‘Right away when people walk in they have a feeling that the cafe is
connected to other places and other people around the world and that generates
immediate excitement,’ says Sherry Rabinowitz, co-founder of the Electronic
Cafe International, with her partner, Kit Galloway.

‘We’ve put new communications tools in a traditional coffee house,’
says Rabinowitz. ‘With the technology comes the behaviour that one finds
in a cafe. That makes for a creative, friendly, unintimidating, and encouraging
atmosphere where people can come in and sit down, have a cup of coffee,
and once they feel comfortable find their way to the equipment where they
can experiment.’

Programmes sponsored by the cafe can be tapped into by anyone in the
world with a videophone. A videophone does not send full motion video signals
but rather a freeze-frame black-and-white still photograph over a regular
telephone line. The cafe is also home to the world’s first videophone gallery.
Users can dial up the gallery archives to send and receive still pictures.

The Electronic Cafe network connects to facilities in New York, Vancouver
and Barcelona as well as affiliates in Seoul, Hamburg, Tokyo and even Managua.
Sometimes the cafe links with individuals who have the necessary equipment.

Besides serving up a powerful cup of coffee and some pretty tantalising
cheesecake, the cafe also offers special events like the forthcoming ‘Around
the World’ New Year’s Eve party. Last New Year’s Eve, the cafe connected
with counterparts in 12 different time zones and celebrated each time midnight
was reached. Hal Josephson

Wearing devices such as motion-sensing gloves and goggles containing
miniature TV screens, people enjoying virtual reality have the impression
of entering a world within the computer. A turn of the head produces a different
angle of view; pointing a finger moves the user forward in the virtual world.
The computer software contains information on the positions of objects and
shapes of spaces in the virtual world, and responds to movements by altering
the scene presented.

Virtual holidays – as experienced by Arnold Schwarzenneger in the recent
film Total Recall – may not be far off, according to Tom Coull of Sense8,
a software company in Sausalito, California. ‘A travel agent should be able
to have a computer connected to a pair of sunglasses with thick lenses .
. . you just pop ’em right on. Several different hotels would be modelled
and the travel agent could take you on a tour.’

Sense8 has developed an interactive soft ware system called WorldTool
to help pro grammers who want to create their own virtual realities. Coull
says that current applications ‘range from doctors or vet erinary students,
who operate on virtual animals, to the entertainment business.’

Coull does not foresee a consumer market for virtual reality systems
for two or three years. ‘We’re focusing on small businesses and the universities,’
he said. The computer system required to run the software (and additional
graphics cards which slot in the back) costs about $10 000. And then there
is the non-virtual reality of the software’s price: an estimated $6000.

The virtual reality explorer would also need a sensing glove – a bargain
at about $70 – and a viewing hood, still a lot more bulky than Coull’s sunglasses.