This project focuses on developing new humanlike motion interfaces for collaborative virtual environments, in particular for achieving seamless human-computer interactions accessible to non computer experts for programming virtual environments. Among several possible applications to this work, this project will explore interactions with virtual environments reconstructed from datasets of historical ancient sites. The result will be a pilot experiment that will lead to the creation of networked virtual heritage sites connecting multiple UCs and possibly other institutions.

2009 Update:

This seed project is basically pursuing three main objectives: 1) the establishment of a visualization facility at UC Merced in collaboration with UC Davis, 2) reconstruction and visualization of virtual heritage content at UC Merced, and 3) development of new human-computer interfaces in order to pursue research projects and funding in the area of virtual collaborative environments.

During the past 9 months of the project we have been able to fully instrument and develop the required software in order to run the powerwall visualization system of UC Merced. The equipment was funded by a NSF-MRI grant while the work of the involved graduate students has been funded by this CITRIS support. The PIs have also been able to visualize datasets from UC Davis and also to run the visualization software developed by UC Davis. The visualization infrastructure at UC Merced is therefore fully compatible with the UC Davis powerwall system, guaranteeing the future implementation of collaborative virtual reality topics.

The PIs have also been able to develop at UC Merced a distributed graphics framework based on the Ogre3D open software platform for high-end graphics, allowing to display a realistic visualization of the virtual heritage dataset of Villa di Livia (Rome), where all the paintings and architecture were reconstructed from experts in the field. While the UC Merced software infrastructure is already in operation, adjustments are still being developed, in particular in respect to connecting with the 10-camera Vicon system being installed in the room for tracking the motions of the viewer. The system will be soon fully integrated and the PIs will then concentrate on the development of novel human-computer interfaces for collaborative work in virtual environments.

UC Davis work: The funds from UC Davis' subcontract were used to assist the PIs in installing the tiled stereoscopic powerwall (similarly to the existing one in UC Davis' IDAV VR lab); to maintain the hardware of the IDAV display wall; and to purchase computers supporting development of collaborative software. The primary UC Davis software, a collaborative extension to an immersive 3D scientific visualization application, has reached deployment stage, and will soon be used to support scientific collaboration between earth scientists from UC Davis and UC Berkeley, which will reduce the need for the collaborators to travel between Berkeley and Davis to jointly analyze their data. In the near future, the same system will be used for collaboration experiments between scientists from UC Merced and UC Davis.
Societal Impact: The work being planned on collaborative virtual environments is expected to achieve strong societal impact: as the technology of networked virtual environments becomes popular (by 3D TVs, video games interfaces, etc), seamless and accessible interfaces will be instrumental for potential applications to successfully emerge and impact society. A second area being pursued with potential for strong societal impact is the formation of a group of networked virtual heritage sites across several UC campuses and with content also available to the public via webpages; a project proposal has been already submitted for the creation of a UC multi-campus research unit on this area.

The CITRIS funds will also indirectly support the UC Davis COSMOS program, a science summer camp for gifted high school students, through a series of educational modules hosted in IDAV's VR lab and in KeckCAVES on 07/08/09 and 07/09/09.

In addition, Prof. Maurizio Forte is PI on three current projects which are also benefiting from this seed funding. Although Prof. Forte is currently unavailable for providing full details of these projects (due summer fieldtrip), he was able to send the following list: 1) Pacific Rim Research Program, 2) GRC 2008, 3) The Virtual Museum of the Western Han Dynasty.