INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

Aesthetic Solutions, Inc.

Virtual Reality Authoring Application for End Users

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In 1993, virtual reality (VR) technology required sophisticated programming skills and powerful hardware resources that few personal computer (PC) users possessed. Aesthetic Solutions, a start-up company, aimed to develop VR authoring tools that included a collection of templates for an average PC user. Simply stated, Aesthetic Solutions wished to put low-cost, easy-to-use VR programming power into the hands of end users.

All VR technology at that time was geared towards bigger and more powerful computer workstations rather than PCs. The Aesthetic team would have to make their proposed VR tools work smoothly and efficiently with reasonable graphic quality on a low-end computer and be able to import and export components from a variety of programming languages. An effective technical solution to these issues would represent a significant advancement in the state of the technology at the time. Aesthetic’s project goals faced the challenges of a long development period and the lack of long-term funding resources for development. Not having any success with venture capitalists, Aesthetic Solutions applied for Advanced Technology Program (ATP) funding under the “Component-Based Software" focused program. In 1994, ATP awarded the company cost-shared funds for a three-year project that began in January 1995.

By the time the project ended in 1998, the research team had achieved significant technical success. Aesthetic Solutions developed VR authoring tools and simulation technology that could be used by the non-programmer, and they had also received a U.S. patent. The team built three prototype VR authoring applications; one was later developed for a commercial launch. However, without adequate business development, Aesthetic Solutions was unable to transform their technological success in the ATP-funded project into a marketable product.

The most positive result of the project was the company’s development of World Visions technology for easy VR authoring. Truly ahead of its time, this major technological breakthrough in the VR software field is still innovative by 2006 standards. In 2006, former members of the Aesthetic development team were exploring ways to apply VR authoring to a martial arts training program.

COMPOSITE PERFORMANCE SCORE
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Research and data for Status Report 94-06-0007 were collected during December 2005 – February 2006.

VR Software Requires High Skill Levels and Sophisticated Equipment To develop a virtual reality (VR) program in the mid-1990s, a software programmer constructed complex computer programs and built simulations of events from real-life scenes. If an average computer user with no programming skills wanted to create a VR simulation,

he or she would start with files of three-dimensional (3-D) objects for components, build a world view from these files, and, finally, master algorithms to manipulate the behavior of components in certain situations. This could not be done on the ordinary personal computers (PCs) that were available at the time. Instead, these VR simulations could only be developed on more powerful workstations with the capability to render 3-D graphics.

Another complex factor of the existing VR programs was the incompatibility of the various computer programming languages. If a programmer worked in the C language, but the VR authoring tools were based on another programming language like Java, the programmer would not be able to understand the tools. It would be like using his or her knowledge of Spanish to read a text written in German. Users, therefore, needed a PC-based tool that would have the convenience of templates and clip art and be compatible with most programming languages. The application potential for such an easy-to-use technology was tremendous. For instance, teachers could use VR simulations for their lesson plans; small companies could produce simulated training programs at low cost; financial companies could easily assemble visualization models for data-input analysis; and doctors could learn to use new medical instruments from simulated instructions. Aesthetic Solutions Faces Significant Technical Challenges Although the VR industry was experiencing one of the most impressive growth rates in the software sector in 1994, there was not much funding for long and ambitious research projects. Aesthetic Solutions, a start-up company in California, had a plan to develop a component-based VR authoring tool for non-programmers. When they failed to secure venture capital, the company decided to apply to ATP under the 1994 “Component-Based Software" focused program. This program was promoting the development of component-based software tools technology. In 1993, the commercial VR market generated annual sales of more than $115 million, and sales were projected to increase significantly in the next four years. The Department of Defense alone projected that it would spend $3 billion on VR projects. Therefore, the market potential for an easy-to-use VR authoring tool, as proposed by Aesthetic Solutions, was tremendous. But this opportunity could only be realized if the research team could achieve the following significant technical innovations: the creation of graphic models, VR object databases, and fast processors, which would be used to build development tools and VR applications. Additional challenges to their project plan were the long development time required to achieve these innovations and the lack of long-term funding resources.

Research Plan Targets Non-Programmers Every VR simulation is made up of 3-D models that resemble figures and objects from the scene that is being recreated. For example, to simulate an automotive assembly plant, the user needs 3-D models of a semi-built car, one or two technicians, and an assembly setting with tools, equipment, and other accessories. Aesthetic Solutions called these “components” in a VR simulation; the assembly plant scene would be called the “world”; the tools and accessories in that world were the “objects”; and the ways the technicians moved in this world were their “behaviors.” In Aesthetic’s terminology, objects that were attributed a behavior were considered components. Accurate movement of the graphical representation of these objects through the behavior required complex mathematical calculations. Extensive research was required to generate the algorithms that enabled computers to execute these calculations in real time. For example, if a technician in that VR simulation reached out to grab a screwdriver, a computer programmer would have written a special purpose program, based on these algorithms, to attribute this behavior to the technician model and to set a cause-and-effect pattern to trigger the behavior. Users needed a PC-based VR tool that would have the convenience of templates and clip art and be compatible with most programming languages. Aesthetic Solutions received an ATP award in 1994 for a three-year research project. The company wanted to create a VR software tool that made the calculations, worked out the algorithms, and created a library of usable components, like clip art. Inserting these components into a pre-built template or “world” would be like creating a greeting card or picture collage from available templates and clip arts. One had to select the most appropriate template and pictures to customize the greeting card, but would not need graphic design skills to create it from scratch. Similarly, end users could use Aesthetic’s proposed templates to build the VR simulation without learning a specific programming language.

The three-year project began in January 1995. Based on their proposed component approach, Aesthetic divided the development of a virtual world into three distinct stages: · Develop components or reusable objects in template form · Develop worlds as complete models of a virtual reality · Develop views as scenes of a virtual world Company Achieves All Technical Goals By September 1995, Aesthetic Solutions had built a basic database and architecture for storing and rendering components, a server to record messages from triggers (like a click of a mouse) for action by components, and the capability to create a component within a component (like a missile component inside a tank component). They also developed a first-generation database browser and preliminary tools to build objects and worlds. By December 1995, they had refined the world builder tool and had built a library of reusable components. They collaborated with Apple Computer to develop a plug-in based on Apple’s Quickdraw 3-D rendering technology. In 1996, the Aesthetic team also initiated efforts to import some of the technology into the Windows NT environment. The State of California provided a grant of $123,000 to this project through their Strategic Technology Office. Aesthetic wanted to create a VR software tool that made the calculations, worked out the algorithms, and created a library of usable components, like clip art. In 1996, the Aesthetic Solutions team developed a view builder tool that could build several views of a virtual reality scene from the objects selected for display on the user’s computer. These objects were imported from the component library, and not individually created by the user each time. This process of importing objects was unique and efficient, improving software run-time performance by 25 percent. (The run-time performance measures the time it takes for software to carry out a task.) Aesthetic’s

development of VR technology in 1996 was almost simultaneous with the development of the Virtual Reality Markup Language (VRML). The growing popularity of VRML for processing 3-D information and the widespread addition of a 3-D graphics card in PCs prompted Aesthetic to make their proprietary technology compatible with VRML. Because Windows NT, and later Windows 95, had VRML capability, Aesthetic recognized that their target PC user would be looking for VRML-compatible products. In 1997, Aesthetic Solutions completely upgraded the world builder tool so that a view could interface with any world and could generate a series of objects from a single component. They decided to migrate their technology from the Macintosh platform to Windows NT and 95, because they wanted to target the Windows user. The team built an inheritance capability for components so that new components could be created from existing ones by deriving all existing geometry, behavior, structure, and attributes. They also built a VR infrastructure so that after downloading a world from a database, a validating mechanism would make sure that this world was populated with appropriate components. For example, a baseball field world would only be populated with a baseball player component. The first beta version of Aesthetic’s world builder tool was completed in June 1997 and was shipped to Microsoft for inclusion in their VRML presentation at a show sponsored by the Association for Computing Machinery's Special Interest Group on Graphics and Interactive Techniques (SIGGRAPH).^1 The first beta version of component builder was completed six months later. This tool allowed users to create and edit components in a graphical drag-and-drop environment on PCs. Aesthetic Solutions was granted a U.S. patent for this technology. At the end of the ATP-funded project in January 1998, Aesthetic Solutions had accomplished all their technical goals. Not only did ATP funding support technology development, it helped build the company’s credibility in the technical community. According to a company representative, ATP’s support gave them a 10-year head start in establishing themselves in the software industry. By the completion of this project, Aesthetic had proved that it could take a large 3-D model and

¹ SIGGRAPH '97, Proceedings of the 24th Annual Conference on Computer Graphics, Los Angeles, CA, August 3-8, 1997
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render it on a regular computer without any programming resources. Using the building block concept, all stages of development were built into a reusable VR template that could be used by any computer user to construct virtual worlds and custom interfaces on a standard PC. This concept of a modular template of VR components with graphical representation, behavior models, and pre-set internal rules was the unique feature of the technology developed by Aesthetic Solutions with ATP funding. Research Team Develops Three Prototypes After the project concluded, Aesthetic Solutions continued to develop prototypes of the following three separate products based on the ATP-funded project, which they later combined into a VR authoring toolkit: · World Visions, an assembly tool that consisted of a point-and-click library of reusable 3-D components · Component Visions, a development tool to build components · User Visions, a tool to develop 3-D libraries Aesthetic’s VR authoring toolkit could be used on a PC that had a minimum of 16MB of random access memory (RAM) and 100 MHz processor and could be available to an end user at a very reasonable price. This was a significant improvement over the approximately $30,000 it cost in software and hardware to achieve a similar VR authoring capability in 1993. Moreover, the components in the VR templates library could be edited, re-used, and rendered quickly with an average PC processor and could be observed on the PC monitor as the view was being constructed by the software. The components were not specific to any programming language. New Technology Is Based on Component Approach The component was the key source of reuse within the VR template built by Aesthetic Solutions. The component would have "traits" about its physical appearance, "behavior" models about actions allowed, and a "world" that it populated. For example, given a single baseball player component with speed and power traits, a user could create many player objects by setting different speed and power attributes for each component. Likewise, individual baseball players could

be assigned varying behaviors. Thus an entire team of nine players, in which no two players looked or behaved exactly the same, could be created using a single baseball player component. The behavior model defined what a component could do within its constraints. For example, a component with no legs could not be assigned the behavior of walking. Aesthetic had proved that it could take a large 3-D model and render it on a regular computer without any programming resources. The world was essentially a context that components inhabited. The world typically contained a selection of passive objects, such as buildings, furniture, and plants, as well as active components with traits and behaviors. The user had a “view,” or a rendering of the world, and a specification of how he or she might interact with the objects in the world. A view could be passive if a user simply wanted to witness the world or interactive if the user wanted to control component behaviors within the world. Users controlled the world using computer devices such as the keyboard and mouse or a head-mounted display. Aesthetic’s World Visions technology was built to be compatible with both VRML 1.0 and 2.0, as well as with content developed by other modeling and programming languages such as C, C++, and Java. Aesthetic wanted to capitalize on the commercial popularity of VRML to advance their product, so they built tools for export and import into VRML rather than choosing a proprietary solution. Conforming to VRML standards proved to be a costly decision: VRML did not catch on commercially, nor did Aesthetic’s product. Aesthetic Launches World Visions In 1999, Aesthetic launched World Visions on the market as a boxed product and explored ways to launch it as a web download bundled with other toolkits. Priced at $90, and with a minimum systems requirement of 16MB of RAM and a 100MHz processor (which was the standard computing capacity of the day), World Visions was targeted for the average end user, as well as experts who wanted a huge repository of VR templates for ready-made

components and behaviors. The company did not have capital resources to develop any other prototype into a marketable product. Aesthetic also explored another route to commercialization, whereby it would bundle its toolkit with a larger suite of software from a bigger company like Apple Computer. Under this type of arrangement, Aesthetic would need to develop a proprietary solution that was compatible with the Macintosh format. After showing initial interest, Apple chose not to invest any development funds to pursue this relationship. Other attempts to collaborate with companies like Motorola and Fluor Daniel also stalled, because Aesthetic would not commit to discontinuing the use of VRML in favor of proprietary formats. Aesthetic Technology Is Far Ahead of the Market One reason that the market did not respond to Aesthetic’s technology was because average PC users were not keen on building VR simulations. They viewed these tasks as advanced computing activities. It would take another two to three years before general interest in VR authoring would catch on. So in 1999 the market was not yet ready for World Visions or similar products. Because the Aesthetic team had developed a product that was far ahead of its time, commercialization ran into problems. Furthermore, because the software programming industry went through difficult economic times beginning in 1999, there was a drastic cut in investment capital for all VR product launches. The company was unable to form any alliances with major software developers to incorporate its technology in a larger graphic or web authoring software suite for specialty users. In 2000, the company dissolved due to lack of revenue. By 2006, with much higher computing resources available at most users’ desktops, and the growing popularity of VR shows in education and training,

the software market has shown renewed interest in a user-friendly VR authoring tool for the non-programmer. As a result, in the same year, members of the Aesthetic development team started to regroup for a pilot project on VR authoring of a martial arts training program, thereby proving that this technology is still valid. Conclusion Aesthetic Solutions started working on virtual reality (VR) technology in 1994 and launched the ATP-funded project the following year. The project ran until 1998 and resulted in a major technological breakthrough in VR authoring, which generated one patent. Although VR technology has recently reached mainstream users because of the widespread availability of low-cost software and more powerful hardware, the technology created by Aesthetic Solutions was a very significant development in the component-based VR software field. In the mid-1990s, Aesthetic’s concept and implementation of the building block technology for VR authoring was a novelty in the industry. But many of their target end users were not yet ready to incorporate VR shows into web sites or presentations. Had the company been able to include their products in larger companies’ software suites or had the market generated enough interest in VR at that time, Aesthetic would have been able to commercialize its ATP-funded technology. Aesthetic’s VR authoring technology remains relevant in 2006. Small and large companies, as well as individuals with no programming skills, can use two- and three-dimensional (3-D) files for simple 3-D rendering in a VR simulation show to great effect and very little cost. Therefore, some members of the Aesthetic team are working on a pilot project to develop new training programs based on this ATP-funded technology.

PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS
Aesthetic Solutions, Inc.

Project Title: Virtual Reality Authoring Application for End Users (Component-based Software Technology for Virtual Reality [VR] Based Applications) Project: To develop a component-based framework for VR authoring for use by average computer users with no programming skills. Duration: 1/15/1995 - 1/14/1998 ATP Number: 94-06-0007 Funding (in thousands): ATP Final Cost              $1,715    75.4% Participant Final Cost      561    24.6% Total                            $2,276 Accomplishments: Aesthetic Solutions accomplished all their technical goals within the timeframe and plan set forth in their proposal to ATP. They achieved the following: · The company developed low-cost VR authoring technology, called World Visions, for the average end user who has no programming skills. · World Visions technology was based on a library of VR templates that were completely compatible and portable with Virtual Reality Mark-Up Language (VRML). · The components in the VR templates library could be edited, re-used, and rendered quickly with an average PC processor. The components could be observed on a PC monitor as the view was being rendered by the software. The components were not specific to any programming language. Aesthetic Solutions was awarded one patent from this ATP-funded technology: · “Intelligent software components for virtual worlds” (No. 6,377,263: filed August 8, 1997, granted April 23, 2002) Commercialization Status: Aesthetic Solutions developed three prototype products and commercialized one (World Visions) in 1999. None are on the market as of 2006. However, several former Aesthetic researchers are developing a training tool based on this ATP-funded technology.

Outlook: Although the company was unincorporated in 2003, its principals are exploring ways to use the ATP-funded technology in potential applications for marketing or licensing to another organization. However, with very little business planning and other personnel-related difficulties, both marketing and licensing seem distant possibilities. So the outlook for the commercial development of Aesthetic’s VR technology is weak. Composite Performance Score: No Stars Number of Employees: 5 employees at project start, 0 as of January 2006. Focused Program: Component-Based Software, 1994 Company: Aesthetic Solutions (no longer in business) Laguna Niguel, CA Contact: Gary Falacara Phone: (949) 697-9271 Presentation: · SIGGRAPH '97, Proceedings of the 24th Annual Conference on Computer Graphics, Los Angeles, CA, August 3-8, 1997.

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Research and data for Status Report 94-06-0007 were collected during December 2005 – February 2006.