In this paper we present an approach for applying virtual reality (VR) to the creation of a family of educational environments for young users. The immersive and interactive attributes of VR technology can be a powerful tool for education, allowing the learner to actively participate in the surrounding environment. Our approach is based on constructionism, where real and synthetic users, motivated by an underlying narrative, build persisting virtual worlds through collaboration. This approach is grounded on well established paradigms in contemporary learning and integrates ideas from such diverse fields as virtual reality, human-computer interaction, CSCW, storytelling, and artificial intelligence. The goal is to build an experiential learning environment that will engage children in authentic activity. Our prototype system explores the above ideas within the CAVE&trade; virtual reality theater.

Children Interacting with the NICE World

Constructing Collaborative Stories Within Virtual Learning Landscapes

This special issue, &ldquo;VR and the Net,&rdquo; focuses on supercomputing-to-VR and VR-to-VR communications over high-speed networks, enabling researchers to investigate solutions to complex problems over distance. Specifically, some of the applications featured in the Global Information Infrastructure (GII) Testbed event at the ACM / IEEE Supercomputing &rsquo;95 (SC &rsquo;95) conference in San Diego in December 1995 are described. Tom DeFanti, as SC &rsquo;95 Information Architect was responsible for all conference networking, audio/visual support, and the GII Testbed. Maxine Brown co-chaired the GII Testbed and Rick Stevens was chief architect of the experimental networking activities.

Quaternion Julia Sets in Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality Over High Speed Networks

One of the current long term goals at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) is to create a persistent virtual environment enabling multiple transcontinentally-situated participants to apply collaborative Virtual Reality (VR) over high-speed and high-bandwidth networks connected to heterogeneous supercomputing resources and large data stores. Many of the applications in the GII Testbed at Supercomputing &rsquo;95 focused on connecting supercomputing resources to VR devices to visualize data from specific scientific problem domains[1]. Our focus, however, was on researching the techniques required to support general collaborative work in persistent virtual environments. These techniques include providing: representations for virtual co-presence; video and audio teleconferencing; virtual VR interfaces; and database technology for sustaining persistence in virtual worlds. 

These techniques have been showcased in a collaborative design laboratory called CALVIN in which participants at Supercomputing &rsquo;95 in San Diego and ARPA headquarters in Arlington, Virginia were able to join collectively in an interactive design session.

Particpants Communicate Over an ATM Netowkrk Using the ImmersaDesk

Supporting Transcontinental Collaborative Work in Persistent Virtual Environments

Virtual reality (VR) shows great promise as a research tool in computational science and engineering. However, it involves new interface styles, different from those of traditional desktop interactive graphics. Because of this, a great deal of work can be required to develop VR applications, even when one is adapting existing desktop programs. For the use of VR to grow, it is important to provide the necessary software tools in addition to the basic hardware. An important focus of our Lab is to provide a programming environment which facilitates the development of practical VR applications.

Distant View of the CAVE in the Virtual World

A Hardware-Independent Virtual Reality Development System

In this paper we describe CALVIN, an immersive multimedia approach to applying virtual reality in architectural design and collaborative visualization emphasizing heterogeneous perspectives. These perspectives, including multiple mental models as well as multiple visual viewpoints, allow virtual reality to be applied in the earlier, more creative, phases of design, rather than just as a walk-through of the finished space. CALVIN&rsquo;s interface employs visual, gestural, and vocal input to give the user greater control over the virtual environment. A prototype of CALVIN has been created and used in the CAVE&trade; virtual reality theatre.

A Mortal and Deity Collaborate in a Shared Virtual Design Environment

CALVIN: an Immersimedia Design Environment Utilizing Heterogeneous Perspectives

Plato&rsquo;s concept of shadows in a cave as an analogy to our perception of truth reveals that we already live in a virtual reality. 

Computer graphics is on a quest, an obsessive mission, to perfectly replicate reality. This Michelangelo envy has resulted in the focus and advancement of computer graphics technology on rendering complex images and animations. Real time computer graphics also yearns for this duplication of the world we experience, but at a much different pace. Whereas, rendered images can take up to hours to complete, the real time computer graphics image must be rendered at least thirty times per second. Virtual reality environments depend upon this real time computer generated imagery to create a sense of immersion and interaction. Because of current computing technology it is extremely difficult to depict a natural realism in virtual reality. Never the less, that goal is the obsession. 

Push / Pop 
Push / Pop depicts a crude but effective rendering of the Gallery400. The application starts with the user facing a simulation of the Immersadesk. Using a joystick mounted on a wand, a user is allowed to navigate through the gallery. Five columns of the gallery are used as portals for entering into abstract spaces. The term Push / Pop (though technically is derived from pushmatrix and popmatrix GL function calls in coding language) refers to the action of pushing from depicted reality into an abstract environment. After experiencing these abstract spaces a user can then &ldquo;Pop&rdquo; back into the real gallery space. In the virtual Gallery400 there are two sculptures on pedestals. These two pieces represent a couple things. The sculptures presence directly illustrates the power and illusion capable with three dimensional stereo graphics. When the user gets close to one of the objects they can then extend a hand towards the illusion and conceptually touch the object. This illusion is the most powerful quality of virtual reality environments. A little closer though and the user is pushed into an alternative gallery space. This dynamic change of environment creates a desire to return to the sculpted objects in the realistic Gallery400. You can get close but not too close. The objects also represent the potential design tool which a virtual reality environment can become. These objects were designed by writing a computer program which allows for the designer to manipulate, rotate and repeat various sized rectangular objects until the desired shape and form is conceived. The resultant matrix of vertices points can then be translated into other software packages in which they in turn can be translated into file formats readable by commercial manufactures. The virtual environment allows a designer to examine in great detail a sculpture previous to any physical modeling.

Portrait from Push / Pop MFA Exhibition

Push / Pop

Virtual prototyping involves a synthesis of engineering methodology and immersive, three-dimensional visualization technology. Ideally, this is a process in which computational models are used in place of physical models in the development of a new product or design concept. If used successfully, virtual prototyping can lead to more rapid product design and development. 

Software is currently being developed that will enable virtual prototyping of mechanical systems in the CAVE at Argonne National Laboratory. This software has two principal components: (1) fast simulation software FIFEA (Fast Implicit Finite Element Analysis), for analyzing mechanical systems and (2) virtual reality display software for visualizing results and allowing user interaction. This paper discusses various issues related to the coupling of finite element software to the CAVE display system.

Virtual Disk Brake

Toward Real-time Interactive Virtual Prototyping of Mechanical Systems: Experiences Coupling Virtual Reality with Finite Element Anaylsis

In this paper we present an approach to applying virtual reality in architectural design and collaborative visualization which emphasizes the use of multiple perspectives. These perspectives, including multiple mental models as well as multiple visual viewpoints, allow virtual reality to be applied in the earlier, more creative, phases of the design process, rather than just as a walkthrough of the final design. CALVIN, a prototype interface which implements these ideas, has been created using the CAVE virtual reality theatre.

A Selection of CALVIN Avatars

Multi-Perspective Collaborative Design in Persistent Networked Virtual Environments

The Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) specializes in virtual reality (VR) and scientific visualization research. EVL is a major potential beneficiary of guaranteed latency and bandwidth promised by cell switch networking technology as the current shared Internet lines are inadequate for doing VR-to-VR, VR-to-supercomputer, and VR-to-supercomputer-to-VR research. EVL&rsquo;s computer scientists are working with their colleagues at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) to develop an infrastructure that enables computational scientists to apply VR, networking and scalable computing to problem solving. ATM and other optical networking schemes usher in a whole new era of sustainable high-speed networking capable of supporting telecollaboration among computational scientists and computer scientists in the immersive visual / multi-sensory domain.

Artist&rsquo;s Rendition of the CAVE VR System

High-Resolution and High-Bandwidth Immersive Interactivity

This paper discusses the I-WAY project and provides an overview of the papers in this issue of IJSA. The I-WAY is an experimental environment for building distributed virtual reality applications and for exploring issues of distributed wide area resource management and scheduling. The goal of the I-WAY project is to enable researchers use multiple internetworked supercomputers and advanced visualization systems to conduct very large-scale computations. By connecting a dozen ATM testbeds, seventeen supercomputer centers, five virtual reality research sites, and over sixty applications groups, the I-WAY project has created an extremely diverse wide area environment for exploring advanced applications. This environment has provided a glimpse of the future for advanced scientific and engineering computing.