Lecture 1

Introduction to Real-Time Interactive 3D Computer Graphics

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Interactive Art

• Cave Drawings
• Lascaux
• Waterloo
• Myron Krueger
• Char Davies
• Maurice Benayoun
• Zachary Simpson
• Petra Gemeinboeck
• Joseph Tremonti
• History

Simulation
Virtual Reality

Themes

• humans have a long history of trying to create and immerse themselves in alternate realities
• humans have a desire to interact with their environment; they seek control, actuation
• these desires have pushed technology to be ever more responsive; real-time
• these desires have pushed previously analog activities into the digital realm
• real-time interactive technologies have a history that includes the practical and the whimsical; the entertaining and the contemplative; its not all about games

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Principle Components of Virtual Reality

• immersive
• immerse
  1 : to plunge into something that surrounds or covers; especially : to plunge or dip into a fluid
  2 : ENGROSS, ABSORB <completely immersed in his work>
  3 : to baptize by immersion
• novels and films
• wide field of view
• stereo vision
• surround sound
• interactive
• novels and films are not interactive
• early computer games such as pong are interactive
• requires real-time response
• optimization
• compromise
• physically intuitive
• viewer centered perspective
• tracking the head position and orientation
• reaching and touching
• usually no physical feedback (haptics)
• walking
• very difficult to accomplish (navigation)

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Virtual Reality Hardware

• Head Mounted Display
• BOOM mounted Display
• Fish Tank
• Projection Based

For projection based systems, some companies that sell these things are:

• Fakespace systems
• Trimension
• Panoram Technologies

For Head Mounted Displays, some companies that sell these things are:

• Kaiser Electro-Optics
• n-vision

and there are other interesting solutions such as the Virtual Retinal Display

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Current Uses

• Demos
• General Motors

•  Virtual Prototyping
• Caterpillar

• Architectural Walkthroughs

• Entertainment

• Scientific Visualization

• Education and Training

Over 100 CAVE displays in the world

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History

1960 - Morton Helig

• Cinematographer
• Wanted to expand on 'cinerama' which had 90 degree field of view (FOV) by shooting with 3 cameras simultaneously and then synchronized when projected. Academy ratio films typically had 18 degree FOV, and Cinemascope 55 degree (depending on where you sat in the theatre)
• designed and patented 'the experience theatre; - 180 degree horizontal and 155 degree vertical. 30 speakers, smell, wind, seats that moved.
• couldn't get funding so he made the scaled down 'sensorama' - arcade setup with a vibrating motorcycle seat and handlebars and 2 35mm projectors for stereo and wind and aromas and stereo sound as viewer moved through prerecorded experiences.
• patented first head mounted display - used slides - couldn't get funding.

1965 - Ivan Sutherland

• proposes the 'ultimate display' which is basically Star Trek's holodeck complete with the computer controlled generation of matter. "The ultimate display would, of course, be a room within which the computer can control the existence of matter. ... With appropriate programming such a display could literally be the Wonderland into which Alice walked"

1966 - Ivan Sutherland

• previously created 'sketchpad'
• created 'Sword of Damocles' - first HMD
• real-time computer generated display of wireframe cube with head tracking projected onto half-silvered mirrors so the cube floats in front of the user in the room (what we would call augmented reality today.) Two CRTs mounted by the users head along with other hardware suspended from the ceiling by a mechanical arm.

1971 - Fred Brooks

• GROPE-II - early force-feedback system

1975 - Myron Krueger

• VIDEOPLACE - 'artificial reality' where cameras are used to place people into projected scenes
• image processing used to track the users in the 2D space

1982 - Thomas Furness III

• VCASS (Visually Coupled Airborne Systems Simulator)
• 6 degree of freedom HMD which isolated user from the real world

1984 - Michael McGreevy and friends

• VIVED (Virtual Visual Environment Display) - created inexpensive HMD with off-the-shelf components (e.g. sony watchman) - NASA continues to add features: glove, quad-sound, voice control, etc becomeing the Virtual Interface Environment Workstation

1985 - Jaron Lanier & VPL research

• first company focused on VR products
• sold datagloves in 1985 and eyephones in 1988

1989 - Autodesk

• first PC based VR system

1989 - Fake Space Labs

• development of the BOOM

1992 - Electronic Visualization Laboratory

• development of the CAVE

1995 - Electronic Visualization Laboratory

• development of the Immersadesk