Myron Krueger
Myron W. Krueger (born 1942 in Gary, Indiana) is an American computer artist and researcher regarded as one of the first-generation pioneers of virtual reality and interactive computer art. He coined the term artificial reality in 1973 to describe full-body, unencumbered participation in computer-generated experiences, and he is best known for Videoplace, a markerless interactive environment developed across the 1970s and 1980s that let people interact with graphics using only their bodies, without goggles, gloves, or any worn hardware.[1][2]
Krueger's work predates the head-mounted, hand-worn approach to immersion associated with Jaron Lanier and later commercial VR. Where most early systems put a display and sensors on the user, Krueger built rooms in which a computer watched the participant with cameras and responded with projected visuals and sound, an approach now described as unencumbered or markerless interaction. His research on responsive environments and gesture recognition anticipated hand tracking and camera-based input later seen in consumer XR.[2][3]
Education and early career
Krueger earned a BA from Dartmouth College and went on to take MS and PhD degrees in computer science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.[3][4] His 1974 doctoral dissertation framed human-machine interaction itself as an art form, an argument he later expanded into the book Artificial Reality.[4][1] He conducted computer graphics research at the University of Wisconsin-Madison through the mid-1970s and joined the computer science faculty at the University of Connecticut in 1978.[4] He later worked under the banner of the Artificial Reality Corporation in Vernon, Connecticut.[5]
Responsive environments
Krueger described his central idea in the 1977 paper Responsive Environments, presented at the AFIPS National Computer Conference. The paper introduces "the concept of a responsive environment which perceives human behavior and responds with intelligent auditory and visual feedback," combining computer graphics, video projection, and two-way video communication.[6] His objection was to the narrow channel of conventional computing, which he characterized as "a seated man poking at a machine with his fingers." In a responsive environment, the computer builds a context over time within which the participant chooses each action and anticipates the system's response; the response, rather than any single image or object, is treated as the medium.[6]
Several installations led up to this idea:
| Work | Year | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Glowflow | 1969 | A computer-controlled light and sound environment in a darkened room, with tubes of phosphorescent pigment and sensors that responded to the people inside. Built with collaborators including Dan Sandin, Jerry Erdman, and Richard Venezky.[1][4] |
| Metaplay | 1970 | Integrated visuals, sound, and responsive techniques into one framework, with the computer creating a real-time relationship between participants in a gallery and the artist working in another building.[1] |
| Psychic Space | 1971 | Used a sensory floor to perceive participants' movements as they explored an interactive space.[4] |
| Videoplace | 1975 onward | A full artificial-reality laboratory in which participants interacted through their video silhouettes.[1][4] |
Artificial reality and Videoplace
Krueger established the Videoplace laboratory in the mid-1970s with the goal of creating an artificial reality that surrounded its users and responded to their movements without requiring goggles or gloves.[1] The system used video cameras, projectors, and special-purpose hardware to capture each participant and reduce them to an onscreen silhouette. Dedicated processors analyzed the silhouette's posture, rate of movement, and relationship to other graphic objects, then generated visual and auditory reactions in real time. People standing in separate rooms could see their silhouettes share one screen and interact with each other and with onscreen graphics.[1][7]
Even without tactile feedback, participants reacted as though the interaction were physical: users pulled their silhouettes away when those silhouettes intersected with another person's, a response Krueger cited as evidence of presence in the environment.[7] Over its development, Videoplace accumulated dozens of compositions and interactions. One, called Critter, presented a small animated creature that played with the participant, climbing onto an outstretched hand or settling on a shoulder and moving as the shoulder moved; it is often described as one of the earliest interactive animated characters. Other interactions let participants draw or finger-paint with their hands or whole bodies.[7][8]
Krueger introduced the term artificial reality in 1973 to name this kind of unencumbered, full-body participation in a computer-created experience.[1][2] The concept differs from the headset-based virtual reality that became dominant later: it keeps the participant in an ordinary room and uses external sensing rather than worn displays, a lineage that connects to modern markerless tracking and camera-based hand tracking.[2]
Publications
Krueger's book Artificial Reality was published by Addison-Wesley in 1983 and set out the ideas behind Videoplace. A substantially updated second edition, Artificial Reality II, followed from Addison-Wesley in 1991. Both are early book-length treatments of the field.[4][1]
| Title | Year | Publisher |
|---|---|---|
| Artificial Reality | 1983 | Addison-Wesley[1] |
| Artificial Reality II | 1991 | Addison-Wesley[4] |
Recognition and influence
Krueger contributed work to the SIGGRAPH Art Show across several years (including 1985, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1993, and 1998) and served as a jury member for SIGGRAPH 1991's "Tomorrow's Realities: Virtual Reality" program; Videoplace has been shown at art museums, galleries, science museums, and scientific conferences internationally.[3] The Augmented World Expo (AWE) inducted him into its XR Hall of Fame, describing him as a pioneer of interactive computer art and virtual reality whose research on responsive environments and gesture recognition influenced later XR user interfaces.[2] His emphasis on watching the user rather than burdening the user with hardware is frequently cited as an early articulation of the markerless, unencumbered direction in augmented reality and VR.[2][1]
References
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 "Myron Krueger's Videoplace Pioneers "Artificial Reality"". https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?entryid=4699.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 "Myron W. Krueger". https://www.awexr.com/hall-of-fame/22-myron-w-krueger.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 "Myron W. Krueger". https://history.siggraph.org/person/myron-w-krueger/.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 4.6 4.7 "Myron W. Krueger". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myron_W._Krueger.
- ↑ Krueger, Myron W.. "A Two-Dimensional Artificial Reality". NASA. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/api/citations/19950007639/downloads/19950007639.pdf.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Krueger, Myron W. (1977). "Responsive environments". AFIPS Press. pp. 423-433. https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/1499402.1499476.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 "Videoplace". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videoplace.
- ↑ "Videoplace". https://artelectronicmedia.com/en/artwork/videoplace/.