MUNICH (dpa) – Why do we have two eyes? The answer is simple: Our brain overlays the image from each eye to provide three-dimensional awareness of our surroundings.
This refinement made it easier for our ancestors to gauge distances while on the hunt; it’s also pretty difficult to imagine parallel parking in our day and age without depth perception. Yet on the computer and the Internet, Web surfers have to be content with two-dimensional depictions.Even for those games and Internet sites which purport to transmit three-dimensionality, the results are ultimately limited by the flatness of the computer screen. But things are starting to change, as shown by the Cyberhelmet VFX3D from American manufacturer Interactive Imaging Systems (IIS).This cyber helmet uses 360,000 image points, or pixels, to simulate three-dimensional perception and further enhances the illusion with earphones.“The VFX3D’s predecessor sold well,” reports Gerhard Seckler, a virtual-reality expert at CPVision, which distributes the cyberhelmets in Europe. Seckler expects a healthy market for such 3D toys, even if the helmet won’t fit into every gamer’s budget. “It costs under 2,000 dollars,” Seckler notes.A modern, up-to-date Windows system with direct 3D acceleration is what computer users need to put the VFX3D into action. CPVision itself offers an optimised system for the “man-machine interface.” Cybercafes, “virtual-reality explorers,” and “hi-tech gamers” can plunge into a virtual world with the Fujitsu/Siemens Celsius 420 for around 5,000 dollars.Gaming aside, the helmets do have some serious applications. “In addition to entertainment, cyber helmets are helpful for computer- aided design, for industry simulations, and for education in the medical fields,” says Stephen Glaser, Vice-President for Marketing and Sales at ISS in Rochester, New York.“Our helmet is also being implemented as a therapy to combat fear of flying,” Glaser notes. The advantage of this approach is in the system’s controllability: aeroplane take-offs and landings can be repeated as often as desired, with simulated turbulence added at the click of a button.Therapy aided by virtual reality is just as effective as current methods, according to a study by psychologists Samantha Smith of Walter Reed Army Medical Centre in Washington, D.C. and Barbara Rothbaum of the Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, Georgia.The cyber helmet is also being used in a new programme in Germany dubbed “Children View It Differently,” in which participants are dropped back into a simulated state of childhood.“Children are smaller and possess a field of vision approximately 30 per cent smaller than adults,” says Peter Paul Wagner, a specialist at the Transportation Ministry in Duesseldorf, Germany.Wagner, who is heading the programme, feels the experience can increase the empathy of adults toward children. “People are in any case enthusiastic,” Wagner says. “They even praise us for putting their tax dollars to good use.
