Virtual Reality Augmented Realities Mixed Realities Winter 03/102 Week 8 Dept. Design|Media Arts

CHAR DAVIES Osmose 1995 Computers, sound synthesizers and processors, stereoscopic head-mounted display with 3-D localized sound, interface vest, motion-capture devices, video projector, silhouette screen Dimensions variable

Early VR Bell Helicopter Company used displays connected to a camera for flight simulation The system proved to give a satisfactory sense of realitiy to the user Similar systems were used for air pilot training until early 80s Ivan Sutherland took the idea and built the ”ultimate Display”, the first Head-Mounted Display (HMD) in 1966 (the image to the right: circa 1967) Reference can be found at: http://www.sun.com/960710/feature3/alice.html#pics

Evans &Sutherland Founded in 1973 by two professors David Evans and Ivan Sutherland (see http://www.es.com/about_eands/history/index.asp) Specialized in graphic engines for real time interactive image generation Construction of a simulator capable of producing 20 images/second Resulted in the first flight simulator for the US Army Development of a VR helmet in the 70’s and 80’s by the US Army (secret project) Provided system for flight simulators for commercial aircraft all over the world Fastest real time graphics engine As the cold war ends, became active in entertainment business

SENSORAMA by Morton Heilig (1960) Not interactive, but an immersive environment

Immersive environment: panorama, peepshow and stereoscope

Illusion of “being there”

Peepshow box and perspective prints

All sorts of stereoscopes….

3D cinema

Wider screen

The Cinerama Dome with its 316 hexagons and pentagons was built in sixteen weeks in 1963 and opened with Stanley Kramer's "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World."

Real time graphics (Dan Sandin’s Image Processor and other analog image synthesizers)

“Put-that-there” Voice and gesture at the graphics interface, Negroponte et al, MIT, 1980

“Artificial Reality” Engineer/Artist Myron Krueger, 1983 Videoplace 1985

Modern Notion of Virtual Reality Systems NASA AMES Around 1985, using DEC PDP 11-40 and E&S 3-D head position measurement by Polhemus digitizer Display as wireframe Data glove added by Scott Fisher First virtual sound system in 1988 by Scott Fisher and E. Wenzel Created the first system capable of synthesizing four virtual 3-D sound sources The sound sources were localized even if the head moves

Super Cockpit Tom Furness, Univ. of Washington

UNC Chapel Hill 1980s - CG, computer science, parallel processing, force feedback, tactile display, new ideas and concepts….. (photo: concept model for X-ray viewing, 1990)

Late 1980s to Beginning of 1990s: VR as a phenomenon Photo: NASA AMES 1990 Scott Fisher et al.

VR Comes to the Public’s Attention (Article on Dataglove, 1987)

Commercially available equipments VPL Dataglove, Datasuit

Jaron Lanier, CEO of VPL Stands for "Visual Programming Language”, founded in 1984

FakeSpace Boom Display - early 1990s

Menagerie Scott Fisher et al.

Dan Sandin Developed CAVE

CAVE: The concept developed from Art and Technology collaboration Developed around 1992 at the University of Illinois’ Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at Urbana Champaign, USA First version was based on a network of SGI Reality Engine machines to render images in real-time display The system is composed of three projection walls and one floor Use two 3-D magnetic trackers, Flock of Birds by Ascension Technology, to locate the head and the hand

Industrial Applications of VR Molecular modeling Medical Architecture : Walk through Interior design: Kitchen Industrial design: Car Psychology Training

Communication environment Education

The IMMERSADESK and other wide-screen formats IMMERSADESK: Developed at the EVL around 1995 Is equivalent to a 3-D drafting table Uses the same interface as the CAVE : The wand tracks the hand and a head tracker Immersive environment with wide screens, semi-spherical screens emerge

Bush Soul by Rebecca Allen

VR for everyone: on PC and on the Web Introduction of VRML 1.0 in 1996 Introduction of Performer library by SGI around 1996 QTVR (Apple, 1992) Commercial version of the CAVE available in 1998 produced by Pyramid Systems Introduction of many high-speed graphic cards for PCs around 1998 Introduction of VRML 2.0 in 1998 PC CAVE

Artistic applications of VR Concept, context and new interface ideas Legible City: Jeffery Shaw Home of the Brain: Monika Fleischmann, Art+Com Virtual tram ride in Karlsruhe: Michael Naimark Handsight: Agnes Hegedus Menagerie: Scott Fisher, Susan Amkraut, Interactive Plant Growing, A-Volve: Christa Sommerer, Laurent Mingonneau Living by Numbers: Luc Courschene Osmose, Ephemere: Char Davies World Skin: Maurice Benayoun

VR interfaces (image below: Virtual YABUSAME, shooting arrows on horseback) Both input and output are needed in real time Vision Sound Detection: Sensors, video cameras, microphones, etc. Body tracking Eye tracking Pressures and force feedback (from joystick to haptic display) …. What else?

Force Feedback Physical interaction within a virtual environment (image below: Virtual Chambara, Univ. Tokyo)

“As Much As You Love Me” (An artwork with force feedback using magnetic field)

Augmented Realities and Mixed Realities

Augmented Realities Enhance the real environment by adding virtual visual/audible/tactile information Training in engineering, medical help Visualization of data Enhance the virtual environment by bringing in real objects, vision, sound, or other information from the real world Add a sense of reality to virtual reality Eliminate the sense of loss in the virtual world Training, simuation

Augmented Realities and Augmented Virtualities: Why not Mixed Realities? (image: from MR Lab, Japan)

Mixed Realities (image: Music on the Table, by Toshio Iwai) The hot field in VR studies More “natural” Tactile sensation is easier to achieve Wider possibilities Easier to use Needs to be calibrated precisely, to much the real world and the virtual Became an active field in Japan: How is it related to the “sense of reality” in each culture?