MOTIVATION BEHIND THE IDEA

SALIENT FEATURES

REHABILITATION TOOL

Tracking the Net has grown out a mixture of frustrations and desires of Franz Fischnaller [FF], the author. Two of these "sentiment-factors" were fundamental for crystallizing the idea. First, the frustration of experimenting with virtual platforms that permitted only a single visitor to interact, while the others observed and or waited. In reaction to this the first desire was to design a multi-user platform, which permits diverse visitors to interact in real time and second, the ambiguity of Virtual Reality. According to [FF], virtual reality carries, inherently in it, a duality of nature. On the one hand it is extremely active and on the other, quite a passive technology. Is active because it creates a dynamic Interaction with the user… the active aspect relates to the mental actions. It is passive because the body is not always involved in the action. The fact that you push a button and fly… is stupendous, but in the long term it is assumed that it can create a very intense frustration as well as an unreal sensation, and up to a certain point, a dichotomy between: physical reality and emotive reality. Under certain conditions the passivity of the new media can create quite contradictory results that are not always suitable for the creativity and vitality of its users.

The second desire consisted in coming-up up with a solution of an almost invisible, if not invisible interface since the objective was to avoid that the visitor had to "wear" and or use any physical devices… any electronic "skin" in any of his vital parts. The objective was to discard the use of devices such as wand and or joystick. The ideal goal was to join physical strength and equilibrium with intuition, therefore the visitor did not only have to press a button to navigate, fly and interact, but that he had to "work" for it, in a physical way as well. The concept was that the visitor used his own body, hands, feet, limbs, motor-force and intuition for accessing and manipulating the virtual world.
When the solution of using the body as a joystick came up, it seemed very appealing. It was a stimulating starting point. Immediately after, they moved on analyzing two other major concerns to make a structure, which can be flexible and easily adaptable. A structure that could be modified both electronically and from a mechanical standpoint and also the content could be specifically, developed and produced. In synthesis…create a flexible structure naturally, without loosing sight of the fact that the structure, including hard and software were not taken to heights of unaffordable costs. Interactive platforms are usually quite expensive. They have become a sort of exclusive technology afforded by developed countries, rich communities and solid financial institutions. Therefore, it became necessary that Tracking the Net is kept within affordable costs. The system can also be used as a multiple degree of freedom joystick to drive standard PC games and/or applications in diverse fields such as artistic, cultural, architectonic, design, music and very adapted for physical rehabilitation and research.