Cyberhead was developed in the Virtual Reality Laboratory and the Artificial Intelligence Center of SRI International in collaboration with the Lucas MRS Center at Stanford University. Additional 3-D CAD models and animation were created at Colossal Pictures; Spectrum HoloByte; and by Cyberware. My principal collaborators included Harlyn Baker, Nat Bletter, Aron Bonar, Tamar Cohen, Gina Faber, Mark Ferneau, Paul Hemler, Lee Iverson, Andy Kopra, Lance Norskog, Tom Piantanida, Marc Scaparro, Pierre Vasseur.
My primary goals with Cyberhead were to create a rich, detailed virtual environment with convincing, high quality, real time, reality-based (MRI) visual images that were properly lit, smoothed, shaded, textured, and anti-aliased. Directional sound was an equally important part of this world and experience. The human interface was designed to be simple, non-intrusive, and suitable for use by the general public. In relation to the audience, the goal was to create an entertaining experience that would make users think about such issues as how we interpret and associate the information we receive from our environment.
My motivation in doing this work was to explore new presentation paradigms made possible by this technology. This work also had to address the problem of how to represent data which is not easy to represent; how to be immersed in, interact with, and navigate through, this kind of data; and finally make the process esthetically engaging and educational.