Taken from the public information file LONG_RANGE_PLAN.DOC on the University of Pittsburgh's VAX Cluster system. This document details PITT's long range plan in regards to computing at the University of Pittsburgh. Of special note are the references to Virtual Reality, as it could be used within the Academic environment. Some selected extracts include: >in a longer view than five years, but well within existing technology, >digitized sound together with the availability of digital audio tape decks >should make possible compendiums of sound archives of everything from tribal >music to bird calls to sound effects to language dialects to speech therapy >analysis. >With the adoption of digital high-resolution television standards within >the next few years, film and video clips and stills should eventually become >available in digital form. This will open extraordinary opportunities in >education. Imagine a lecture that intersperses brief clips from Nova or >Infinite Voyage television archives to help illustrate difficult concepts in >a science class, or a lecture on Shakespeare that compares elements of >style with clips from several of his plays. Or the introduction of >"virtual realities" into the classroom, in which field trips may be taken >that are either impractical or impossible in ordinary reality. >These are only a very few of the possibilities. We predict that the next >ten years will see a genuine revolution in the way information is >accessed in our society due to the accessibility of networked distributed >databases. >Fortunately, the University of Pittsburgh is in an advantageous position >to capitalize on these developments as they occur. The presence of >high-speed fiber-optic backbone network trunk lines, coupled with >ethernet port capabilities in most campus buildings, provides us with the >minimum essential connectivity needed to take advantage of the developing >networking capabilities. . . . On the subject of whether or not a faculty member's personal computer would be the responsibilty of the faculty or department: >Another example: A physics lab might be constructed around a "virtual >reality" in which all frictional forces are absent and the gravity field >may be changed at will. While the individual student machines may reside >in a physics laboratory room, the actual computing power may well reside >elsewhere (or even in several places) on the network. Or the physics lab >may be carried out on any suitable machine connected to the network, >either in a public computing lab or even in a student's dorm room! How >much of the physics lab is "central", and how much is the responsibility >of the "end-user"? And from the document's glossary: >Virtual reality - The digital construction and display of an artificial >environment, such as in a flight simulator.