> The usefulness of most interfaces is that they abstract something real.
When I think someone is overenthusiastic about virtual reality applications (especially stuff involving "collaboration") I like to contrast it with an insanely-successful tool with broad adoption: E-mail.
Who wants to take their message, drop it into a virtual envelope, affix a virtually-licked stamp and virtually-walk to the local virtual-post-office?
Heck no, we just click the big "Send" button! We didn't model the cruft in 3D, we removed it, because it wasn't truly necessary to the job.
When I think someone is overenthusiastic about virtual reality applications (especially stuff involving "collaboration") I like to contrast it with an insanely-successful tool with broad adoption: E-mail.
Who wants to take their message, drop it into a virtual envelope, affix a virtually-licked stamp and virtually-walk to the local virtual-post-office?
Heck no, we just click the big "Send" button! We didn't model the cruft in 3D, we removed it, because it wasn't truly necessary to the job.