Page 16 - Intelligent Communication Systems

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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

In 1992 the International Conference on Global Survival was held in Stockholm,
sponsored by the Institute for Future Studies of Sweden. The conference objective
was to discuss global survival in the next millennium from the technical and social
points of view. I was invited as a guest speaker to talk about information technol-
ogy (IT) and its future prospects. I decided to talk about one of the potential fields
of IT, a new concept named Telesensation.
I spoke about telesensation, a new concept that combines virtual reality (VR)
with telecommunications, endowing telecommunications with realistic sensations.
I coined the term to mean the integration of telecommunication and VR. Telesensa-
tion involves taking an image (for example, of a scene from a natural environment
or a museum exhibit) gathered by camera from a remote place and transmitting that
image over a communication network to viewers. Displaying the image on the
screen stereoscopically by using VR technology, viewers can enter and walk
through the virtual world. They can even touch the leaves on a tree or the wall of
a museum. They can behave as if actually present in that place. Telesensation can
break the bonds of time and space and contribute to reducing traffic on the road
and is therefore environmentally friendly. The audience, clearly interested in the
concept, posed many questions after my speech: When will it be put into practical
use? What kinds of applications are developed based on the concept?

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