Texas Instruments Inc, Simgraphics Inc, and Abrams Gentille Entertainment Inc are reported to be working on a consumer virtual reality system, expected to sell for just $300, including goggles and a glove input device. The project is still pretty much under wraps, but Microbytes has been at the receiving end of the odd clue or two – for example, the glove, called the Power Glove, is a cheaper and somewhat inferior version of VPL Research Inc’s Data Glove, which sells for an extortionate $9,000. Abrams, active in trying to move virtual reality from the laboratory to the entertainment world, has apparently entered into an agreement with VPL and toymaker Mattel Inc to develop and market the Power Glove as an under-$100 peripheral for the Nintendo Home Entertainment System. A virtual reality system for the home would most likely comprise a game system or home computer accompanied by goggles and a glove input device. Texas Instruments, which sees a big-money opportunity in this direction for its signal processing and graphics chips, has decided to throw in with this consumer virtual reality project. Virtual reality relies heavily on specialised processing power. The two best-known virtual reality arcade entertainment systems to date – BattleTech from Virtual Worlds Inc in the US and the Virtuality Stations from Leicester-based W Industries Ltd (CI No 1,639) – are both based on the Commodore International Ltd Amiga personal computer, spiced up with additional processing power. The Virtuality headset, for example, has a separate Texas Instruments graphics processor for each of the players’ eyes. The factors that are likely to hinder the take-off of virtual reality in the home, however, are obviously price, but also user safety – a virtual reality system with goggles essentially leaves the user wandering around blind to the real world and attached to the controller by a cable. Microbytes notes that it would be easy for a disoriented user to trip over the furniture, or step on pets or small children.
