Welcome to14:332:476 Virtual Reality

Spring 2008

Grigore C. Burdea Ph.D.Director, Human–Machine Interface Laboratory,

CAIP Center, Rutgers University. http://www.caip.rutgers.edu/vrlab/

Electrical and Computer Engineering Department

Class web site:

www.caip.rutgers.edu/vrlab/vrclass

Textbook site:

www.vrtechnology.org

Grading Criteria (476):

Quizzes 10%,

Midterm 45%

Final 45%

Laboratory assignments graded separately

(for 478)

Textbook: Burdea and Coiffet, Virtual Reality Technology, 2nd Edition, Wiley, 2003

Textbook web site: www.vrtechnology.org

Textbook web site: www.vrtechnology.org

Laboratory Hardware

IntroductionIntroduction

What is Virtual Reality?

It is not augmented reality….

Introduction

What is Virtual Reality?

“A high-end user-computer interface that involves real-time simulation and interaction through multiple sensorial channels.” (vision, sound, touch, smell, taste)”

Introduction

Introduction

Sensorama Simulator, US Patent #3,050,870, 1962

Introduction

VR Short History

1963+ Ivan Sutherland's doctoral theses: SKETCHPAD: stereo HMD, position tracking, and a graphics engine. 1966+ Tom Furness: display systems for pilots; 1967+ Brooks developed force feedback GROPE system;

Ivan Sutherland’s HMD (1966+)

Introduction

Brooks’s Grope Project (1977)

Introduction

VR Short History

1977 Sandin and Sayre invent a bend-sensing glove

1979 Raab et al: Polhemus tracking system

1989 Jaron Lanier (VPL) coins the term virtual reality

1994 VR Society formed

The first complete system was developed by NASA “Virtual Visual Environmental Display” (VIVED early 80s; they prototyped the LCD HMD;

Became “Virtual Interface Environment Workstation” (VIEW) 1989

Introduction

NASA … a pioneer in VR

NASA VIEW system (1989)

Introduction

NASA VIEW system (1992)

Introduction

Large simulation and training needs;

Could not send humans to other planets;

Relatively small budgets.

Introduction

Why NASA?

Towards Commercialization…

The first commercial VR systems appeared in the late 80s produced by VPL Co. (California):

The VPL “Data Glove” and

The VPL “Eye Phone” HMD

Introduction

The VPL DataGlove (1987) cost $8,500

Introduction

The Matel PowerGlove (1989)

Introduction

The first commercial VR glove for entertainment –

Mattel Power Glove $50 (1989)

The Flight Helmet (ca. 1990) weighs 5 lbs

Early HMDs were massive

…and had poor resolution

Virtual Reality in the early 90s….

Emergence of first commercial Toolkits:

WorldToolKit (Sense8 Co.);

VCToolkit (Division Ltd., UK);

Virtual Reality Toolkit VRT3 (Dimension Ltd./Superscape, UK);

Cyberspace Developer Kit (Autodesk)

Introduction

Introduction

Superscape VRT3 Development System

Virtual Reality in the early 90s….

Emergence of first non-commercial toolkits:

Rend386;

Later Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML 1.0);

Later still Java and Java 3D;

Introduction

Introduction

Scene created with Rend386Successor is AVRIL ("A Virtual Reality Interface Library“) C library for creating Created at U. Waterloo, Canadaece.uwaterloo.ca/~broehl/avril.html

Virtual Reality in the early 90s….

PC boards still very slow (7,000 – 35,000 polygons/sec);

First turnkey VR system – Provision 100 (Division Ltd.)

Emergence of faster graphics rendering architectures at UNC Chapel Hill:

“Pixel Planes”;

Later “Pixel Flow”;

Introduction

Introduction

Stride PC graphics accelerator

35,000 polygons/sec;

$26,000 (with two co-processors)/card

Require up to 6 PC slots for stereo version

Introduction

Provision 100 VR turnkey system (Division Ltd., UK)

35,000 polygons/sec;

$64,000 (including texture generator, tracker, 3-D audio, HMD and software)

IntroductionProvision 100 VR turnkey system (Division Ltd., UK)

Introduction

Pixel Planes 5 VR system (UNC)

~ 1 Million triangles/sec;

Rendering speed comparison SGI vs. PCsxBox 360500 Million poly/sec

2005

Laboratory VR Station prices (2002)PRODUCT Price/user % of Budget

PC 1.7 GHz

FireGL 2 accelerator

2,347 48

Polhemus 3D tracker

4 receivers

1,823 37

5DT sensing glove

five-sensor version

482 10

Stereo Glasses wired 179 3

Force feedback Joystick 88 2

Java and Java3D - -

VRML - -

Total 4,919 100

VR Market growth

The key elements of a VR System