gbnewby@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Gregory B. Newby) (06/05/91)
The New Syracuse University VR Laboratory
Well, it's here! Syracuse University now has a Virtual Reality
Laboratory. It was made possible through a cooperative agreement
between Syracuse University (SU) and Abrams/Gentile Entertainment
(AGE), the originators of the Mattel PowerGlove.
I've been appointed "Coordinator of the Virtual Reality
Laboratory," which basically means I'll be creating policies for
allocation of the equipment, writing user guides, giving plenty
of demonstrations, and generally making the lab usable for
faculty and students.
Right now the lab equipment includes a DataGlove (version 1) with a
Polhemus tracker, several PowerGloves and serial converter boxes
(which allow you to connect the Glove to any serial port), and some
LCD shutter glasses. We're hoping to have some VPL EyePhones soon.
(NOTE: For virtual neophytes, these items are described below.) It's
not the biggest lab in the world much right now, but with the
potential for outside funding the lab has already generated, it looks
like more equipment will be on the way...
Located in the Advanced Graphics Research Laboratory at SU, the VR lab
makes use of Silicon Graphics IRIS workstations, also Sun and Dec
workstations. Amigas, Macs, PCs, and so forth are all in abundant
supply, in addition to connections to campus and off- campus mainframe
resources.
We've started working in the areas of robotics, military
intelligence, information retrieval, 3D sculpting, and geographic
imaging. Another project on the drawing board is to hook the VR
equipment into the parallel machines located across campus in
NPAC (the Northeast Parallel Architectures Center) -- perhaps to
the Connection Machine... There is great potential for faculty
and student involvement in projects.
For the future, I hope to work with faculty and students intested in
education, sensory research, scientific visualization, and other
areas, in addition to computer scientists, engineers, and other more
traditional participants in VR research. I am personally interested
in exploring the ergonomics of VR, and also in identifying the issues
for multi- user virtual environments.
This is just a brief announcement to tell the world what's new at
Syracuse. You'll definitely be hearing more over the next months.
I'm quite happy that the deal with AGE came through, and that the CASE
center at SU saw fit to fund me for the startup phase of the lab.
Thanks also to Academic Computing Services at SU for providing space
and other support for the lab.
Let me know if you have any questions about these exciting times at
Syracuse University.
(Descriptions of terms follow the signature)
-- Greg Newby
Coordinator of the Virtual Reality Laboratory
Syracuse University
gbnewby@rodan.acs.syr.edu gbnewby@sunrise.bitnet
"Curiouser and curiouser" -Alice
Some VR equipment:
DataGlove: manufactured by VPL Research, this is an
electronic device for the precise measurement of hand gestures.
You wear it like a glove. DG version I uses electronic sensors.
Later models (current model is DG-III) use fiber-optic sensors.
Polhemus tracker: a magnetic 3D tracking device. VPL
attaches one to the DataGlove for tracking of hand movements with
six degrees of freedom (X, Y, Z, roll, pitch, and yaw).
PowerGlove: invented by AGE, manufactured and sold by
Mattel. This is an input device similar to the
DataGlove/Polhemus setup, but much hardier and much much cheaper.
Uses ultrasonics instead of magnetics for tracking X, Y, Z and
roll (only 4 degrees of freedom). Used with the Nintendo
Entertainment System. VPL and AGE made a very limited number of
serial converter boxes available to institutions so that the
PowerGlove could be hooked into a computer serial port.
Shutter Glasses: synchronized to a video signal, these
alternate blocking light to one eye and then the other. By
switching the picture a few degrees for each eye, 3D effects are
generated.
EyePhones: manufactured by VPL, these provide for
"immersion" in VR. Twin monitors are worn over the eyes such
that all visual input comes from the computer, in 3D. Low
resolution, but VPL has now announced a newer version with much
higher picture quality.