I played the Eye Toy back in the early 90's

[Queen Of The Felines]

Well, not the exact Eye Toy thing we know now, but it's ancestor.

Back in the early '90s there was a travelling museum exhibit based on the Star Trek: The Next Generation television show. (I think it was called "The Science of Star Trek" or something similar.) Anyway, this exhibit explained the different technolgies of the Star Trek universe and tied it all into today's (well, early '90s) techology. For example, there was a kiosk explaining how a planet scanner would work and another showing how a medical tricorder would be a reality soon, stuff like that.

The one part of the exhibit that interested me the most was about the Holodeck. Two big spotlights were placed about maybe ten feet apart from each other and stood in front of a big monitor. A blue screen hung on the wall behind it and a mat was placed on the floor. You stood on the mat and watched the monitor. On the monitor you saw yourself superimposed on a funky background (I remember a jungle and a Mars-like desert planet). Objects came flying at you on the screen and you had to use your body to "deflect" them. I thought it was really cool at the time, although I wasn't quite sure how the whole thing tied into the Holodeck. :o (The worst part was that a local tv news crew was there for a feature and ended up taping me playing the damn game...I embarrassed myself in front of all of Chicago. :roll: )

Anybody else remember this exhibit?

Kristine

[Daria]

No... but they had something similar at Disney World around the same time. The eye toy's concept certainly isn't anything "new" but it's first time you can own something like it at home. Now the question is why would you want to...?
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[SoulBlazer]

YES! I DO recall that show! I saw it at the Museum of Science in Boston with a friend of mine, and it was really fun. I recall they had a show for the Planatanium also, with LeVar Burton lending his voice for it.

[gamergary]

They had something similar to that in liberty science center last time I was there and when I was there like 5 years ago.

[ManekiNeko]

Yeah, this technology has been around in one form or another for over a decade now. On the television show Nick Arcade, the contestants had to battle for the grand prize inside of a video game... it was a stage set with video game graphics draped over it. The players' actions were digitized, and any contact with onscreen objects would result in either a point increase or the loss of life, depending on what they touched.

One amusing thing about the virtual video game in the last round of Nick Arcade was that it looked embarassingly easy to the viewer. Of course, the contestants, who had to bumble around a barren set avoiding objects flying at them on a distant monitor, would probably beg to differ.

JR