Real-time graphics and virtual reality software house Dimension International Ltd, Aldermaston, Berkshire, says that as part of a UKP100,000 project, funded by the UK Department of Employment and a number of commercial partners, it is supplying a complete desktop virtual reality system to West Drayton School in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, the first site for a schools-based virtual reality project in Europe: Dimension’s virtual reality software, which will be used to in projects to create an interative educational Dangerous Workplace, an Intelligent City and Outdoor Gallery, runs on an 80486 AT-alike with a graphics card from Thame-based Spea Graphics Ltd; the interactive systems do not use immersion techniques; interaction is on a three-dimensional visual basis, using a Spaceball joystick; a spokeswoman for Dimension said that headsets are not all they’re made up to be apparently they cause simulator sickness if worn for longer than 30 minutes; Dimension’s virtual reality products, launched in October and costing around UKP18,000 just for the software, are used in warehouse design, and British Telecommunications Plc is said have a system for an secret networking application.
