CISE Research Resources: A State-of-the-Art Immersive Display for Research in Rendering, Animation and Simulation, and Cognitive Human-Computer Interface Design

University Of Virginia Main Campus, Charlottesville VA

Investigators

Abstract

EIA-0130800 David Luebke University of Virginia This project will construct a state-of-art immersive display at the University of Virginia. Specifically, the investigators will build a wide field-of-view tiled display, using passive stereo projection, 6-DOF head tracking, and spatialized audio to create an extremely immersive 3-D audio-visual display environment. This display will benefit and enable three separate research projects in the Computer Science and Psychology departments: gaze-directed rendering, perceptually driven physical simulation and animation, and cognitive design of human-computer interfaces. Tiling multiple projectors will create a display spanning a very wide field of view; two projectors per tile will enable passive stereo display with lightweight polarizing glasses. An audio system, a head tracker, and realistic scanned 3-D environments will enable immersive and convincing virtual worlds. The wide field-of-view will provide an ideal testbed for gaze-directed rendering, which accelerates interactive rendering by exploiting reduced visual acuity (e.g., for peripheral or fast-moving objects), and for perceptually driven physical simulation, which selectively degrades simulation accuracy according to perceptual metrics. The human-computer interface project investigates immersive ambient context to improve human memory. The stereo head-tracked capabilities of the new display will literally add a new dimension to the investigation, enabling full 3-D environmental cues.