A Walk Through the Woods
With a Telereader
Get comfortable in your telereader chaise. Insert your copy of "A Walk Through the Woods" in the DVD drive. Move into place in front of your face the display unit that is suspended on a flexible arm. Attach your eyepiece to the unit, then pull the unit toward you until the contoured foam rubber eyepiece cover gently touches your face. In a similar fashion, bring the two acoustic domes into position by your ears. If you are going to be giving voice commands, swing the mini-mike into place. If you are going to be giving manual commands, swing the manual control panel (with keyboard, trackball, and telereader tablet) into place. If you are going to use special ancillary input units (eye controls, breath controls, knee controls, etc.), put them into place.
You are now ready to start exploring the world of sights and sounds provided by the telereader terminal. It's a world in which you are in complete control. It's a vast world of information and entertainment that you can access and explore freely and quickly with the help of the telereader's navigational and working tools.
"A Walk Through the Woods" is a tutorial that demonstrates many of the telereader's tools and capabilities. In this walk you'll experience a new kind of interaction with the computer and its relatives in a variety of media. In this walk, you'll hear twigs cracking under your feet as you move along. You'll also hear a rattlesnake warn you off when you come into his territory. You'll hear an owl scolding you for startling him, then, if you look in the direction of the sound, you'll see him fly away. If you look up at the jet airliner you hear passing overhead, you'll see it gradually move out of sight, leaving its contrail behind. If you look to the right you'll see a deer staring at you - and, if you move toward her, you'll see her dart away. You'll hear crickets stop their chirping as you move toward them. Then, if you look behind and decide to walk back, you'll see and hear the creek you had just crossed. Because the "Walk's" pictorial video scenes are 360o panoramic movies, you can employ the telereader's controls to look in any direction you wish. With its controls you can pan to any point and move in that direction. If you wish to go back, you can pan 180o, then go back the way you came. If you wish to move laterally, you can pan 90o, then branch or zoom in that direction. If you wish to move at angles that are not a multiple of 90o, the computer serving the telereader will effect such apparent movement by combining scene flow, zooming, and/or branching. (Although this may sound like movement in a virtual reality scene, it is not. It is simply controlling the sights and sounds that are incorporated in a 360o panoramic movie. The telereader does not provide the kind of complicated artificial environment provided by virtual reality systems. The telereader is a much simpler and less costly system.)
By the time you've completed your walk through the woods, you'll be surprised by many interesting sights and sounds - and by your ability to control and manipulate those sights and sounds. During your walk, you can ask questions about any of the flora, fauna, objects, or events experienced in the walk. You can also ask questions about how to make the telereader do the things you want to do on your walk - any questions that may not have been made clear to you by the tutorial. And, if you really want to know, you can ask the telereader how it does the things it does for you.
The telereader edition of The Mu Primer helped you become proficient in the use of interactive movable type and in the use of the telereader as an electronic reading machine. "A Walk Through the Woods" will help you become proficient in using the telereader's special audio, video, pictorial, and graphic display capabilities.