Overview

Introduction Types Applications Devices VRML Job opportunities Future Resources

Virtual Environment (VE)

A computer generated world with which the user can interact

Interaction can vary from looking around to interactively modifying the world.

Classroom is a VE

Definition

What is virtual reality(VR)?

A computer generated,immersive(or wide field),multi-sensory informationprogram which tracks a user in realtime.

History

Year Person(s) Responsible Why it was important

1965 Ivan Sutherland The beginnings of VR

1977Dan Sandin, Richard Sayre and Thomas Defanti

Interaction through body movement

1982 Bonnie MacBird (Writer) The first computer- generated movie

1983 Myron Krueger First virtual environment

1984 William Gibson (His assistant) The term 'Cyberspace'

1987 Michael Piller (Writer) The Holodeck, idea of immersive VR

1992 Stephen King (Official Website) A look at the possible negative side of VR

1995 Silicon Graphics Virtual Reality Modeling Language

1999 Larry and Andy Wachowski Virtual Reality movie grosses $750M worldwide

Types

Immersive Augmented Text-based Desktop (Window on a World) Video Mapping

What is Immersive VR?

A type of VR in which the user becomes immersed (deeply involved) in a virtual world. it is also a form of VR that uses computer related components.

Types of Non-immersive VR

Text-based VR: when a reader of a certain text form a mental model of this virtual world in their head from the description of people , places and things.

Augmented VR: the idea of taking what is real and adding to it in some way so that user obtains more information from their environment.

Applications

Architecture Training Medicine Engineering and Design E-Commerce Entertainment Manufacturing

Architecture

An area in which virtual reality has tremendous potential is in architectural design. Already being created are architectural "walk-throughs" that allow designers and clients to examine homes and office buildings, inside and out, before they're built. With virtual reality, designers can interactively test a building before construction begins.

Medicine

researchers are using virtual reality technology to create 3-D ultrasound images to help doctors diagnose and treat congenital heart defects in children

The medical application of VR was stimulated initially by the need of medical staff to visualise complex medical data, particularly during surgery and for surgery planning, and for medical education and training.

Training

United States: The military used it as flight simulators to train pilots.

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) use VR technology to construct a model of the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) .in September, 1993, approximately 100 members of the NASA HST flight team received over 200 hours of training using the VR...

Devices

Head Mounted Displays (HMD):

was the first device providing its wearer with an immersive experience. Evans and Sutherland demonstrated a head-mounted stereo display already in 1965.

Binocular Omni-Orientation Monitor (BOOM)

BOOM is a head coupled stereoscopic display device. Screens and optical system are housed in a box that is attached to a multi-link arm.

Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE)

A room with projections on all walls, floor and ceiling

The users wear shutter glasses to get a 3D view of the world.

The users are able to move and control the environment with some kind of input mechanism Camera Device in hand

3D VIDEO Eyewear

winner of a 2005 & 2006 Consumer Electronics Show Design

Award.

VR Price: $499.00

Virtual reality Modeling Language (VRML)

Most exciting is the ongoing development of VRML on the World Wide Web. In addition to HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), that has become a standard authoring tool for the creation of home pages, VRML provides three-dimensional worlds with integrated hyperlinks on the Web. Home pages become home spaces.

Characteristics Of VRML

Not a programming language like c++ or java

Descriptive (rather than procedural) like HTML

File formats contains human readable and editable ASCII text

Job Opportunities The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology's (EPFL)

Computer Graphics Lab has several openings for PhD students and Post Doctoral fellows in the areas of Computer Animation, Virtual Reality, and Computer Vision. Selected candidates will work on one or several of the following topics:

Motion Control of virtual characters (kinematics, dynamics, and capture)

Human body deformations Parametric animation models (e.g. running) from video

analysis Interaction between virtual humans and objects in the

Augmented Reality framework.

Bam and its Cultural Landscape

After the earthquake of the 26th December 2003 and the immense destruction of the Bam heritage in Iran, the reconstruction of the ruins especially of the citadel of Bam has become an important task for experts.first phase of the project were to develop the 3Dimensional models of 7 case studies inside the citadel of Bam (Main gate,Bazaar,Tekkiyeh (religious plaza), Mosque, Sistani house, barrack, stable, four season reception room

Cont….

The team of drawing the 3D models consisting of in Japan from Waseda University and the team of Raaz Ahang architectural firm in Iran from University of Tehran has made a tremendous effort to build the 3D models.

Future

In the past, computing power has doubled approximately every 18 months, a trend that is known as Moore’s Law. If this is the case then we should have a computer powerful enough to run immersive VR programs in our own homes by the year 2037.

1999 10% of the world's computing power was non-human

2029 99% of the world’s computing capacity will be non-human

Design By :

Masih Farnia

Resources:

http://www.reflex.lth.se http://www.bmw.com.twhttp://www.panovision.at http://www.xboxfront.dehttp://www.innovation.cahttp://www.activeworlds.comhttp://vrlab.epfl.chhttp://www.hitl.washington.eduhttp://www.wam.umd.eduhttp://www.ourvirtualreality.com

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