The term Tele-Immersion was first used in October 1996 as the title of a workshop the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) organized in Chicago to bring together researchers in distributed computing, collaboration, virtual reality (VR), and networking. Workshop attendees paid specific attention to the future needs of applications in the sciences, engineering, and education. EVL defines Tele-Immersion as the union of networked VR and video in the context of significant computing and data mining. Some researchers use the terms Collaborative Virtual Environment (CVE) or Distributed Virtual Environment (DVE) to describe the field of networked VR. Tele-Immersion, as defined by the authors, encompasses more image-based technology, like video and bit maps, than CVE / DVE researchers typically envision, so that more &ldquo;reality&rdquo; (so to speak) is incorporated. It also has the benefit of being pronounceable. Global Tele-Immersion is &ldquo;better than being there&rdquo; because physical travel, especially international travel, is best devoted to vacation, not work, in the authors&rsquo; experienced opinion.

CAVE, A Projection-Based VR System

Global Tele-Immersion: Better than Being There

CAVERN, the CAVE Research Network, is an alliance of industrial and research institutions equipped with CAVEs, ImmersaDesks, and high-performance computing resources all interconnected by high-speed networks to support collaboration in design, training, scientific visualization, and computational steering, in virtual reality.
CAVERNsoft is the common collaborative software architecture for CAVERN. CAVERNsoft uses light-weight distributed data-stores as the mechanism for managing a wide range of data volumes (from a few bytes to several terrabytes) that are typically needed for sustaining persistence in virtual environments. Multiple networking interfaces support customizable latency, data consistency, and scalability that is needed to support a broad spectrum of networking requirements. 

This paper begins by describing a number of collaborative virtual reality scenarios developed by our laboratory as well as our collaborators, with the goal of identifying the key issues of networking and database management that are unique to collaborative virtual reality. From these the CAVERNsoft architecture is presented including a report on the current status of CAVERNsoft&rsquo;s development.

CALVIN: A Collaborative Design Environment for Architectural Layout

CAVERN: A Distributed Architecture for Supporting Scalable Persistence and Interoperaility in Collaborative Virtual Environments

CAVERN, the CAVE Research Network, is an alliance of industrial and research institutions equipped with CAVE-based virtual reality hardware and high-performance computing resources, interconnected by high-speed networks, to support collaboration in design, education, engineering, and scientific visualization. CAVERNsoft is the collaborative software backbone for CAVERN. CAVERNsoft uses distributed data stores to manage the wide range of data volumes (from a few bytes to several terabytes) that are typically needed for sustaining collaborative virtual environments. Multiple networking interfaces support customizable, latency, data consistency, and scalability that are needed to support a broad spectrum of networking requirements. These diverse database and networking requirements are characteristics typically unexhibited by previous desktop multimedia systems but are common in real-time immersive virtual reality applications.

Issues in the Design of a Flexible Distributed Architecture for Supporting Persistence and Interoperablility in Collaborative Virtual Environments

Creating art through virtual environments is my passion. Once again, the creative process has me hooked. Whether it is painting, drawing, printmaking, clay or video, it compels me to push and pull a medium until I forge a connection between my imagination and the irony and humor in this world.

Still from Dream Grrrls

Creating Art Through Virtual Environments

The design of several current educational environments increasingly reflects the constructivist pedagogy, by which learners actively construct and interrelate knowledge and ideas. The NICE project is an immersive participatory learning environment for young users; its underlying theoretical framework combines constructivist educational theory with ideas that emphasize the importance of collaborative learning and narrative development. As a joint project between the Electronic Visualization Laboratory and the Interactive Computing Environments Laboratory at the University of Illinois at Chicago, NICE is an effort to build Narrative-based, Immersive, Constructionist / Collaborative Environments which encourage exploration and experiential learning.

An Avatar Plants Carrots in the NICE Garden

NICE: Combining Constructionism, Narrative, and Collaboration in a Virtual Learning Environment

The VideoAvatar Library is a collection of functions that works in conjunction with the Cave&trade; Library, and can be used to add static, photo-realistic three-dimensional representations of remote users, as well as other objects or agents, to virtual reality applications. The process involves obtaining views from 360 degrees around the person to be represented, then selecting two of these images, one for each eye, to represent the user in 3D space.

Example of Video Avatars in Virtual Scene

Using Video to Create Avatars in Virtual Reality

The process of designing multi-user virtual environments (VE) is similar to the process of designing code or imagery in that it is necessary to passionately maintain a catalog of ideas and references. VE design combines these passions to construct a consistent graphical user interface (gui) with metaphors for exploration and self-reflection in a collaborative team effort.

&ldquo;See-Saw&rdquo; Portal in

Metaphors

Dream Grrrls is a virtual reality world created for the CAVE. The design focuses on, but is not limited to, Gigliotti&rsquo;s criteria for virtual aesthetics: content, interface, environment, perception, performance and plasticity. Similar to the dream-state, Dream Grrrls is a journey through five worlds that present an opportunity for exploration and self-reflection. The following pages illustrate the criteria individually, but each world in Dream Grrrls illustrates them collectively as well.

Still from Dream Grrrls Applications

Dream Grrrls: A World of Virtual Reality

The Pythagorean theorem states that for any right triangle the area of the smallest square (AxA) plus (+) the area of the middle sized square (BxB) will always equal (=) the area of the largest square (CxC). Thus (A2 + B2 = C2). 

But this simple algebraic formula, while truthful, reveals nothing of the elegant visual constructions devised for its demonstration.

The Pythagorean Proposition

Seeing is Believing: Visual Proofs of the Pythagorean Theorem

This paper describes and discusses the NICE project, an immersive learning environment for children implemented in the CAVE and related multi-user virtual reality (VR) technologies. The NICE project provides an engaging setting where children construct and cultivate simple virtual ecosystems, collaborate via networks with other remotely-located children, and create stories from their interactions in the real and virtual world.

Virtual Carrots in the NICE garden.

The NICE Project: Narrative, Immersive, Constructionist / Collaborative Environments for Learning in Virtual Reality

Virtual Reality (VR) can be defined as interactive computer graphics that provides viewer-centered perspective, large field of view and stereo. Head Mounted Displays (HMDs) and BOOMs&trade; achieve these features with small display screens which move with the viewer, close to the viewer&rsquo;s eyes. Projection-based displays supply these characteristics by placing large, fixed screens more distant from the viewer. The Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) of the University of Illinois at Chicago has specialized in projection-based VR systems. EVL&rsquo;s projection-based VR display, the CAVE&trade;, premiered at the SIGGRAPH &rsquo;92 conference. 

In this article we present two new, CAVE-derived, projection-based VR displays developed at EVL: the ImmersaDesk&trade; and the Infinity Wall&trade;, a VR version of the PowerWall [9]. We describe the different requirements which led to their design, and compare these systems to other VR devices.

Artist&rsquo;s Rendition of Infinity Wall

The ImmersaDesk and Infinity Wall Projection-Based Virtual Reality Displays

This thesis describes the design, development, and evaluation of the NICE (Narrative Immersive Constructionist / Collaborative Environments) project, a virtual learning environment implemented for the CAVE. Two central questions are explored in this work. First, what are the issues that must be addressed in designing immersive virtual environments for education, and second, can virtual reality environments be effective tools for learning? 

The question of the design of open-ended, exploratory learning environments, such as NICE, is addressed through the analysis of current educational theories. These theories are presented and related to the design of the virtual learning environment. 

The issues of the evaluation of NICE are explored through observational studies conducted with a total of 52 children between the ages of 5 and 11. These studies examine the environment from a technical, orientational, affective, cognitive, and pedagogical perspective. 

Finally, the thesis presents direction for future studies in these domains.

Visual feedback cues for interaction in NICE

Issues in the Design and Evaluation of a Virtual Reality Learning Environment

[cleanse] 
Cleanse is an interactive video installation addressing issues of technological and visual literacy. Literacy is fundamental to the shape and form of human communication, as our ability to construct, organize, and understand symbols determines our existence and successful participation in a community. Being able to decode the messages, rules, and laws of a society is necessary for inclusion in its social life. In today&rsquo;s age of digital communication, the most essential form of literacy for membership in or exclusion from a community is technological literacy. The technological tools are the users voice and language; without the current materials one cannot be easily heard nor understood. 

Within this new form of literacy the technological and the visual intercept, as technology is constructing a new culture of literacy that is predominantly visual. Language expression is rapidly moving away from the written text and narrative and into the realm of the image - even the text as image. Knowledge, meaning, emotion, value, and custom, traditionally expressed textually, are now conveyed through images; a culture of iconolatry shapes our social literacy in the electronic age. Cleanse attempts to provide a critical view on the iconolatry of modern visual and technological literacy, through the metaphorical cleansing, or purification, of an eye. The focal point of the project proposes that we examine critically the advents of technology and how it alters the way we see, think and communicate. 

Mitologies 
Mitologies is a virtual reality artwork created for the CAVE&trade;. It is loosely based on the Cretan myth of the Minotaur, the revelation of St. John, Dante&rsquo;s &ldquo;Inferno&rdquo;, Durer&rsquo;s woodcuts after the revelation, and Borges&rsquo; Library of Babel. The connections between these sources are central to the unfolding of the narrative. 

Mitologies derives from the Greek word &ldquo;mitos,&rdquo; the thread Ariadne gave Theseus to help him find his way out of the Cretan labyrinth. The participants in Mitologies re-experience allegorically the experience of Theseus. Starting on a boat, they are lead by Donatello&rsquo;s statue &ldquo;Zuccone&rdquo; down a descending river and into an open area of seven churches, which St. John has addressed in his letters. The statue then abandons them; alone now they will notice that all seven churches are identical, modeled after a Leonardo Da Vinci sketch of a church that was never built. Surprisingly, the interior of each church opens upon the space of the mosque. 

The mosque is the entrance to the labyrinth. Myriad strange, dark, and misleading passages are constructed to create a labyrinth reminiscent of the labyrinth built by Deadalus. The labyrinth is a web, or &ldquo;rhizome&rdquo;: every path is connected with every other one. It has no center, no periphery, and no exit because it is a potential infinite. To proceed from one tunnel to another, the participants must make the right choices. For example, the first room presents the participants with three words: &ldquo;Dante,&rdquo; &ldquo;Theseus,&rdquo; and &ldquo;Christ.&rdquo; If the letter &ldquo;T&rdquo; in any of the words is chosen, then the door leading to the first Durer woodcut is opened. Otherwise, one of the other doors leading to further spaces is opened. Depending on the choice, the participants may experience the woodcuts and other special rooms, such as the astronomy, the geography, the music, the insects, or the alchemy room. These rooms are central to the progression of the narrative, which may be linear, circular, or labyrinthine, depending on the participant&rsquo;s choices. 

This structure will finally lead to the last room, in which the encounter with the minotaur himself takes place. The representation of the minotaur is based on Cesare Ripa&rsquo;s death metaphor in Iconologia. While the participants will surely attempt to approach the minotaur, a hidden crypt will open under their feet and drag them into a deep hole. This hole leads them again to the beginning of the narrative: the boat. 

Apocalyptic literature and art have always been concerned with the approach of the end of the millenium. Created towards the end of the 20th century, Mitologies investigates anew the meaning of the Apocalypsis, or Revelation. Virtual reality is used as a vehicle to literally explicate the exegesis of the revelation. In the Apocalypse, double perspective plays an important part in building and expanding the metaphors. On one level, the vision is severly restricted and fragmented, and suffers confusion. On a parallel level, it is clear and concise. The metaphors are at once single and double; they incorporate clarity and confusion, unity and multiplicity, artistry and chaos. Indicative is the element of the labyrinth: a symbol of the tombs of death, of hell but also a place of judgement and worship.