USC’s Mercury Project
According to the co-directors, the Mercury Project was the first system that allowed WWW users to remotely view and alter the real world via tele-robotics. Users excavated artifacts buried in a sand-filled terrarium in their lab. The site reports that “The Mercury Project was online for 7 months (1 Sep 1994 – 31 March 1995) and received over 2.5 Million hits.” Very impressive numbers indeed.
