Atari hired Chief Scientist Alan Kay formerly from Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) the birthplace of the first Personal Computers (the Altos), The GUI, Ethernet and many other innovations.    Atari wanted a group of research centers filled with the best minds in the industry.   Their task... to explore the possibilities of video gaming, computing and human interaction with them.   To explore idea's not 2 or 3 years into the future, but 7 to 10 years.    Idea's for Virtual Reality, Interactive media, Robotics, Portable Computing and Networking would evolve and grow from these labs.      As time goes by and more of the former Corporate Research Employee's contribute, this area will grow.