Research: Design
VR Window

The VR Window project is complimentary to our Large Area VDE in that the tracked user looks through a large 8' x 31' curved screen stereoscopic display rather than don an HMD. The system is called VR Window because the 8' screen is centered and framed within the 10' high room. This creates the illusion of looking out a large clear window. Just like the Large Area VDE, the VR Window system uses the HiBall tracker to provide accurate position and orientation information to the graphics engine. We plan to study how these two very different display systems affect design decisions.

The VR Window system saw first light in August 2004, but it wasn't until August of 2005 that it became fully operational thanks to a generous donation from nVidia Corporation. Their gift of three Quadro FX4500 graphics cards and three g-sync daughter cards allowed us to finally achieve fully synchronized stereoscopic projection on the VR Window.

The following movie clip is from Ross Tredinnick’s Master’s defense. Ross incorporated the networking and edge-blending/distortion correcting code developed by Jason Lindquist and Brian Ries (respectively) into a commercial modelling program called SketchUp. The work explores the notion of maintaining the 2D design interface while simultaneously immersing the designer a separate 3D display. We believe there is much to be learned in exploring this design paradigm.

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Click on the model image for a fly-through of the VR Window layout. It illustrates the three-projector, rear projection design as well as the very tight space constraints of the overall system. The model was created appropriately enough using SketchUp.

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