Welcome to14:332:376 Virtual Reality and

16:332:571 Virtual Reality TechnologySpring 2012

Grigore C. Burdea Ph.D.Professor

burdea@jove.rutgers.eduDirector, Tele-Rehabilitation Institute

http://www.ti.rutgers.edu

Electrical and Computer Engineering Department

Class web site:

https://sakai.rutgers.edu/portal

Textbook site:

www.vrtechnology.org

Grading Criteria (376): Quizzes 20%,

Midterm 40%

Final 40%Attendance penalty – one letter grade lost for 4 absences. Midterm and Final are mandatory to passCheating is an automatic F. All exams and quizzes are closed books/notes/etc. Quizzes are announced.

Laboratory assignments graded separately (for 378 – co req)

TA Mr. Timothy Phan tsphan@scarletmail.rutgers.edu

Grading Criteria (571):

Quizzes 10%,

Midterm 25%

Final 25%

Laboratory 40%

Attendance penalty – one letter grade lost for 4 absences.

Midterm, Final and Laboratory Term Project Mandatory to pass. Quizzes announced, Cheating results in an F.

Textbook: Burdea and Coiffet, Virtual Reality Technology, 2nd Edition, Wiley, 2003

Textbook web site: www.vrtechnology.org

Textbook web site: www.vrtechnology.org

Laboratory Hardware

Updated class notes (PowerPoint) will be posted on the webhttps://sakai.rutgers.edu/portal

Quiz and Exam Solution on Sakai

Supplemental materials, surveys, links to companies and labs on the textbook site.

Virtual Reality - Introduction

Topics

IntroductionIntroduction

What is Virtual Reality?

It is not augmented reality….

Introduction

What is Virtual Reality?

“A high-end user-computer interface that involves real-time simulation and interaction through multiple sensorial channels.” (vision, sound, touch, smell, taste)”

Introduction

http://games.yahoo.com/braingames/brain-teasers-games/phantom-square-255

Introduction

Sensorama Simulator, US Patent #3,050,870, 1962

Introduction

VR Short History

1963+ Ivan Sutherland's doctoral theses: SKETCHPAD: stereo HMD, position tracking, and a graphics engine. 1966+ Tom Furness: display systems for pilots; 1967+ Brooks developed force feedback GROPE system;

Introduction

Ivan Sutherland’s HMD

(1966+)

Introduction

Brooks’s Grope Project (1977)

VR Short History

1977 Sandin and Sayre invent a bend-sensing glove

1979 Raab et al: Polhemus tracking system

1989 Jaron Lanier (VPL) coins the term virtual reality

1994 VR Society formed

The first complete system was developed by NASA “Virtual Visual Environmental Display” (VIVED early 80s; they prototyped the LCD HMD;

Became “Virtual Interface Environment Workstation” (VIEW) 1989

IntroductionNASA … a pioneer in VR

NASA VIEW system (1992)

Introduction

Large simulation and training needs;

Could not send humans to other planets;

Relatively small budgets.

Introduction

Why NASA?

Towards Commercialization…

The first commercial VR systems appeared in the late 80s produced by VPL Co. (California):

The VPL “Data Glove” and

The VPL “Eye Phone” HMD

Introduction

The VPL DataGlove (1987) cost $8,500

Introduction

The Matel PowerGlove (1989)

Introduction

The first commercial VR glove for entertainment –

Mattel Power Glove $50 (1989)

The Flight Helmet (ca. 1990) weighs 5 lbs

Early HMDs were massive

…and had poor resolution

Virtual Reality in the early 90s….

Emergence of first commercial Toolkits:

WorldToolKit (Sense8 Co.);

VCToolkit (Division Ltd., UK);

Virtual Reality Toolkit VRT3 (Dimension Ltd./Superscape, UK);

Cyberspace Developer Kit (Autodesk)

Introduction

Introduction

Superscape VRT3 Development System

Virtual Reality in the early 90s….

Emergence of first non-commercial toolkits:

Rend386;

Later Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML 1.0);

Later still Java and Java 3D;

Introduction

Introduction

Scene created with Rend386Successor is AVRIL ("A Virtual Reality Interface Library“) C library for authoring. Created at U. Waterloo, Canadaece.uwaterloo.ca/~broehl/avril.html

Virtual Reality in the early 90s….

PC boards still very slow (7,000 – 35,000 polygons/sec);

First turnkey VR system – Provision 100 (Division Ltd.)

Emergence of faster graphics rendering architectures at UNC Chapel Hill:

“Pixel Planes”;

Later “Pixel Flow”;

Introduction

Introduction

Stride PC graphics accelerator

35,000 polygons/sec;

$26,000 (with two co-processors)/card

Require up to 6 PC slots for stereo version

Introduction

Provision 100 VR turnkey system (Division Ltd., UK)

35,000 polygons/sec;

$64,000 (including texture generator, tracker, 3-D audio, HMD and software)

Introduction

Pixel Planes 5 VR system (UNC)

~ 1 Million triangles/sec;

Rendering speed comparison SGI vs. PCs

xBox 360500 Million poly/sec

2005

Laboratory VR Station prices (2002)PRODUCT Price/user % of Budget

PC 1.7 GHz

FireGL 2 accelerator

2,347 48

Polhemus 3D tracker

4 receivers

1,823 37

5DT sensing glove

five-sensor version

482 10

Stereo Glasses wired 179 3

Force feedback Joystick 88 2

Java and Java3D - -

VRML - -

Total 4,919 100

VR Market growth

The key elements of a conventional VR System

The key elements of a modern VR System