100 Million Pixels of Virtual Reality 190
Roland Piquepaille writes "It's ironic that Iowa State University (ISU) announced a big upgrade of its C6 virtual reality (VR) room the same day as SGI filed for bankruptcy. Back in 2000, this 10x10x10 foot room was powered by SGI Onyx2 computers. The new version of this six-sided VR room will use 96 graphics processing units from Hewlett-Packard. And with its 24 Sony digital projectors, the researchers at ISU will immerse themselves into images of about 100 million pixels in the most realistic VR room in the world. Of course, this upgrade is not cheap. But with this $4 million addition, this new C6 should lead to new advances in urban planning, genetics, engineering or unmanned aerial vehicles."
Thats not all it will lead the field in (Score:4, Funny)
100 million pixels of virtual pr0n... nope, no way to hide that at work!
Re:Good to see government money at work (Score:2)
New Advances in Genetics, eh? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:New Advances in Genetics, eh? (Score:3, Insightful)
No, this concerns real genetics - primarily agricultural typing and visualization. And, yes, I am here at ISU.
Re:New Advances in Genetics, eh? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:New Advances in Genetics, eh? (Score:1, Funny)
Read: "Yup, that's why we've got wipe clean floors. I'm here at ISU until I've got forearms like Popeye."
Re:New Advances in Genetics, eh? (Score:2)
Maybe you should go out more...
Cheap (Score:1)
Re:Cheap (Score:2)
OTOH, I don't see any reason why a person couldn't do this on the cheap and have something that's a few years behind (but since it's your own personal one, it's still cool). Hey, it may even be better than the one they are upgrading from 2000!:)
They used a 10 foot x 10 foot room. No biggie, practically a big walk-in closet. Then come some projectors and computers with video cards driving
Re:Cheap (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Cheap (Score:2, Informative)
If you find one that's not wireless, it might be a whole lot cheaper.
Also I used to have a finger mouse I got for like 2 bucks that had a little trackball on top for the thumb with the mouse button as trigger, but lost it.
If you have some time and expertise, you can do some motion tracking with webcams. The lower the reso
Re:Cheap (Score:2)
Anyway, welcome to the holodeck!
Re:Cheap (Score:4, Informative)
You'll have a small amount of lag in the syncronization (network + OS + application software) but with some tweaking of the OS network configuration, or using some insanely fast system rather than a network (shared memory backplane?), you might get it to a few ms?
If you want frame-by-frame synchronization you need some specialized equipment driving the projectors, stuff like this: http://www.es.com/products/image+generators/index
(Anyone making a homebrew CAVE want to try using http://interreality.org/ [interreality.org] VOS software in it?)
Re:Cheap (Score:2)
Being as this story is "from the holodeck-wannabe dept.", I'd say your efforts were doomed before they began.
Not so cheap (Score:3, Informative)
Its in 3d.
Doing 3d is no big deal for a small screen when the viewer is in a fixed perspective, but when you ware walking around the room the images have to change to keep the proper 3d perspective. Doing all of that for a 6 sided room in high deffinition and on-the-fly takes some serious horse power.
(BTW, I was in it in 1999 when it was 4 sided (floor and 3 walls))
Re:Not so cheap (Score:2)
The toughest part is the software, which is usually very proprietary. I used to work in the planetarium field, and people like Evans and Sutherland were just rolling out massive, all-dome video systems. Usually these consisted of 4 projectors that would cover the dome in 3d. The computers that were running this stuff were pretty simple. One computer per projector, plus one computer that told the other computers what to draw. None of the computers were over 40
Re:Not so cheap (Score:2)
Re:Cheap (Score:2)
Drool (Score:3, Funny)
Finally! (Score:2)
Nice picture of the room in TFA (Score:3, Funny)
"/."-hype? (Score:1, Interesting)
At least ISU is spending wisely (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:At least ISU is spending wisely (Score:5, Funny)
Such as spending 3k for Graphics design computers for use as word processors.
Good to see your university is getting ready for Vista.
Re:At least ISU is spending wisely (Score:2)
This looks really good, but also such a waste (Score:2, Interesting)
The goggles would also have the benefit of being runnable on relatively standand class hardware.
I mean, this thing has to produce a spherical projection for every single point in the viewers space, its got to be crunching far too much data.
I personally don't see the benefits of this virtual magic carpet ride for the outlay required.
Re:This looks really good, but also such a waste (Score:2)
Re:This looks really good, but also such a waste (Score:5, Insightful)
There actually are things you can do in the C6 that you cannot do with goggles. For one - and to name something that I know is implementable and implemented - you can track body posturing and position within the C6 to make the experience more engaging/real. Any pictures just do not do this justice; the "seams" shown in the picture are not nearly as obvious in the real thing. On that note, I will say that I've nearly walked into the wall before (on the old system), and missed walking into the screen by a matter of about 6 inches.
With respect to your other comment, the part about interoperability (The goggles would also have the benefit of being runnable on relatively standand class hardware), sometimes you want and need specialized solutions to do great things. Just because you or I cannot hope to afford such a system doesn't invalidate the system.
Re:This looks really good, but also such a waste (Score:2)
Re:This looks really good, but also such a waste (Score:2)
Re:This looks really good, but also such a waste (Score:2)
Re:This looks really good, but also such a waste (Score:2)
Re:This looks really good, but also such a waste (Score:2)
Well, the project (Icarus) that I mentioned was completed this semester in HCI 575x (Computer Perception). Throughout the semester I have been hearing that we'd like to include a couple of cameras in the C6 for body posture/pose/position tracking. While I can speculate that this has some
Re:This looks really good, but also such a waste (Score:2)
Re:This looks really good, but also such a waste (Score:1)
Except create a display with high resolution.
I mean, this thing has to produce a spherical projection for every single point in the viewers space, its got to be crunching far too much data.
Data crunching is realivly easy. The real bottleneck comes when you need to dispaly all the points.
I personally don't see the benefits of this virtual magic carpet ride for the outlay required.
Me either, and I'm working with (only) a
Re:This looks really good, but also such a waste (Score:4, Informative)
Re:This looks really good, but also such a waste (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:This looks really good, but also such a waste (Score:3, Interesting)
How about it's great for having more than one person in there and you can point at a spot and keep talking. With googles you'd both have to be wearing them and you'd have to describe to the other person the point you are looking at.
At least that's what I thought of.
Re:This looks really good, but also such a waste (Score:1)
Re:This looks really good, but also such a waste (Score:2, Insightful)
Yes, though head-tracking is typically only done for 1 user, there are ways to set it up with multiple head-tracks and render/shutter multiple times per application-frame. Further, the difference between tracked/non-tracked users is really only an issue for objects that are near the 'screen' or would be 'inside' the walls. Large-scale or large-distance viewing is not affected since the binocular disparity is so small.
#2 -
The floor of the old C6 could handle 7-8 people safely, which is about as m
Re:This looks really good, but also such a waste (Score:1)
About 8 or 9 years ago, I had an opportunity to spend some late-night time in the original "cave" (predecessor to the C4 and C6). The optical device that was used at the time employed computer-controlled polarizing lenses, along with sensors to determine the location and orientation (i.e. where the user was looking). The flight simulator applicat
Actually, that isn't true... (Score:2)
Certainly, there might b
Re:This looks really good, but also such a waste (Score:2)
VR Goggles! (Score:2)
Here it comes (Score:1)
Atanasoff-Berry Computer (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Atanasoff-Berry Computer (Score:2)
Re:Atanasoff-Berry Computer (Score:2)
Re:Atanasoff-Berry Computer (Score:2)
One last lame post (Score:4, Insightful)
about irony.. (Score:2)
It's like the University could have gotten a free ride, but they already paid...
Re:One last lame post (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:One last lame post (Score:2)
SGI stopped being a market power and is collapsing. The C6 needed to be upgraded. Rather than go with a flailing has-been, a different provider was selected.
It is a coincidence that on the same day that they filed bankruptcy, the upgrade was announced - hence syncronicity, not irony.
Re:One last lame post (Score:2)
This is not an expansion of the language - it's a misuse of a word within the language. Furthermore, you can always dislike people who throw around random prepositions where they do not belong.
Re:One last lame post (Score:2)
Re:One last lame post (Score:2)
I'm not promoting effete pedantry, I just appreciate a good nuance now and then.
Re:One last lame post (Score:2)
Good folk, lock up your son and daughter
Beware the deadly flashing blade
Unless you want to end up shorter
Black Adder, Black Adder, he rides a pitch black steed
Black Adder, Black Adder, he's very bad indeed
Black: his gloves of finest mole
Black: his codpiece made of metal
His horse is blacker than a hole
His pot is blacker than his kettle
Black Adder, Black Adder, with many an cunning plan
Black Adder, Black Adder, you horrid little man.
HP GPUs? (Score:2, Insightful)
Is there some very specialised requirement I'm not seeing here?
Re:HP GPUs? (Score:4, Informative)
I can only comment about the API - we're using something that is a standard (for us) and that fills in as nice middleware: VRJuggler [vrjuggler.org]. It sits atop (among other things) OpenGL.
Re:HP GPUs? (Score:1)
The (other) important question: (Score:2)
RealityLens (Score:1, Interesting)
Poor quality (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Poor quality (Score:1)
(I'm kidding. Well, mostly.)
Re:Poor quality (Score:3, Funny)
I'm a bad, bad person
Re:Poor quality (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Poor quality (Score:1)
Re:Poor quality (Score:1)
Re:Poor quality (Score:2)
Despite the impressive sounding headline figures, it's not actually that high resolution at all. 100 million pixels is approx 16.7 million per side of the cube. Now I have some 4.2 million pixels sitting in front of me as I type this. So it's only about 4 times the pixels of my current desktop, covering a 10'x10' wall, which I can assure you is much more than 4 times the display area that I have. In fact, the VR room is only around 33dp
Re:Poor quality (Score:2)
For 500 sq ft area (600 with floor), they'd need at least 300 million pixels to look realistic.
Yawn? (Score:1)
Link to article text here (Score:3, Informative)
5-8-06
Contacts:
James Oliver, Virtual Reality Applications Center, (515) 294-2649
Chiu-Shui Chan, Architecture, (515) 294-8326
Eve Wurtele, Genetics, Development and Cell Biology, (515) 294-8989
Mark Bryden, Mechanical Engineering, (515) 294-3891
Mike Krapfl, News Service, (515) 294-4917
/
The most realistic virtual reality room in the world
AMES, Iowa -- More than $4 million in equipment upgrades will shine 100 million pixels on Iowa State University's six-sided virtual reality room.
(image)C6 battlespace
(image caption)Jared Knutzon, an Iowa State University graduate student in human computer interaction, demonstrates how Iowa State's C6 virtual reality room can control the military's unmanned aerial vehicles.
That's twice the number of pixels lighting up any virtual reality room in the world and 16 times the pixels now projected on Iowa State's C6, a 10-foot by 10-foot virtual reality room that surrounds users with computer-generated 3-D images. That means the C6 will produce virtual reality at the world's highest resolution.
Iowa State's C6 opened in June 2000 as the country's first six-sided virtual reality room designed to immerse users in images and sound. The graphics and projection technology that made such immersion possible hasn't been updated since the C6 opened.
The difference between the equipment currently in the C6 and the updated technology to be installed this summer, "is like putting on your glasses in the morning," said James Oliver, the director of Iowa State's Virtual Reality Applications Center and a professor of mechanical engineering.
The new equipment -- a Hewlett-Packard computer featuring 96 graphics processing units, 24 Sony digital projectors, an eight-channel audio system and ultrasonic motion tracking technology -- will be installed by Fakespace Systems Inc. of Marshalltown. The project is supported by a U.S. Department of Defense appropriation through the Air Force Office of Scientific Research.
The project began this spring with a prototype upgrade to one wall of the C6. The remainder of the work will continue throughout the summer. Oliver said the improved C6 will open in the fall. A grand opening celebration is being planned for the spring of 2007.
A better C6 will be good news for the Iowa State researchers who study virtual reality.
Chiu-Shui Chan, an Iowa State professor of architecture, has used the C6 to develop 3-D models of buildings, cities and workplaces. He's studying how virtual reality can be a tool to create a library of historical buildings, plan urban growth and test workplace efficiency.
(image)virtual Beijing
(image caption) A virtual model of the Xidan business district in Beijing can help city planners manage urban growth.
Chan said the upgrade will improve the visual realism and interactive speed of his virtual reality applications. And that will enhance the sense of place in his applications and the effectiveness of his research.
Chan said the C6's existing technology requires him to balance and sacrifice some of a project's size, speed, realism or human-computer interaction. "With the new system I won't have to worry about that," he said.
Eve Wurtele, an Iowa State professor of genetics, development and cell biology, working with Julie Dickerson, an Iowa State associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, has used the C6 to develop new ways to visualize data from as many as 22,000 genes. She's also developing a virtual cell project that shows cells in 3-D action to help students learn about photosynthesis and other aspects of cell biology.
Wurtele said the higher speeds and better pictures will be a boost for her research and teaching.
"This upgrade is fantastic for us," she said. "It's essential for our research."
Mark Bryden, an associate professor of mechanical engineering, has used virtual reality to develop engineering tools that he
nevermind VR pr0n (Score:1)
Based on open source VR (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Yea for Linux and free software. (Score:2)
Coral Cache Here (Score:2, Informative)
I just dont get it (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:I just dont get it (Score:2)
Re:I just dont get it (Score:3, Insightful)
Also, although the article's picture shows three visible screens, when you're in the C6, you don't see them as separate screens
What they're good for (Score:2)
1. Public relations, presentation. These facilities are used all the time to present scientific results to program managers, collaborators, funding agencies, and the like. Don't underestimate the power of these types of presentations. Though it's not "real science," the
next best thing (Score:2, Insightful)
I went to ISAR in 2000 [augmented-reality.org], in those days even SGI's weren't getting close to get all the computing force AR typically needs. I wonder how AR is now developing. AR is maybe more interesting for interaction designers to make virtual interfaces for objects from the
Poor SGI (Score:5, Insightful)
Poor old SGI. They built amazingly excellent hardware, bleeding edge software, paid their workers well, treated employees like kings and customers like emporers, and donated heavily to the open source movement.
So, of course they went bankrupt.
Done in by the Microslop-ization of technology.
We who were once the high preists of the cult of technology, wizards of electronic wonder, have become the janitors of the Microsoft plumbing, fit only to plunge out the cr@p that clogs the email pipes.
By allowing slackers in our ranks to use shrink-wrap scumware to badly execute business functions cheaply, we have fallen from grace.
Re:Poor SGI (Score:2)
SGI did a lot of things like you mentioned well, but treating their customers well - was a mixed bag in my opinion. Support was top-notch, just at about NetApp levels.
Let's talk about sales.
SGI Salespeople seemed to be constructed primarily out of ex-Porn producers replete with coke spoons around thei
Re:Poor SGI (Score:2)
Re:Poor SGI (Score:2)
A shrinking customer based caused SGI to "eat its own children" so to speak. They raised prices on parts and support to try to squeeze more revenue out of existing customers, which only caused them to have fewer existing customers.
That was, as you have observed, mostly the fault of cocaine-snorting marketing types.
After all, if you don't admit that negative things are happening, you can keep ignoring them until disaster strikes.
Re:Poor SGI (Score:2)
I prefer 200 Megapixels (Score:2)
http://www.apple.com/science/profiles/hiperwall/ [apple.com]
204,800,000 pixels - sans any dead ones.
Cheers,
Re:I prefer 200 Megapixels (Score:2)
http://www.apple.com/displays/specs.html [apple.com]
Seven of nine and her astrometrics lab... (Score:2)
PiVoxEls (Score:2)
I'd be more impressed with a 10' cub
Re:you have a valid point (Score:2)
A spherical enclosure would at least justify the projectors, offering big computation saviings by actually projecting onto the display surface rather than computing the projection.
Re:That's not irony (Score:5, Funny)
Re:That's not irony (Score:2)
Re:That's not irony (Score:4, Informative)
Re:That's not irony (Score:2)
Re:Research... my ass... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:A six sided room! (Score:2)
Well, now that Star Trek is gone, the future looks gloomy.
Re:Ames Sucks (Score:3, Funny)
You're obviously not very familiar with Iowa. There are plenty of other places that make ames look like NYC.
Re:Ames Sucks (Score:2)
Re:Price in 15 years ? (Score:2)