Updates

[ 23 Jul 2008 : Added Workbench and Cave videos]

Index

- Projectors based

- HMD, VR Goggles

Projectors Based

The most impressive and immersive is the Cave system (also called SasCube, Move, Cube…). It’s a cube of at least 3×3x3m with at least four faces displaying stereoscopic images. The Cave at Iowa State University has just been upgraded and now has a resolution of 100 million pixels, featuring 96 GPUs and 24 Sony digital projectors.

© Arnaud Muthelet

Multiple users can fit in a Cave, enabling collaboration. Note that as of now, the displayed images have the correct perspective for a maximum of two users, and multiple-user interaction is not yet the norm.

(c) S. Kuntz

Then several systems with digital projectors exist, from the Holobench and Holostage to the Reality Center and a “simple” mono or multi-projectors wall.

Holobench - Photos © PSA Peugeot Citroën Mediatheque.

A Wall © Arnaud Muthelet

A Reality Center © Arnaud Muthelet

An HoloStage © Arnaud Muthelet

Panoscope (c) Laval Virtual

The Matsushita Electronics Hemispheric Dome  is an hemispherical screen of 8.5 meters in inside diameter, 18 projectors, with stereo images projected on the screen having a wide field of view (FOV) of 180 degrees in horizontal and 150 degrees in vertical directions.

Now that the traditional theaters are buying digital projectors that have great chances of being able to display 3D pictures. As 3D movies are coming back, we should consider them as potential VR centers !

That’s why the biggest VR display is in Paris, in the famous La Géode theater that also hosts an Imax projector.

(c) S. Kuntz

(c) Dassault Systèmes

HMD, VR Goggles

There is an impressive number of Head Mounted Displays (HMD) on the market. Some of them are getting more attention :

(c) S. Kuntz

- the eMagin Z800 seems to be the most successful. Priced at1500$, it has very nice displays (OLED, 800×600), but disappointing integrated trackers.

(c) Trimersion

- the Trimersion has the big advantage of being wireless and cheap (600$). Small resolution (640×480) and probably crappy integrated trackers. Note that the gun is not tracked.

(c) Sensics

- the piSight Sensics is a panoramic HMD, with a field of view up to 180°, and up to 4200×2400 pixels per eye ! It is made up of several OLED 800×600 displays (built by eMagin). The main problem is that if it is not perfectly setup on your head, you can see the seams between those displays. And it’s very expensive.

Tags: Active Stereoscopy, cave, DLP, emagin, HMD, Holobench, LCD, Passive, reference, resource, sensics, Stereoscopy, trimersion, Virtual Reality, VR Displays

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[This article will be regularly updated with new info to keep up to date. Feel free to comment!]

Introduction

Back in the 90’s, Virtual Reality was about to be a big revolution. Expectations were high and disappointment cruel. Nearly 20 years after, only a few people know what is possible nowadays with VR.

The technology silently evolved in research labs and big companies, and now prototypes have evolved into commercially viable products. The professional VR market is very healthy and growing fast.

Industrials are using VR systems to prototype their products and train their personnel; researchers are using it to understand and treat us; and the mass market is slowly rediscovering that playing with your body is the ultimate experience.

With so much false ideas lying around the web, it’s high time to make a lucid point on where VR is now with a small state of the art.

“As an image is worth a thousand words, a virtual environment is worth a thousand pictures!”

- Part 1 - Applications : Who is using VR to do what?

- Part 2 - Devices : Input devices, trackers, haptics, gloves …

- Part 3 - Displays : Caves, HMDs …

- Consumer Hardware ( coming soon)

NB: I will only be talking about “immersive” VR, which excludes SecondLife and Quicktime VR. See What is (not) VR.

Tags: reference, resource, Virtual Reality

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PSA/Peugeot Citroen released a new video of their VR Center. They have a CAVE, a Holobench, and an Holostage !

Tags: citroen, Company, Lab, peugeot, psa, video, Virtual Reality

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Did you know that in 1995 Nintendo released a portable VR console, called the Virtual Boy ? With a monochrome stereoscopic HMD with a 384×224 resolution, it was priced at 180$ and reportedly Nintendo sold 700′000 units. The failure of the system had them discontinue the project one year later.

A bit sooner, Sega also tried to release a VR console [and wikipedia here] in 1994, with LCD screens and inertial trackers:

The Sega VR console combined full color LCD screens and stereo sound. Weight was distrusted evenly, and the device was reported to be comfortable. Also, unlike the Virtual Boy, it was truly portable, not requiring a cumbersome tripod for enjoyable game play.

(…)

Due to limited resources, strategic planning, the complete and utter failure of Nintendo’s Virtual Boy, underwhelming graphics and performance, as well as motion sickness, Sega was wise in not bringing this cliché console to the market.

The company claimed the project was stopped because the VR was so real users would move while wearing the headset and injure themselves.

Hum. Lol.. =)

[update : here’s a video of the ad]

Tags: Anaglyph, console, Game, HMD, nintendo, OldSchool, sega, Stereoscopy, Virtual Reality, VR Applications

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Alex Bouchet showed me those two vintage videos of the early days of the CAVE :

“(1991) before the CAVE was called “The CAVE” it was internally named the Pocket Cathedral (actually it was called the Closet Cathedral - or the Closet for short).
The CAVE was invented by the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago.”

It seems CAVE stood for Cave Audio Visual Environment, then Cave Automatic Virtual Environment.

Dan Sandin says that CAVE refers to “both the early cave paintings and to the shadows of the ideal forms in Plato’s cave”.

(Update: Here’s another good introductory video to the CAVE system : 1993)

Tags: Art, cathedral, cave, evl, history, Virtual Reality, VR Displays

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The french association for virtual reality (AFRV [fr], english page here) was holding its annual meeting in Marseille. Nearly all the major actors of VR in France were there.

The complete photo gallery is here.

- The 3×3x4m Cave of the CRVM -

Bruno Arnaldi has been elected as the new AFRV president, replacing Philippe Fuchs.

Here are some interesting things that were said during those days, in a simplified and out-of-context form (don’t hesitate to correct me!) :

- VR is very interesting to study humans: it allows for a good experimental control and ecological validity: you can manipulate a reality and conduct experiments that for practical or ethical reasons couldn’t be conducted in the real world.

- In a lot of fields, studies must be done to see if the actions, behavior and perception in virtual environments and reality match. This ecological validity is crucial for the validity of studies conducted in VR only.

- A lot of work has to be done to improve the communication skills of an avatar: non-verbal cues must be transmitted for better communication, and the way we interact with them must be simplified, more natural.
- A lot of people don’t want to use intrusive devices (HMDs, glasses etc)

- 3D interactions are still a big research area.

- Users are not necessarily ready to use haptics (force-feedback), even a 6DOF device is sometimes difficult!

- Rehabilitation through VR is better: closer to reality, better transfer from virtual to real, better motivation thanks to the fun aspect of VR.

- Stereo viewing is not the natural way of seeing. Sometimes we are faster at evaluating depth through parallax. Studies are being conducted to study the perception of shapes with stereoscopy compared to the real world.

Tags: afrv, cave, Conference, Interaction, Photo, Psychology, therapy, Virtual Reality

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I just returned from Weimar, Germany, attending the Immersive Projection Technologies/Eurographics Symposium on Virtual Environments.

This has been a really interesting event. I’ve met some very nice people and learned a lot of things!

I’ll try to speak about the conferences later. In the meantime here are some photos.
Here are three pieces of hardware that were presented here that I particularly enjoyed :

Intersense IS-1200 VisTracker

Which I already presented here.

A.R.T. FingerTracking with Tactile Feedback

A.R.T. was presenting a prototype of its FingerTracking with tactile feedback. Three little wires enclose your fingers and vibrate can vibrate with differente intensities. This allows to “feel” when you touch an object, and have more precision when manipulating objects, especially when you don’t have a stereo display.

Haption Virtuose 6D Desktop

A small professional and precise haptics device with 6DOF (position+orientation), already presented at Laval Virtual 2007 :

Tags: Conference, EGVE, glove, haptics, Haption, intersense, IPT, optical, Virtual Reality, VR Devices

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The newly formed AFRV [ French Association for VR/AR and 3D interaction ] is publishing some informal statistics about the state of VR in France in its “Journal de l’AFRV” (available to members). These stats are for general information purpose only and shouldn’t be regarded as official statistics.
The most interesting figures are :

- ~500 people are working in VR/AR; Researchers/Teachers (51%), PhD candidates (34%), engineers & technicians (14%).

- The majority of research is done about VR only, much less about AR only (often VR+AR).
- There is an important number of groups that use VR without doing research about these technologies (18/39), which represent 100/460 people.

- The research is done, by decreasing order, in the medical field, product conception, transportation, education, human studies, scientific data exploration, architecture, sport, game, archelogy, art, geoscience, energy, military, domotic.

- No group is doing fundamental research on VR/AR. It seems to always be applied research.

- The equipment is, by decreasing order, tracking devices, feedback/haptics devices, stereoscopic display, big screen (<10m²), data glove (no haptics), HMD, 3d sound, immersive room (>10m²), speech recognition, CAVE or approaching (6!), workbench, tactile feedback, treadmill …

If you add all the VR students that come out of schools every year, that makes a lot of VR enthousiasts in France

Tags: afrv, Augmented Reality, statistics, Virtual Reality, VR Applications, VR Devices, VR Displays

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These three great days have been very intense; holding the booth, meeting people, attending conferences, trying hardware and applications, being a jury member for the student competition. First things first, here are some pictures I took there. I should have taken more of the show..

There was not much new hardware, especially hardly any new expensive hardware. The novelty came from the use of existing hardware and better software. It seems that VR is at last being democratized; people create customized and cheap input devices, use webcams, recycle hardware not meant for VR etc.

Read on for more..

Read more…

Tags: Conference, Game, lavalvirtual, tradeshow, Virtual Reality, Virtual Reality DIY, virtualreality, VR Applications, VR Devices, VR Displays

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I’m leaving today for Laval Virtual, the biggest VR tradeshow in Europe. See you there

I hope the Kobitos will be there too!

Tags: laval-virtual, tradeshow, Virtual Reality

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