Virtual reality

1. Virtual reality is still seen as a toy by most people. Can you think of any potential applications of VR other than in computer games? Make a list.

2. Read the text note down any applications that are not in your list.

Make a wish and you can go anywhere. That is the reality for a new computer invention, Chris Partridge says.

Computers are about to take people to places they have never been able to visit before, including the surface of other planets. Such a trip will be an illusion, but one that comes closer to real life than anything on stage or screen. Artificial worlds are being built up in a computer memory so that people can walk through at will. look around, and even touch objects.

The system is called virtual reality, so called from the mathematical concept of an image that has the virtues of a real object without the substance.

Virtual reality systems are being developed throughout the world for a range of uses including enabling people to walk “inside” nuclear power stations, while controlling a robot that actually goes into an area in which no human could live, and con­ducting architects through a computer-generated building before it is constructed. British scientists have a world lead in virtual reality, despite the fortunes being poured into research by Japanese and Amer­ican companies, which see it as a technology for the next century.

In Britain, Robert Stone, of the National Advanced Robotics Research Centre at Manchester University, is developing sys­tems that could put men on Mars without shooting them into space and could plunge divers under the North Sea without tak­ing them out of the office. The problem with guiding a robot by looking at a picture from a video camera mounted on it and twiddling the controls is that it is not a natural system, Mr Stone says. The operator spends all his time controlling the robot and none solving the problem. The time lag between seeing the image and sending a corrective control signal is another difficulty.

A virtual reality system con­sists of a helmet with a colour display in front of each eye, and wide-angle lenses to cover the entire field of view and give a stereoscopic effect. The helmet contains sensors, rather like electronic compasses, to record where it is pointing. A computer calculates what the wearer should be seeing in that direc­tion and displays it on the screen. In more advanced systems, the operator wears an electronic glove that detects exactly what the fingers are doing and trans­mits the information to the com­puter. If the user tries to pick up something, the computer will make the object to follow the hand to give the illusion of carrying it.

Pads in the latest type of gloves press into the insides of the fingers and palm when an object is encountered, to create the il­lusion of feeling it. Complete 'exoskeletons' covering the user and allowing the computer to simulate almost anything poss­ible in real life are still in the laboratory.

A fire-fighter in a nuclear power plant, for example, would move through a computer model wearing an exoskeleton, while a robot would move through the real thing. The computer pro­gram will be derived from the data used to design the plant in the first place.

Mr Stone has developed a data glove with air pockets that are inflated to give a sensation of touch in collaboration with Air-muscle, the supplier of the pneu­matic systems that made the Spitting Image puppets⁸ really spit.

The biggest initial market is likely to be for a new generation of video games. W Industries, of Leicester, recently launched a virtual reality system for video arcades. The system, called Virtuality, consists of a cockpit in which a player sits, wearing the helmet, at a set of controls that can mimic a bobsleigh, a space-ship, or whatever the imagination of the games programmer can devise.

The helmet has a pair of liquid-crystal displays with wide-angle lenses giving a stereoscopic im­age, and a set of magnetic sen­sors to tell the computer what the helmet is looking at as it moves.

The first game is a fighter simulation. Another is based on a sequence in the film. Return of the Jedi, in which flying motor­cycles race through a forest. The computer can link and control several helmets at once for a group game.

3. Answer the following questions about the text:

1. Where does the term “virtual reality" come from?

2. Which country leads the field in VR research?

3. Why are robots controlled via mounted video cameras less effective than the VR solution?

4. How does Robert Stone's system allow the user to “feel” objects?

5. What application of VR is expected to be the commonest to start with?

4. Look back in the text and find words or phrases meaning:

1. whenever and however they like

2. qualities

3. large amounts of money

4. immerse

5. twisting

6. small pockets filled with air

7. filled with air

8. released on to the market

9. imitate

10. war plane

5. Choose the appropriate form of the word to fit the meaning of the sentence. Make sure you understand the different forms of the word and their meanings. Use your dictionary to find this information.

   1. correct, correctly, correction, corrective, correctness

      1. If an error occurs, it is important to take _______ action immediately.

      2. The 'spell check' facility checks the _______ of your spelling.

      3. The data was entered _______, so the result must be accurate.

2. detect, detection, detectable, detective

   1. There were _______ traces of radiation in the water sample.

   2. The analyst could not _______ any errors in the system.

   3. She tried to escape _______ by disguising herself.

3. sense, sensor, sensation, sensitive

   1. An infra-red _______ detects the presence of intruders in the building.

   2. The probe is _______ to heat and light.

   3. The new system caused a _______ when it was launched last month.

6. These two paragraphs from the article contain similar information. Write one paragraph combining the information from them to give a short but complete description of the VR visual system.

A virtual reality system consists of a helmet with a colour display in front of each eye, and wide-angle lenses to cover the entire field of view and give a stereoscopic effect. The helmet contains sensors, rather like electronic compasses, to record where it is pointing. A computer calculates what the wearer should be seeing in that direction and displays it on the screen.

The helmet has a pair of liquid-crystal displays with wide-angle lenses giving a stereoscopic image, and a set of magnetic sensors to tell the computer what the helmet is looking at as it moves.

7. We asked a number of people to answer the following question:

Do you think the use of virtual reality in computer war games is going to affect young people's attitude to violence?

Here are some responses. Read them and decide which point of view (if any) most closely matches yours. Discuss your opinions.

Rita Harper

“Yes. I do. I think anything which portrays violence as fun is going to alter young people's perception of violence in a very dangerous way. Violent crime amongst young people is increasing. I think manufacturers of computer war games must take some of the responsibility.”

Susan Dark

“No. Not really. Kids ― particularly boys ― have been playing with toy guns ever since guns were invented. Surely playing with toy guns in the real world is more dangerous than playing with imaginary guns in an imaginary world.”

Mark Watts

“It's difficult to say. Some of my friends get very aggressive when they play computer war games. But I don't really know if it makes them more violent when they're doing other things. I play a VR jet fighter game. and I don't think it has made me more violent.”

8. Write a paragraph giving your answer to the question asked in Task 7.

Oxford English for Computing

Text 3

COMPUTER GAMES

1. Are these games and machines made by:

Sony? Sega? Sony and Sega? Nintendo? Microsoft? Write the letters A.-E. next to the correct title:

Dreamcast PlayStation Xbox Gameboy Pokemon Crash Bandicoot Sonic the Hedgehog 8. Going Quackers

Sega, one of the world's biggest computer game companies, has decided to stop making their Dreamcast game console. “We've lost the fight with Sony PlayStation 2”, Charles Bellfield, Sega's vice-president, says sadly. “Sony beat us because they already had more customers.”

When Sony's PlayStation 2 came to the shops in October 2000, 30 million people in the USA already had PlayStation 1. Games like Crash Bandicoot, Tomb Raider and Gran Turismo were world-famous. Sega produced Dreamcast one year earlier, but sold only 6.5 million machines around the world ( 3 million in the USA).

Most people think that fewer people bought the Dreamcast because PlayStation 2 is a better machine. For Example, there are differences on the two machines in the adventure game Goin' Quackers. On PlayStation 2 the graphics are clear and the animation looks natural. On the Dreamcast, the game is slower, the animation isn't as smooth and the graphics look less natural. And there are strange lights around Donald Duck’s eyes. People like playing games where the animation is good, so people waited for the PlayStation 2. And you can play DVDs on the PlayStation, too.

But Sony had problems, too. When PlayStation 2 first came out, Sony did not produce enough consoles. Many people were angry when they couldn't find PlayStation 2 in the shops before Christmas. Now the future looks good for Sony. They are preparing 270 new games for PlayStation 2. Their next 3 big new games are The Bouncer ― a fighting game, Gran Turismo 3 ― a driving game, and Onimusha: Warlords ― an adventure game.

Sony is on top at the moment, but they have to be careful. Other computer game companies want to take their place. Nintendo have produced some of the world's best-known games - Pokemon, Mario and Banjo Kazooey. Their hand-held console, Gameboy, has been a best-seller for ten years. They have also spent millions of dollars on new ideas like Gameboy Advance and Gamecube. Maybe they will be the next number one. Then there is Microsoft. They are already a world-famous name. And they are spending millions of dollars on their new Xbox machine. But nobody knows knows yet what games will be on it.

And what about Sega? They will continue to make games and sell them to other companies. They have already agreed to sell Virtual Fighter 4 and three other games to Sony. Sega's most famous game, Sonic the Hedgehog, will go to Nintendo. Things change very quickly in the video game business. Before long maybe Sega will be back with a new idea that beats them all!

Penguindossiers com.

2. True or False?

1. Dreamcast was in the shops before PlayStation 2.

2. 30 million people have bought PlayStation 2.

3. Dreamcast was not a success for three main reasons.

4. Sony made a mistake before Christmas 2 000.

5. You can play Banjo Kazooey on PlayStation 2.

6. Sega haven’t made any successful games.

7. The Gameboy console is smaller than PlayStation.

3. Complete these sentences using five of the following adjectives. Write the words in the spaces. You will have to change some of the words to make them grammatically correct. Two sentences have more than one possible answer.

angry  fast  new  smooth  famous  natural  popular  unusual

1. Goin’ Quackers is more … on PlayStation2 than on Dreamcast.

2. Donald Duck’s eyes look … on Dreamcast’s Going Quackers.

3. Sonic the Hedgehog is Sega’s most … game.

4. Nintendo have a lot of … ideas for the future.

5. Sony are the most … videogame company in the world.

4. You have bought Going’ Quackers for your Dreamcast Console. Your friend has the same game on PlayStation 2. you think that your friend’s game plays better than yours. Write a letter to Sega. Tell them why you are unhappy with your console. Ask your money back.

Text 4

MUSIC FOR AN ELECTRONIC GENERATION

1. Read the text and then try to answer the questions below.

MP3 technology has revolutionized the music industry. It’s a standard format that compresses audio files enabling you to transmit them over the Net much more easily. This also makes them easier to download, attach to an email or store on disk. It means you can listen to music at high-quality sound for little or no cost.

A couple of ways in which you might use MP3 files are:

• to expand and play MP3 music files. To do this you need an MP3 player, which you can download from the Internet. Two popular choices are Winamp (from Nullsoft) and RealJukebox (from RealNetworks). They support streaming MP3 music, which lets you play a file while it’s downloading ;

• to create your own MP3 files from your CDs. You can do this using a CD ripper, a program that extracts music tracks and saves them on disk. Then using an encoder they’re converted into the MP3 format. A program like MusicMatch has all that you need to turn CD tracks straight into MP3 song files.

To find MP3 music titles on the Web you need an MP3 search engine, or you can visit music portal sites like MP3.com and Emusic.com.

There are, of course, minimum specifications for this software. You’ll need at least a Pentium or PowerPC, 64 MB of RAM, a 10-bit sound card, and stereo speakers. A portable MP3 player lets you listen to MP3 files anywhere. For Example, Diamond’s Rio portable player allows you to transfer MP3 music from your PC to its built-in RAM through your PC’s parallel port. It looks like a little personal stereo and runs on batteries. There are also MP3 portable players for the car.

There is, however, a growing problem with MP3 music files as a lot of them are pirated and offered free on illegal websites. Big record companies stand to lose millions of dollars as music is transmitted free of charge provoking a fierce reaction from them. Now, the Recording Industry Association of America has decided to create a new compression standard called SDMI (Secure Digital Music Initiative) to protect digital music from piracy.

2. How much did you understand? Now try these questions.

1. What is MP3?

2. Why is MP3 technology so popular?

3. What software do you need to expand and play MP3 music files?

4. What is streaming audio?

5. How can you make your own MP3s?

6. Why are music companies so angry about the MP3 format?

7. What is the objective of the Secure Digital Music Initiative?

3. Match each word on the left (1-8) with its partner on the right (A-H) to make a common technical term.

1.	compression	A	speaker
2.	sound	B	company
3.	web	C	engine
4.	record	D	attachment
5.	search	E	site
6.	stereo	F	protection
7.	e-mail	G	format
8.	copyright	H	card

4. Which verbs on the first line are frequently found with nouns on the second line?

VERBS: to download, to play, to install, to compose, to browse, to process.

NOUNS: CDs ,the Web, files, software, data, music.

Infotech: English For Computer Users. Cambridge University Press