heard that someone was moving to Alexandria just to get this service...He was a free-lance writer and really uses the Internet so he's been asking if there are any free apartments in my building."
Stay tuned for this one.
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No doubt, by the time you read this, the Web technologies will have changed, further dramatically. New products are introduced daily. Where all the frenzy will lead is anyone's guess; only a fool would pretend to know.
A few aspects, however, are becoming clear. The Web has changed everything. Commerce, publishing, entertainment, academic research, broadcasting, politics, and someday soon, governments, are all affected by this monumental change.
The specific browser features of the day or the gadget of the hour are unimportant. The key is the ubiquitous communication of information among a wide and diverse set of people. Today ideas are expressed and broadcast instantly to millions of people. Web publishing is leading us toward an ultimate democracy in which everyonegood, bad, and uglyhas a voice. Although it will present many challenges, increased dialogue and access to information will be good for all.
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