JMS SPEAKS IV

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December 20th, 2001, 06:31 AM
Wizz


I have enjoyed JMS's Rising Stars and Midnight Nation. I intend this message to be a statement of how some people have reacted to the late issues.

I was wondering if JMS has or will promise that future issues of any comic he writes will be on time. I have seen through my 18 years of collecting how late issues can kill a series. Midnight Nation is surviving at the store I visit. Rising Stars however, has those who collected it thinking about not finishing. These are some new fans who are considering walking away from anything JMS because it isn't on time. (Delicate Creatures is known to be a publishing problem.)

Hopefully the new fans can be won back.

I was wondering if some readers will promise to understand that things happen that are outside anyone's control, and that I would rather have it out *good* than have it out *Tuesday*.

Sure, I could make that promise...and abide by it...and be unable to guarantee the quality of the work.

For most of the MN and RS run, I was the one chomping at the bit to get this thing out on time, despite delays by factors outside my control (as in an artist leaving at the eleventh hour without telling anyone he was going to do it, which put everything back). I have no control over that. The scripts up to that point were always there in advance. At one point the scripts were piled up 4 issues in advance of what was being drawn/published.

What hit after that was the hardest period of work in my life, something I hadn't counted on. It's not that I'm sitting on my ass getting the comics out when I feel like it...I'm shooting episode 10 of a 20 hour commitment on the single biggest TV series I've ever undertaken, bar none, in terms of logistics, planning, scripts and prep. On Jeremiah we're shooting out in rain and awful conditions 5-6 days out of each 7 day schedule (the norm for most series is 3 days out and 4 days in) all over the Vancouver area, combined with all the regular hassles of mounting a new series, and inventing a new world. There's not just the writing and the producing but the editing, the PR, the music and sound spotting, the casting...everything.

There's Rangers on top of that, the Rising Stars screenplay (which is finally finished and looks like it's heading into actual production for next year), the new Polaris project for Sci-Fi, Spider-Man, Midnight Nation, and Rising Stars.

I began those projects not anticipating that I would be in *this* deep shit. I could have pumped out the comics, but I didn't want to have inferior work come out under the Joe's Comics imprint. The TV work was time-critical because
there's nearly $30 million invested in schedules, director's timetables, production deadlines, airdates that have to be met...I had to pick something that wasn't as time critical to push back.

The comics were the only thing that could get pushed. Now that we're up to speed on the series, with the RS screenplay finished, and past the midway point on scripts for Jeremiah, I've been able to turn my attention back to the comics, with a new MN coming out last week, the next RS finishing colors and lettering and probably out in the next week or so...the next MN script is already in and being drawn, and I'm working on both the next Spider-Man and RS issues as I speak. The Delicate Creatures hardcover graphic novel has been done for a while now, don't know why it isn't out yet.

It is my intention to get the comic scripts out as expeditiously as possible, and have all the scripts done quickly, once again getting well ahead of the artwork.

As for some of the folks you cite...I have little patience for people who demand in others a perfection they do not deliver in their own lives, and who do not understand that their needs for immediate gratification will not always be immediately gratified.

Better something should done right and a bit late than done poorly and on time.

jms
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I take it back, I'm not shocked. Crusade showed this kind of Suit mentality ... I hope Andromeda quickly vanishes from the air before it gets too 'revamped' by Suit notes.

I quit watching Andromeda in disgust. The show was not up to B5 standards, but it was entertaining and had definite long-term potential. With the departure of Robert Hewitt Wolfe, the potential is gone. The focus on sprucing up the "looks" of the characters is a dead giveaway. Come on, it's about the story!!!! It's about the characters! Not their clothes and the *$#&& color of their hair!!!

Grrrrrrr.

I really haven't followed the show or the dynamics behind the scenes enough to form an intelligent opinion. Spoke to Kevin Sorbo once on the plane coming back from Vancouver; seemed like a nice enough guy. That's about the extent of
it.

jms


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Do not tempt the patience of Wizzards, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
December 24th, 2001, 12:25 AM
Wizz

Subject:Well, LotR:FotR is out. What do you think?

Judging from your recent posts, I don't understand where you get the time to sleep and eat, much less the time to wade through cinema crowds to sit through a 3-hour epic.

But for obvious reasons... if you *have* seen Peter Jackson's film...

What do you think?

Haven't seen it yet, only because I've been using the time to dig out from under deadlines a bit, and waiting for the crowds to diminish. Most likely will see it Monday.

jms
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Subject:Thanks Joe! WAS Re: Late comics

 Um..Joe has many projects. He's a busy guy. I'm just glad to have so much output to chose from! I think you're being a little petty here. He doesn't owe us anything, really. 


Doesn't owe us anything??? But I've been making statues of him and selling them as my tribute to him! Next thing you know he'll break one of my statues and leave for parts unknown with Pat Tallman.

This is really inexcusable!


Ah, Amerikanski humor.

Most funny.

We bomb now.

jms
December 30th, 2001, 07:32 AM
Wizz

Re: Lord of the Rings movie

Saw it yesterday afternoon (with Harlan, who was there to review it for F&SF)at a theater in Sherman Oaks, and it's about as perfect a movie as I've ever seen. It was everything I hoped it would be, and just what I always saw in my mind's eye as I read the books.

I will almost certainly go back to see it again, especially once they begin running the trailer for The Two Towers sometime later in the run.

(BTW, the B5-Rangers trailers will start running the 28th of December at 800 theaters showing LoTR; a full listing of theaters can be found at b5lr.com.)

jms
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RE: Delecate Creatures graphic novel

For those who've been asking ever since the book was supposed to come out in October...the Delicate Creatures hardcover graphic novel, my first, comes out January 4th. The darned thing was finished a month ago, so it's about time.
One advisory: the initial run is only about 16,000 copies, because this is Top Cow's first stab at a book like this, so it may be a good idea to reserve a copy if you want to be assured of getting one.

The art is by Michael Zulli, best known for his work on Neil Gaiman's Sandman.

For those who'd like a preview, you can get a look at some of the art (the preview is in b&w, but the book is in color) at
<A HREF="http://www.comicon.com/ubb/Forum13/HTML/000082.html" TARGET=_blank>www.comicon.com/ubb/Forum13/HTML/000082.html </a>

jms
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RE: Happy Day off, Joe

Just think, you'll get another one in a week and then you'll be all rested
and charged up for another seven and a half months or so!


Actually, I already broke my usual run of not working Christmas day, and I'll probably end up working New Years as well to catch up on everything.

I've just turned in Amazing Spider-Man 39, so I'm now fairly well ahead on that, I'll get the next Rising Stars out in the next few days, I'm halfway into a new Jeremiah script and the first of the two Polaris scripts for SFC, so by the time the "break" is over I may actually be either caught up or close to it.

(And since the other message didn't apparently get through...Delicate Creatures comes out on the 4th.)

jms


That said, how many of the Jeremiah scripts are yours so far?

Have to do this from memory of titles since the files are up north....

The pilot 2 hour (counts as two episodes)
To Sail Beyond the Stars
Man of Iron, Woman Under Glass
And the Ground Sown with Salt
Firewall
Journeys End in Lovers Meeting
Tripwire (now being written)

So basically 8 hours so far out of 20. I'll do about 3 more after this, for a total of 11. All but one of the rest are being written by Sam Egan.

jms

What's this Polaris thing you're talking about? Did someone forget to keep me in the loop?

I can't comment on what it is specifically, other than it's another series project in development for SFC.

jms

Ah, I do enjoy your titles. Does the pilot have a title the way B5:LotR:TLaDIS does?

Yeah..."The Long Road," which I picked because a) it's very appropos to the story, and b) it's a bit of nice closure to the hassle over Crusade.

jms

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Re: ASM 36 Reprinting is Out
I wonder when #37 is supposed to hit...

Should be soon, the pencils were done some time ago, and I approved the lettered pages about 3 weeks ago. JR is well into penciling 38, over half done, and the script for 39 is also in.

jms


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Do not tempt the patience of Wizzards, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
January 9th, 2002, 07:15 PM
Wizz

I heard that Delicate Creatures was set to come out last week. I looked all over, but was not able to find it. Is it me or has there been a delay?


I was kinda puzzled too, since Diamond had it coming out last week. I checked with Top Cow and there was apparently a printer's mistake, so they had to go back and re-do it. It's now back on track (and on Diamond) to come out on the 16th.

jms

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Re: What is the big thing in March?!!!

JMS? Any pen names you haven't told us about?

Several.

jms
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Anyone hear from Lyta lately?
Wizzard 
January 11th, 2002, 05:01 AM
Wizz

The impression he is giving to some is he [JMS] can't keep his monthly commitment (though the commitment is "implied"). That can turn off some who only collect comics.

But see, this is where it gets to the part that pisses me off.

Lemme put this into perspective here for a moment, okay?

I began writing and selling when I was 17 years old. Fresh outta high school.

I have been writing, and selling, for 30 years. In all those 30 years, I have never missed a deadline...until this past summer, when I got gang-deadlined.
And, as I write this, I'm now on schedule with the scripts for Rising Stars, and I'm 2 scripts ahead with both Midnight Nation and Spider-Man. It was a momentary glitch. And in the course of that glitch, ASM was only delayed a few weeks, coming out 6 weeks after the one preceding in one case, with the one thereafter appearing 7 weeks later instead of 4-5. The main hit was to the Joe's Comics titles, where I figure I have some latitude.

It just grinds my butt that here I meet all my deadlines for 30 years, never missing a beat, and because of this one glitch, now regained, I've had people bitching about how I should give up the book, how I'm alluvasudden unprofessional....

So may I take it that those involved have never been late for work, ever? Have never had to say to the wife and kids, "Listen, I know I promised we'd go to the beach this weekend, but I'm loaded up with work, we'll have to do it later."

They demand a perfection in others they do not require of themselves. And that's the part that galls. I've been meeting my deadlines on time for longer than most of these people have been *alive*.

Thirty years of punctual work and it's all dismissed because of one situation like this, which in the case of ASM meant a difference of only 2-3 weeks apiece.

Let he who has never, ever missed a deadline or had to postpone something give me shit about it. Otherwise, I have 29 and a half years on 'em.

jms
January 11th, 2002, 05:47 AM
AsIs

You know, if Joe would get over his habit of saying things like taking on all these projects *won't* cause delays, then he might not get as much grief when it slips.

My biggest problem with JMS is that he has a habit of saying things arn't so, then screaming bloody murder, when they are so and he gets called on it.

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Selah

The bridge between life and death is love.
January 14th, 2002, 12:01 AM
Wizz

Whoa! Real Babylon 5 content this time. Just in case this comes as a shock...

It just occured after the commercial for B5:LOTR:TLADISL (christ, what a long abbreviation), was the captain being tried by the Grey Council? 

No, that's not the Grey Council; it was the High Council attached to the training facility in Tuzenor on Minbar. The Rangers had been under Minbari guidance for a thousand years, that ain't gonna change in just a couple of years. The ISA controls the use of the Rangers, but their training and discipline and organization is Minbari.

jms

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Was Max Eilerson named after Pamela Eilerson (2nd Assistant Director of many of the B5 episodes), and if so, is there a story behind it?

Yeah, he was, but no, there isn't...I was just looking for a cool sounding name.
jms
January 16th, 2002, 05:09 AM
Wizz

BTW, just as a reminder, it looks like DELICATE CREATURES is FINALLY hitting bookstores this coming Wednesday after the printer's error was fixed.

'bout time....

jms
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"No, that's not the Grey Council; it was the High Council attached to the training facility in Tuzenor on Minbar. The Rangers had been under Minbari guidance for a thousand years, that ain't gonna change in just a couple of years. The ISA controls the use of the Rangers, but their training and discipline and organization is Minbari."

Not to nitpick, but I've been seeing the spelling this way from to time (with the "e")...however in "To Dream in the City of Sorrows," it's spelled with an "a," thus: Tuzanor.

You're right, it's Tuzanor. I must have been speaking Minbari with a Narn accent....

jms
<hr width="75%">According to the show's official site, http://www.jeremiah.tv/, Jeremiah's 2 hour premiere "The Long Road" will air Sunday March 3rd at 8 pm. The episodes will then start airing as part of Showtime's
"Sci-Friday".

Damn shame it's airing on the "Queer Ass Network"... Any idea where we can grab the binaries?

Well...a post that manages to offend an entire class of people *and* encourage theft and copyright infringement. Now that's what you call a two-fer.

jms
January 18th, 2002, 12:25 AM
Wizz

I've noticed that in a number of JMS's works (B5, Crusade, Tribulations, and now B5:LotR) that one character occurrs frequestly. It's the Character that lives through something tramatic and sees either alot of people or someone close to them die. For lack of a better term I call it Survivor's Guilt. But does anyone know why Sinclair, Marcus, Gideon, Galen, Raymond (from Tribulations), and now the new captain in LotR. Does anyone know if like something happened to Joe where he's compelled to write about (or at least it seems to me like he's compelled to write about) those that survive and continually ask why they were left alive?

All things considered I would rather this discussion not go any further than this.

jms
January 23rd, 2002, 02:38 AM
Wizz

This one is looooooong. If any of you think this should be broken up, just say so and I'll be governed accordingly. Neat stuff, though.
Wizzard <hr width="95%">

The Enfali is in a firefight with some raider fighters. Since when have raiders ever been able to do serious damage to a Minbari vessel, and why are no Nials around?

Even a lion can be brought down by a pack of smaller predators. The Enfalli was alone and the pursuit was a long one, and they just kept taking hit after hit.

 Since when do raider fighters have aft guns?

Raider fighter craft come in as many variations as human fighter craft. The error is in thinking monolithically.

or why we only saw Nials and Whitestars at Minbar, and possibly at B5. 

Bear in mind that there were only ever about a hundred, maybe a hundred and fifty whitestars built during the Shadow War. A LOT of those got wiped out during said war, so now you've got maybe 80 or so. You conserve your best ships for big jobs, you don't have them doing this kind of grunt work.

Tannier? The same Tannier from Learning Curve? I'd have double checked the actors name but every airing of TLaDiS had scrunched credits

Meant to be the same character, but it's not the same actor.

I think hyperspace looked better in Lightwave. Also, the new jumppoints seem to persist much longer than usual, before collapsing.

Hyperspace is now *much* more complex than it was using lightwave, with more levels. It was always meant to look pretty hellish, but we could never quite pull it off with lightwave, it always looked 2d. This is more what I originally had in mind.

In Dulann's vision (when he was in the hallway of the Liandra, checking systems before they took off), he saw Minister Kafka, the right side of his face already beaten up. This hadn't happened yet.

Recheck your tape...that shot ain't there.

Liandra is 20 years old in 2264, so it was built in 2244, before the Earth-Minbari war. It's a small vessel and yet it *has* jump engines. Seems odd, since Sheridan thought it was a big deal when he found out that the Whitestar, another small vessel, had jump engines (2260).

He also didn't know everything about Minbari ships and classes.

The Valen has weapons, so why were they never fired? Maybe they were fired but we never saw them fired.

The Valen never had time to fire; they were hit within a second of the hand ships coming out of hyperspace (actually *as* they were coming out)...the hits disabled most of the systems on the new ship (you can see eruptions all over the bridge). The weapons systems were intact elsewhere, but the control mechanisms were down. That's why they kept hammering the Valen, to make sure it wouldn't be able to fire.

Why enter the tail of the comet? Why not just put the comet between you and the enemy ship.

You don't have to be *in* the tail. Two-dimensional thinking. Only works if the comet is directly between you and the enemy. If it moves at any other angle, you're revealed.

How is it possible to lose people for any amount of time at all on that small of a ship?

Given the small ins and outs and access hatches and panels and sub-halls and the like...real possible.

The Liandra, a 20 year old ship, hit the enemy ships, several times with her fireballs (why no traditional Minbari green slicer beams?)

Not a big enough ship with a big enough power source.

I can't see the Liandra making any headway against a Shadow Battlecrab. "Seems" inconsistent.

It wasn't a shadow battlecrab. It was tough, but it wasn't one of those. The hand wouldn't give out that kind of power to flunkies.

jms
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Trained and experienced officers were in VERY short supply.

Exactly, and after the shadow war, a lot of higher ranking/experienced rangers were dead, leading to getting promoted earlier.

Also, the Liandra isn't like the Enterprise, it's more like a PT boat, and there's a huge difference between the captain of a PT boat and a captain of the John F. Kennedy, though both are technically captains on their vessels.

jms
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The Ship - This looks nothing like the Minbari ships that fought on the line. It did not look Minbari.

The Liandra is a Ranger ship. The Rangers, if we recall our history from In the Beginning, were not directly involved in Earth related hostilities during the Minbari War. The EM war was under the aegis of the Warrior caste.

It is also, by design, a small, fast (crew of maybe 20) patrol ship designed to go on the edge, it's not meant to go out there and pulverize fleets. It would have been instantly outgunned and destroyed in the EM war's bigger battles.

(One thing I'm curious about is the assumption that we've seen all of the Minbari ships. We've literally seen only a handful. Go to Jane's books on military weapons, planes in particular, and you get all *kinds* of variation...from ospreys to f16s to cargo jets to hovercraft...why should there be less variation in a more advanced society like the Minbari?)

The Valen - A flying brick that someone apparently forgot to add weapons. 

Yes. That was the intent. That's why David made fun of it on the balcony. Nobody likes it, it was a compromise between Humans and Minbari (which Dulann also mentions), more politically motivated than structurally sound. We won't be seeing its kind again.

jms

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What was with the Valen--not only was it ugly, it didn't even look Minbari.

As Dulann mentioned in his talk with David in the hall, it was influenced by human military designers. David also made fun of it earlier.

And where were the White Stars anyway?

The 80 or so surviving whitestars were either on station at Minbar or doing larger more important work. This was considered a milk run.

jms

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This article is a review of the Liandra's gesture and virtual reality based fire control system as seen on Babylon 5: Legends of the Rangers. I wanted to review it because gesture recognition based systems ares my main area of study, and I am always excited to see representations of gesture based systems television and films.

This review by its nature contains spoilers, but I will be avoiding major plot points as much as I can.

Quick review: I believe that this Liandra's method of weapon control is a well designed system to allow a person to actively target ships, while ensuring appropriate system response (i.e. weapons firing) when desired without false positives (i.e. a weapon firing when it is not desired). There are some clear areas for enhancing the system, such as adding higher level gesture commands, as well as voice.

Long review.

My Qualifications
So, who am I to be doing such a review? Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), and specifically gesture recognition, are my area of expertise. While I'm not *the* foremost expert in this area, I am well versed in the field. My Ph.D. in gesture recognition (Electrical Engineering Systems, minors in Artificial Intelligence and Robotics) is from the University of Michigan in 1996 (thesis: Dynamical System Representation, Generation, and Recognition of Basic Oscillatory Motion Gestures, and Applications for the Control of Actuated Mechanisms). Since then I've published a variety of papers in the fields of gesture recognition, HCI, and machine vision [1], have been interviewed by a small number of news publications [2], and have given talks on this subject [3]. My company (Cybernet Systems) has produced a very basic gesture/tracking software product called "Use Your Head" [4], that allows a person to use their head motions as an additional game device (which could be considered a precursor to the Liandra's targeting system!). I've installed prototype gesture recognition systems for NASA and the Army [5], and still have government funding to continue this research.

Again, I'm not *the* authority in this area, but I like to consider myself an authority. Since I also love Science Fiction in general, and Babylon 5 in specific, I decided it would be fun to review the Liandra's system.

Overview of the Liandra's Fire Control System.

This overview is taken from my viewings of Babylon 5: Legends of the Rangers. I will try to point out three things: What I know, what I think I know, and what I don't know. That is, I'll try to keep assumptions to a minimum, and if I can't, I will at least point out what it is I'm assuming. I'd appreciate any feedback letting me know what I got wrong.

What I know:

1. The weapon's control officer (WCO) is suspended in a full zero gravity Virtual Reality (VR) environment.

2. The WCO has three degrees of rotational motion (roll, pitch, and yaw) centered around her center of gravity. That is, she can rotate herself to any orientation to view the combat environment as desired.

3. The VR environment is similar to that found on the Minbari command ships [6]. That is, a full 3D representation of the battle space, with gestures used to focus attention on various aspects of the battle environment, terrain, and assets.

4. Each of the WCO's extremities (hands and feet) are linked to specific weapons on the Liandra.

5. Ship tracking and targeting is performed using an eye-tracking system.

6. Multiple ships could be targeted off of the eye-tracking system.

7. A "fire" gesture consists of pumping a limb (arm or leg). There is a limited vocabulary in the set of gesture commands. The direction of fire is the direction of the gesture, matched up to the eye-tracking software to determine the target. The ship's computer actually aims/targets the weapons.

8. A list of possible targets from eye-tracking is kept, so that if the WCO points at a ship behind her current viewing, that ship will be attacked.

What I think I know:

1. The gravity isn't quite zero g because the WCO remains centered in the VR environment. Therefore, some forces must be acting upon her to keep her centered and not bumping into walls.

2. Although only one eye was shown to track ships, I believe that both eyes were probably tracked to allow full three-dimensional target acquisition (that is, both eyes would be needed to determine which ship should be targeted when two ships are in the same line-of-site, the near one or the far one).

3. Extra battle information was either being presented (drawn with light) on to the WCO's eyes or on the VR screens directly, so she saw more than what we saw. This information was probably targeting information, status, etc.

4. It looks like the rate of fire of the Liandra's weapons were based off of the speed the WCO could pump her limbs.

5. The system never misinterpreted a command. That is, a shot was fired only when the WCO wanted it to fire, and it did not fire when the WCO did not want it to fire. In other words, it is a very robust system.

What I don't know:

1. I could not tell if voice recognition was used at all.

2. Can the WCO's firing commands be overridden from the bridge?

3. What happens if the ship is so damaged as to lose artificial gravity?

4. Aside from firing gestures, are there other hand/body gestures available to the WCO?

Discussion:

As stated in the Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5, this fire control system is probably based on taking advantage of the Ranger's physical combat training [7]. However, I think there is more to it than that.

What would a WCO want from a human-computer interface for a battle system? I believe it is the following:

1. Quick identification of target(s) to fire at.

2. Full control of all weapons simultaneously.

3. Instant information, but only that which is desired (too much information is just as bad as too little).

4. Ability to view the entire battle-space, with proper orientation and perspective (that is, in a way we humans (and apparently Minbari) can understand it).

It is my opinion that the VR/gesture system as portrayed in B5:LotR achieves all the above desires, better than a keyboard, mouse, or button interface could.

Specifically:

1. Quick target identification. Without using eye-tracking and gesture, to target a ship (among multiple targets), either a mouse must be moved over the iconic representation, or multiple keyboard/button commands must be given to cycle through to the target. If touch screen capability is allowed (pointing at a specific ship), then that is just an instantiation of the Liandra's gesture system. The WCO simply looks at a target, and that target is the one a weapon will fire at if the gesture command is given in the target's direction. Multiple targets could be tracked this way, even the huge number of space mines that were targeted and destroyed (but see more below).

2. Full simultaneous weapon control. Each weapon was linked to the WCO's limbs. For example - left cannon = left arm. With practice, using the Liandra's ship board weapons would be just like using any other hand held weapon in combat, which is what the Rangers excel at. A question that arises is what if there are more than four weapons on a ship - how are they controlled? (See Improvement's below.)

3. Instant information. The VR environment probably provides more information than just a camera view. Status of enemy power/weapons, full location, various weapon ranges (for enemy, friend, and the Liandra herself), etc., would all be available and either drawn on the eye or displayed on the VR screen.

4. Full battle-space view. I think this my even be my favorite part of the system. Current battlefield commanders have a difficult time viewing a battle-space environment. Here, the WCO just has to rotate her body/head and she can see everything, and still keep relative orientations of friends and foes in view. Yes, she has to be in excellent shape, but that is not unheard of in the military.

So, overall, I do find that this weapon interface is a viable one, and as definite advantages over traditional computer input devices. However, there is always room for improvements, which is my next section.

Improvements and Issues:

First, a note: the improvements and issues I list have probably already been thought of by the Babylon 5 staff, and just not shown due to budget/time/plot considerations. Also, these are just my opinions, and I could easily see other people (or weapon officers) disagreeing with me. But then again, that is why we have discussion groups!

I am a firm believer that gestures will be an important input device in the future. However, I do not believe that gestures are the "be all and end all" in human-computer interaction devices. For example, I would not use gestures to replace a computer mouse (which is great for simple pointing, clicking, and pull-down menu operations) because, well, we already have a device that works as well as a computer mouse - the computer mouse itself!

So, while I think that gestures as shown works well as an input device for the WCO, I think more is needed, and in this case, that would be voice recognition. Now, I'm not talking about the Star Trek type of voice recognition which can parse sentences and never make a mistake. I'm referring to specific limited vocabulary of voice commands (just like the limited vocabulary of gesture commands used) to aid in controlling the "state" of the system. Here is where I think voice recognition would be useful:

1. Change weapons. If there were multiple weapons on a ship, then voice commands would allow the WCO to change weapon/limb configurations instantaneously.

2. Change firing modes. From the movie, it seemed that one shot was fired per pumping gesture. Therefore, to take out the dozens of mines, the WCO had to flail around to keep firing at the closest (or most dangerous) targets. Instead, a word could be used to set up continuous firing.

3. Switch gestures. Instead of using the 'pumping' gesture to attack the mines, instead each finger could be attached to the same or different weapons. Then only faster finger flicks would be needed to fire the weapon. This would probably lead to more false positives, but when you want to all out fire, that usually isn't a problem.

Voice commands, as well as meta-gesture commands to achieve the same result as some voice commands, would add great utility to the system. For #3 above, a different gesture could have been used to fire a weapon repeated at the mines. Training would be needed, but not much more than is probably required now.

Another issue is multiple WCOs to handle a larger number of weapons. I wonder if bigger ships would require multiple officers, and how they would interact. Maybe their relative orientation in the VR gravity environment would correspond to the relative location of the weapon banks.

I noticed gestures being used to control the VR environment. That is fine, but care must be taken to only use *purposive* gestures. It would be unfortunate if a random gesture (such as one used to change the WCO's orientation) resulted in the system performing an unwanted action. This is why, for example, fingers weren't used to control weapons during normal combat operations.

Is such as system possible?

Yes! Well, okay, we don't have the anti-gravity yet. If you do, please email me - we'll do lunch.

But the eye-tracking, body tracking, and gesture recognition systems are not that far off from what was shown on B5:LotR.

Gesture recognition and body tracking is my area, so let me discuss that first. The system we've developed at Cybernet can do full body tracking in complex unstructured backgrounds. We can recognize hand and body motions (not American Sign Language) - specifically the types performed by the CWO of the Liandra! That is, repeatable hand/arm motions, similar to those used by Army scouts, construction crane operators, and the like. It is beyond the scope of this review to explain the various mathematical methods of gesture recognition (geometric, Hidden Markov Model, dynamic based, etc.). You can look up my dissertation if you really want a full overview!

As a point of information, tracking is a much harder problem than gesture recognition. Tracking needs to work in a variety of lighting conditions, backgrounds, and targets (skin color, clothing, hair, etc.). This problem is not yet completely solved, but it does get better every year, to the point that products can be made now.

For those interested in gesture recognition (and associated tracking software), head on over to the Gesture Recognition Home Page [8].

Some commercial body tracking devices are listed below. Many of these are used by computer game developers to track athlete's movements for their sports games. Note that all of these are 'tagged' trackers, that is, something must be worn on the body for tracking to occur. For Cybernet's gesture recognition system (and for other systems out there), untagged systems are used and preferred, although they are much less accurate.

Manufacturer Product Method Output
Cybernet Firefly IR Optical 3D position

Ascension MotionStar DC magnetic field 6DOF position and orientation

Northern Opto Trak IR Optical 3D position
Digital Inc. 3020

Intersense IS-300 Inertial 3D 6DOF

Polhemus Ultra Trak AC magnetic field 6DOF

There are a small number of companies that produce eye-trackers. While of course not on the level of fidelity as shown in Babylon 5 (specifically, in order to work the camera has to be extremely close to the person's eye, which was not the case in B5:LotR!), these eye-tracking systems are pretty robust. Companies include AmTech, Applied Science Laboratories, Cybernet, DBA Systems, LC Technologies, Microguide, NAC, SensoMotoric Instruments [9]. Methods used include
CCD Line Scan cameras, Infra-red oculography, and video imagining. Precision for these systems is typically at around 0.5 degrees or less, with a 40 degrees (though some have 80 degrees). The sampling rate can be anywhere for 50 Hz to 1,000 Hz (with 50-60 Hz typical).

For the Liandra, I would imagine a large array of camera like devices with an extremely high resolution, sampling at 1,000 Hz or more.

Conclusion:

I do think that this gesture based interactive fire control system for the Liandra is not only a viable option for a battle environment, it might even be optimal. Fast accurate targeting, robust weapon control, full view of the environment, and instant information are all part of this system. With the addition or showing of meta-control using voice or other gestures, I think this system would be one that would practical, even for the control of today's Uninhabited Combat Aerial Vehicles.

Thank you for reading my article. Comments are always welcome. If you wish to respond to me directly, please use my personal email of [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>. The work address below should be used only for low volume work related messages.

Charles J. Cohen, Ph.D.
Vice President, Research and Development
Cybernet Systems Corporation
[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
www.cybernet.com

Footnotes:

[1] Some of my papers and talks are:

Program Chair: Applied Imagery Pattern Recognition 2001 - Analysis and Understanding of Time Varying Imaging. Cosmos Club, Washington, DC, October 10-12, 2001.

Cohen, Charles J., Glenn Beach, and Gene Foulk. "A Basic Hand Gesture Control System for PC Applications." Applied Imagery Pattern Recognition 2001 - Analysis and Understanding of Time Varying Imaging. Cosmos Club, Washington, DC, October 10-12, 2001.

Cohen, Charles J. "Gesture Recognition Interface for Controlling Virtual Displays." Virtual Design Technology and Applications. Somerset Inn, Troy, MI, 15 November 2000.

Cohen, Charles J., Glenn Beach, Doug Haanpaa, and Chuck Jacobus. "A Real-Time Pose Determination and Reality Registration System." SPIE AIPR'99 Conference. Washington, DC, 13-15 October 1999.

Cohen, Charles J., Glenn Beach, Brook Cavell, Gene Foulk, Jay Obermark, and George Paul. "The Control of Self Service Machines Using Gesture Recognition." SCI'99 and ISAS'99 Conference. Orlando, FL, 31 July 1999 - 4 August 1999.

Beach, Glenn, Charles J. Cohen, Jeffrey Braun, and Gary Moody. "Eye Tracking System for Use With Head Mounted Displays." IEEE SMC'98 Conference. San Diego, CA, 11-14 October 1998.

Cohen, Charles J., Glenn Beach, George Paul, Jay Obermark, and Gene Foulk. "Issues Of Controlling Public Kiosks And Other Self Service Machines Using Gesture Recognition." IEEE SMC'98 Conference. San Diego. CA, 11-14 October 1998.

Conway, Lynn and Charles J. Cohen. "Video Mirroring and Iconic Gestures: Enhancing Basic Videophones to Provide Visual Coaching and Visual Control." IEEE Transactions on Consumer Electronics, May 1998.

Obermark, Jay, Charles Jacobus, Charles Cohen, and Brian George. "Building Terrain Maps and Virtual Worlds from Video Imagery." AeroSense 1998. Orlando FL, 13-17 April 1998.

Conway, Lynn and Charles Cohen. "Apparatus and Method for Remote Control Through the Visual Information Stream." U.S. Patent 5,652,849, 29 July 1997.

[2] For example: New York Times, 31 August 2000, buried on page D7 "A Wave of the Hand May Soon Make a Computer Jump to Obey" by Anne Eisenberg.

[3] Cohen, Charles J. "The Bleeding Edge: New Technologies, New Ways of Learning." SchoolTech Expo. Chicago Hilton & Towers, Chicago, IL, 17-20 October 2001.

[4] <A HREF="http://www.gesturecentral.com" TARGET=_blank>www.gesturecentral.com </a>

[5] Our current Army project is with STRICOM to allow training of their scouts in their Dismounted Infantry Semi-Automated Forces (DISAF). See source.asset.com/orl/disaf/ for details of their system.

[6] See the Babylon 5 episode "Shadow Dancing."

[7] www.midwinter.com/lurk/guide/117.html

[8] <A HREF="http://www.cybernet.com/~ccohen/" TARGET=_blank>www.cybernet.com/~ccohen/</A></A>

[9] This data is about a year old, so I can't guarantee if any of the companies are still around. Well, except for ours. 

What a totally amazing and cool analysis. I will be sure to look at this when we take the pod to the next level, should there be a series, because we will have more time to spend working out the details.

Glad to hear it's a viable approach. Thanks again.

jms
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Incidentally, small point here, but I feel I have to make it: everyone has been calling him Minister "Kafka," and while that's certainly humorous (he does look sort of bug-like), it's actually "Kafta."

Which is a middle-eastern term for a kind of meatball.

See, I was writing, it was late, I was having some hummus, some pita, some khibbe and some kafta, I needed a name...you get the picture.

It was either that or Minister Khibbe.

jms
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The wheel had already been invented and perfected in Lightwave. *Use* the wheel. If necessary, tweak it some more, but *don't* go to different software. To change to Maya is to incur additional work and expense, and leave yourself open to the possibility of errors and inconsistancies. This kind of thing really pisses me off. The change makes no sense. There are times to be conservative, and this was one of them.


Understand, however, that we did not *have* that software, or those images. WB had literally lost all the CGI archives we gave them every season. All we were able to get, at the very last moment, was a copy of the ship files we had given Sierra for the B5 game. That's it.

jms
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I am so sorry! What the hell is wrong with those people (WB)??? I feel sick to my stomach. All that great work, IS LOST?!?!?! Didn't you guys keep copies of the files? the Lightwave models? the Lightwave scenes? Backups? Anything?

Babylonian Productions was not allowed to keep this material, it all had to be turned over to WB each year, and what could have been maybe squirreled away at NDEI was lost when that company went away.

jms

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ps. What do you call the frames right after the cut back from commercial, before the actual content of the movie starts again?

True Black. Don't know if that's the technical term, but that's what I've always heard them called.

jms
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Did you have any second thoughts about naming that ship? Or am I the only one who thought it odd? If I had to guess I'd have said the Minbari revered Valen far too much to name a mere ship after him, most especially an ugly one with heavy human influence...

It was kind of an in-joke by some on the Grey Council when they named it. The ship is a compromised crossbreed between human (the front) and minbari (the rest) design styles.

And what was Valen, after all, but half human and half minbari...?

jms

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Do not tempt the patience of Wizzards, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.

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