Dimensions
162 x 241 x 37mm
'Virtual Reality' - the technology which appears to display information all around the viewer so that he or she seems to be walking through it or interacting with it - has finally broken out of the laboratory and into the consumer marketplace. The Visionary Position provides a unique glimpse into the emerging virtual world industry taking shape largely in and around Seattle. The centre of this industry is the University of Washington's Human Interface Technology (HIT) laboratory run by the charismatic Dr Thomas Furness, who worked for the US Department of Defense in the 60s before he went on to earn his PhD in Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Southampton. His struggle to maintain balance between the demands of investors and the ambition of scientists provides a fascinating insight into the creative process. This is a portrait not only of a new technology but also of entrepreneurial skills, greed and ambition in modern business, and of the inexorable movement of technical innovation from the fringes to the mainstream of the mass market.
