When I had first started thinking about this project, I had remembered this documentary that I had seen on the Discovery Channel (or the like), where they had started using HUD (heads up display) units with audio commentary to give historical tours of some European town so that the tourists would be able to see some of the artifacts and buildings that were no longer part of the landscape. I have been driving a graveyard shift delivery job to Indianapolis for a local bakery, for going on two years now. I drive around town on a semi-regular route and chat with some of the regular clients and employees, meet the new clients and employees, and get a bit of exercise – but I spend most of the time in the truck just listening to music and thinking. It has been sort of like my time to get away and meditate on life, as I used to just get in my car and drive, whenever I needed to clear my head and think.

When I thought about the HUD documentary, I had the idea of maybe creating a sort of flight simulator for the CAVE, with a HUD that would simulate a training program for the route or GPS navigation system for the automobiles in general, but I have a feeling this might be impractical for one of the following reasons: 1) It is a bit of overkill, since the cost to train on such a system would only lend itself to something it would be to costly or too risky to do actual training – like space travel, or actual flying 2) There may already be comparable GPS systems, and the “heads up” version could actually be too distracting to use on an automobile 3) There is already a tool called SketchUp that allows you to create 3D elements in Google Earth, the tool I used to get the satellite reference image for the geographic layout (see downtown Cincinnati, OH for example). So, I thought that I would at least try to test the waters first with a Maya model, since the idea was really one of a personal nature anyway. I might still see how the “heads up” information looks, since I plan on including the interior of the truck in the final Presentation, and I might see what a programmer thinks about the possibility of programming “fly-throughs”, although I have some reservations about the accuracy of such programs that already exist.

At this point, I am just creating a “restricted path” for the CAVE, as I do not know how much longer I will be at this job. I am aware that I could probably just drive up to Indianapolis at any time, and likely not much will have changed, but I like the idea of having the experience as an artifact, adding some of the personal value through the process of recreating it. I might try to add some photos or recordings from the folks I work with on the route, but I think that the essence of the idea is in the driving, and the environment. The other aspects I mentioned would definitely be a postscript, but I suppose I will cross that bridge when I come to it.

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