Virtual Environments
by Martin Göbel
About ten years have passed since
NASA AMES started investigating Virtual Environments. Devices like head
coupled displays, data gloves and spatial trackers were used in the initial
applications demonstrating space stations. In the meantime, with increasing
graphics performance, economical stereo display technology and the use
of much simpler interaction devices (than the gloves), the applications
of Virtual Reality (a term which was replaced by Virtual Environments in
the scientific community) have already achieved a quality and complexity
which really allows an industrial use.
Seen as an innovation in human computer communication Virtual Environment
R&D initially concentrated on Presentation, Interaction and Simulation:
aiming to provide information to most human senses (at least the visual,
auditive and tactile channels), aiming to support direct and intuitive
interaction with applications (by speech, gestures and further human expressions),
and aiming to develop autonomous object behaviour within virtual worlds.
In this issue a number of projects are presented at different labs in
Europe that cover various aspects in Virtual Environment research. Techniques
for visual (1) and haptic (2)
presentation are developed, various display systems ranging from small
and mobile (3) use to integrated room-size systems
(12, 4) are investigated and physical phenomena
are simulated in real time (5). Since applications
have grown in complexity, quite a number of issues have been found to be
relevant for R&D in Virtual Environments. The overall goal is to enhance
performance, accuracy and handling of Virtual Environment applications.
Research reported so far in this issue concentrates on modeling and data
acquisition (6, 7)
to build virtual worlds more easily and on tracking and registration (9, 10) for reasons of accuracy
and wireless devices. Since higher bandwidth networking has been established
for telecommunication, distributed and multi-user Virtual Environments
are under construction. These allow many people to meet in shared virtual
spaces (11, 12,
13, 14, 15) and raise questions on how a human is presented
in virtual space. Behaviour and expression (16)
know from human 'face-to-face' communication will augment telecommunication
and cooperation applications in the future.
Today, the core applications of Virtual Environments can be identified
by their industrial relevance. Engineering visualization (19,
20) fosters a better and rapid understanding
of complex phenomena, such as fluid dynamics, crash simulations, etc. Architecture
and design has been one of the very early walk-thru application fields.
Today Virtual Environment techniques are used in interactive planning tools
attempting to replace traditional CAD systems and in digital archives for
Cultural heritage (17, 18).
Further applications can be found in medical training and engineering training
like assembly or maintenance (23, 24).
To conclude, the Virtual Environment R&D situation in Europe is
still increasing in major research centers but also at universities. While
US universities currently investigate in Responsive Workbenches, European
industry is heavily setting up CAVE-like installations. Since funding programmes
have been established by European and national agencies and since automotive
and telecommunication industry considers Virtual Environment technology
as being relevant to improve their products, processes and services, there
is no longer any doubt that Virtual Environment applications are now a
tool rather than a toy.
Please contact:
Martin Göbel - GMD
Tel: +49 2241 14 2367
E-mail: martin.goebel@gmd.de
