MRI: Acquisition of a Virtual Reality Testbed for Research and Teaching in Visualization, Simulation, and Edutainment

George Mason University, Fairfax VA

Investigators

Abstract

Project Proposed: This project, acquiring virtual reality infrastructure, aims at supporting research in computer graphics, visualization, and virtual reality. Spanning the areas of artificial intelligence, computer game development for computer science education, anatomy visualization, surgical simulation, and statistical data visualization, the infrastructure would service Computer Games for Learning (Edutainment), Virtual Surgery Simulation, and Scientific Data Visualization. The facility might enable experiments in the use of immersive networked virtual environments for distance education. On surgery simulation the current projects expand into an immersive environment with direct user manipulation of virtual objects through haptic devices, supplying a better sense of reality for both patients and surgeons. Providing a different perspective of data visualization, manipulation, and mining, the infrastructure would contribute to a new initiative on virtual environment construction through video images.