Reagan, Bush and Visualizing Star Wars

According to a recent Washington Post article "Even with President Bush's political support, significant leaps in technology are needed to make his vision of missile defense more than what its critics call 'a shield of dreams.'" It is completely baffling why critics don't like the idea of spending upwards of 100 billion (with a B) dollars on a system that won't work, to scare off a few major countries that might launch missiles that have an obvious return addresses. This is an incredible opportunity which we must seize!

By now you are of course wondering what Ronald Reagan has to do with the story. Well he came up with this brilliant idea to address the "evil empire". Furthermore even though he's not dead, Congress and other independent organizations are naming ships, buildings, and airports after the beloved 40th president. Planning for the Reagan Memorial on the Mall is already underway. (Yes it's true memorials are usually planned after death.)

Clearly all of these memorial and honored places have one problem, they are all earthbound. Why limit the Reagan name to earthbound places? Why not save a few bucks on an earthly memorial and rename the forthcoming National Missile Defense system the Ronald Reagan Death Star. Technically of course the particle beam system is known as the Global Intercontinental Pulsed Particle Elimination Reactor or GIPPER. Why bother with an earthbound monument when we can wake up in the morning with the knowledge that the GIPPER is up there circling the earth ready to zap those pesky projectiles.

Now let's get to the all important 3D portion of the project. George W. Bush, not known for being a rocket scientist clearly needs some good visual aids when it comes to the GIPPER in the sky. What a perfect application for 3D! One of the great strengths of 3D is to simplify complex information along with command and control systems. In order to help the President get a better feel for the global systems we can represent the whole global endeavour using a baseball. The sattelites circling the globe can be place into orbits that follow the seams of a typical baseball. Control of the system can be performed in a similar way that pitchers control a baseball. Placing the fingers in certain positions when throwing the ball causes different actions, the sinker, the curveball and the slider for example. When the US is attacked by an enemy our President can simply tell the
Joint Chiefs to execute a slider or curve ball response. User interfaces can't get any better!

Let's get serious folks, the development and deployment of the GIPPER will be a broad based economic boon to those ailing defense contractors. Clearly the GIPPER won't work, at least in our lifetime, and the economic expenditure on failed tests, harebrained schemes, and exaggerated needs is desperately needed in order to prevent the much maligned "peace dividend" from taking hold. Please urge Dubya to get the GIPPER going!

Timothy McVeigh and the Big 3D Opportunity

On May 16, 2001 Timothy McVeigh the convicted bomber of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City will be executed. (FLASH! update: due to the incredibaly competent work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation the execution has been postponed at least one month!...can you stand the excitement.) Is this an opportunity to promote 3D or what! There has been a great deal of public debate on the merits and morality of broadcasting the execution. Attorney General Ashcroft has ruled that family of the victims will be allowed to watch a closed circuit broadcast of the execution. In addition there will be the ten or so actual live (so to speak) witnesses. If we in America insist on continuing the practice of capital punishment why not broadcast it and let everyone watch. Imagine the possibilities for execution parties and other festive activities timed perfectly with the execution. But let's get serious for the potential for commerce. Yes of course I'm talking about product placements and the use of virtual signage.

First let's look at product placement. The Federal government (remember this is a federal execution) can offer sponsorships of the execution. I would expect a profit split with the state of Oklahoma because they are of course providing the skilled labor. Advertising opportunities via product placement are clearly an opportunity not to be missed. We have the execution room, the body and the equipment all ready canvases for artistic advertisers. The sheet placed on top of the body is prime for a logo. The bottles of poison can each offer different pharmaceutical tag lines. Finally the toe tag, after death is pronounced, offers the enthusiastic sponsor an obvious area for the fashion industry.

Product placement can of course only go so far. We live in the age of virtual reality with virtual signs structures and bodies. Let's enhance the execution itself with virtual signage much like Monday Night Football is enhanced with those yellow virtual first down lines that magically appear on the field. At the time of execution what happens for a lethal injection is pretty much invisible. We need to enhance the execution experience for the viewing public, and virtual additions would clearly be the tasteful and profitable way to go. Machines pump the poison into McVeigh's body but we can't really see all that much. With a virtual poison overlay we can literally watch the poison enter body. It could be colored green or some other tastefully deadly color. Next the viewer can get into the whole process by traveling down the path of the poison by following the injection down through a virtual McVeigh. Sponsors can overlay their logos and ad jingles right in with the poison liquid. We could travel inside the bottle through the tubes and into McVeigh's arm.

Given the expanding array of 3D on the Web potential we can look forward to customized 3D browser plug-ins. I would expect to see new user interface controls to let the viewer customize the execution experience by dialing in changes to the execution methods. One evening users might be more inclined to view a death by electric chair rather then the ho hum lethal injection. Given that different states have different execution methods this might be controlled simply by location. While one particular prisoner may in fact be executed by lethal injection, and viewers want to see the execution by another method, say hanging, the virtual execution can be easily simulated by imposing the actual prisoner's face with a high degree of realism. A truth in advertising notification that the actual method of execution was different than that selected should alleviate any concerns about the reality of the experience. Customized Web experiences are a well known and accepted method used to enhance both the end users interaction and advertisers products.

Isn't technology great! We can also be sure of one thing, there won't be any shortage of opportunities to test these new techniques.

Virtual Reality Implant and President Bush

In a technological tour-de-force, the White House today unveiled a secret Virtual Reality Implant project. Developed in a black-ops project jointly with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the University of Washington's HIT Lab, and Microsoft. For years one of the holy grails of virtual reality researchers has been the seamless fusion of sensory input with user interface control technology. The President is now able to see top-secret information beamed directly into his eye.

The display system is a modification of the Human Interface Technology (HIT) lab at the University of Washington's VRD (virtual retinal display). Many people in the VR research community have been following the development of the VRD for years. Recently great progress has been show using a laser to literally paint images with light onto the retina of the viewer. The new VRD is packaged as a device that clips on to a pair of glasses giving the user a high resolution computer generated image that appears to float in space in front of the user.

Unknown to the public however was a secret collaboration between the HIT Lab, Microsoft, and DARPA to use this image generation capability, not simply to paint images on to the retina but to directly stimulate the optic nerve. After years of secret trials it was decided to perform this delicate surgery on President George W. Bush. President Bush's head now contains a bluetooth receiver upon which National Security Staff can send message directly to his optic nerve. This surreptitious surgery was conducted during the recent flurry of news coverage of Vice President Dick Cheney's recent heart surgery. It has been learned that the many heart attacks and medical situations for the Vice President has actually been an elaborate coverup to allow President Bush to undergo extensive testing and ultimately reception of the implant.

Microsoft's involvement has been a closely guarded secret as well. The recently much hyped X-box game console has also been used to disguise development of super-computer capable graphics generation chips. President Bush's eye now contains a proprietary version of what industry insiders have call MS-DUBBYA. In addition to the display capabilities the Chief Executive needs a way to seamlessly control the display system and communicate, secretly, with staff. This has been accomplished with a simple addition of a blink controller and eyeball rotation sensor. For example when you see President Bush rapidly blinking and rolling his eyes he is probably actually sending an important message to his staff.

President Bush's occasional syntactic slips are an unforseen side-effect of the implant. A recent book ""George Bushisms: The Slate Book of The Accidental Wit and Wisdom of our 43rd President." chronicles this malady.