Many researcher have created systems, languages, and paradigms for creating sound with the aid of computers. In the past, the utility of these systems for real-time work has been limited to either using very simple algorithms or controlling special-purpose hardware. 

For many purposes, MIDI-compatible synthesizers suffice for the sound generation hardware. However, these devices tend to be limited, both in the range of sounds of any one unit, and especially in the area of interactive control. Only very recently has the computing power of general-purpose computers become equal to the task of producing reasonably complex sound with good fidelity, in real-time. 

Given hardware and software capable of generating the types of sounds desired, perhaps a more difficult problem is the organization and control of these sounds into the temporal sound structures we recognize as rhythm, melody, harmony, and musical form. Although these are musical terms, the same capabilities are needed if we are to encode information into sound in a way that the user of a system can comprehend.

An Organization for High-Level Interactive Control of Sound

CAVE-view is a tool developed for real-time exploration of 3-dimensional virtual reality environments on the desktop over the World Wide Web using the Mosaic browser.

CAVEview: Mosaic-based Virtual Reality

The File Room is an illustrated archive of cases of cultural censorship throughout history and around the world. Presented both as a public interactive installation at the Chicago Cultural Center from May to September of 1994 and as a continuous web server housed at the University of Illinois at Chicago, The File Room was in development for over two and a half years. Our goal was to extend this project well beyond Chicago, drawing upon the participation of contributors world-wide and likewise providing global access to the compiled textual, visual, and sonic information. This project addressed the issues of public interactivity and the use of Mosaic as a tool for a kiosk-like presentation.

The File Room: An Interactive Computer Project Addressing Cultural Censorship

Much of the data that is stored in scientific databases is collected through experimentation. In this paper we propose a new interface to scientific databases: the SANDBOX: Scientists Accessing Necessary Data Based On eXperimentation. The SANDBOX is a virtual reality tool which allows an investigator to recreate the original experiment. The investigator places virtual instruments into a virtual reenactment of the original experiment and collects data from the scientific database in much the same way that the original data was collected. These instruments give visual and auditory feedback, allowing the user to browse through data of any type. We have implemented a prototype of the SANDBOX on NASA&rsquo;s FIFE scientific database using the CAVE virtual reality theatre.

Overview of the SANDBOX Interface

The SANDBOX: A Virtual Reality Interface to Scientific Databases

Attendees of SIGGRAPH 94 experienced the actual use and future direction of scientific visualization in computational science and engineering in VROOM - the Virtual Reality Room. 

Over 40 projects involving over 200 researchers and programmers were demonstrated in CAVE and BOOM areas for four days of the conference held in Orlando this past July.

SIGGRAPH &rsquo;94 Visual Proceedings - VROOM

SIGGRAPH &rsquo;94 Visual Proceedings

Sometimes scientists would like to stick their heads into interesting parts of their data sets and look around, but they are hampered by the &ldquo;outside-looking-in&rdquo; aspect of workstation-based visualization. At the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago, we are attempting to break some of the visualization barriers with a distributed computing and visualization environment developed using the Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE) virtual reality theater. In particular, we&rsquo;re trying to provide physicists and astrophysicists at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) a new vehicle for scientific discovery. 

This paper describes The Cosmic Worm, a CAVE-based distributed computing and visualization package that enables NCSA scientists to examine astrophysics and relativity data in an interactive, immersive environment.

Cosmic Worm

Common VR systems use head mounted displays that require duplicating user input devices in virtual space for interactive environments. 

A major advantage of projection based VR systems such as the CAVE&trade; is the ability of the user to see his / her own body and real objects in a virtual environment. This paper describes the development of specialized interfaces for virtual environment exploration by people who use wheelchairs. These real, tangible interfaces are intuitive and most appropriate for wheelchair simulations. Examples of these are interfaces that match the user&rsquo;s wheelchair dynamics for joystick or tiller operated electric wheelchairs. 

The importance of this research is in applications where proposed constructed environments are analyzed by users of wheelchairs. Additional applications include wheelchair mobility training and wheelchair controller design.

Transit System Design for ADA Compatibility

Input Interfacing to the CAVE&trade; by Persons with Disabilities

This paper discusses the development, visualization and exploration of computational neuroscience virtual reality applications in the CAVE Virtual Reality theater.

Forest of Neurons from the Simulation Data of Piriform Cortex

Virtual Reality in Computational Neuroscience

This paper describes a CAVE application, Evolution of Behavior in a Simulated Environment. The application uses genetic programming techniques to evolve avoidance and goal getting behaviors. Results are shown as real-time, 3-dimensional, stereo forms.

Evolution of Behavior in a Simulated Environment

A Genetic Programming Application in Virtual Reality

Scientific databases contain very large amounts of data accessed by investigators from many disciplines. In this paper, we propose a new interface to scientific databases: the SANDBOX: Scientists Accessing Necessary Data Based On eXperimentation. Much of the data that is stored in scientific databases is collected through experimentation. The SANDBOX is a virtual reality tool which allows an investigator to &ldquo;recreate&rdquo; the original experiment, collecting data from the scientific database in much the same way that the original data was collected. The investigator places virtual instruments into a virtual environment and collects data from the scientific database without ever typing in a query. These instruments give feedback, allowing the user to browse through available data of any type. We have implemented a prototype of the SANDBOX on a subset of NASA&rsquo;s FIFE scientific database using the CAVE virtual reality theatre.

SANDBOX Tool Pallet

SANDBOX: An Interface to Scientific Data Based on Experimentation

This paper presents a multidisciplinary collaboration between neurobiologists, databases, visualization and human / computer interaction specialists, in the design of a database for the storage of simulation models from Computational Neuroscience. The design consists of using the neural simulation system GENESIS, as the underlying model for the scientific database. In addition, we briefly describe some of our preliminary work in using Virtual Reality interfaces to access scientific databases.

Purkinje and Inferior Olivary Neurons Simulating the Nervous System

The GENESIS Simulator-based Neuronal Modeling Database

This paper reports the results of preliminary studies conducted towards the development of a virtual reality user interface toolkit. Before an interface can be described and developed, studies need to be conducted which investigate the viability of using current known methods of interface design within an immersive environment.  Methods that work successfully on one particular platform, for instance, a workstation, may not be suited for use in a virtual reality environment. The first section briefly describes these studies and outlines the implications designing interfaces in virtual reality. In particular, parallels are drawn between interface design in the workstation environment and in an immersive environment, and differences between them are listed and analyzed. Next, two sessions of user surveys are described. In the first, a survey session, expert users were asked questions about their experiences in writing ineterfaces for a virtual reality application. They also described difficulties they encountered as a result of programming for this environment. During the second, a simulation session, users were asked to evaluate a toolkit metaphor and schemes for implementation of interfaces. The final section of this paper is devoted to the discussion of users&rsquo; responses and the implications they have for suggesting future research topics.

Publications - 1994

An Organization for High-Level Interactive Control of Sound

CAVEview: Mosaic-based Virtual Reality

The File Room: An Interactive Computer Project Addressing Cultural Censorship

The SANDBOX: A Virtual Reality Interface to Scientific Databases

SIGGRAPH ’94 Visual Proceedings

Cosmic Worm

Contact