We've always believed that virtual reality was too good to be wasted on ordinary reality. Now a company called Maxus Systems is using it to represent the alternative reality of Wall Street. Their system, called Metaphor Mixer, represents investment options as a kind of Vegas game table with floating color chips and "profit missiles." Now in use by a number of securities firms, including ABD Securities (a US arm of the German Dresdner Bank), the Metaphor Mixer links professional expertise to visual sensibilities.
Metaphor Mixer, says Paul Marshall of Maxus, is a virtual reality system that "allows the client to 'fly' over the entire financial world," represented as a huge grid with each square corresponding to a country and industry group. Real-time data reports are fed into the system; stocks are represented by color-coded shapes. Spinning and blinking shapes symbolize various performance patterns - spinners, for example, represent optimal price to earnings ratios - and "profit missiles" home in on attractive securities. There's even a kind of agent - a "wingman" that can be dispatched to look for particular mathematical market features. The system, which uses the Spaceball 3-D input device, is based on Sense 8 Corporation's World Toolkit software for creating 3-D virtual spaces. So far, the system only guides decision making, but one can easily imagine the day when trades themselves are placed by clicking on a chip. Metaphor Mixer suggests a model for the virtual trading floor of the future.
We'd love to see a home version - the VR equivalent of Quicken - in which you can plunge down the abyss of your MasterCard balance, ascend the compounding interest of Mt. Optima, or struggle across the vast desert of a 30-year fixed mortgage, while the glimmering mirage of a hot stock tip dances in front of your eyes. Maxus Systems: +1 (212) 481 3688.
- Phil Patton
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