VT-CAVE™ Satellite Lab

The VELab is a satellite facility networked directly to the more sophisticated VR environment known as the CAVE. Specifically, the CAVE as it is currently installed, is a theater 10x10x10 feet, made up of three rear-projected screens for walls and a reflective projection for the floor. High resolution, high bandwidth, short persistence CRT based Electrohome Marquis 8000 or 8500 projectors throw full-color workstation fields (1024x768 stereo) onto the screens, giving approximately 3,000 linear pixel resolution to the surrounding composite image. Computer-controlled audio provides a sonification capability to multiple speakers. A user's head and hand orientation and position are acquired using an Ascension tracking system with tethered electromagnetic sensors. Stereographics' LCD stereo shutter glasses are used to separate the alternate fields going to the eyes. Currently an InfiniteReality Engine is used to create the imagery that is projected onto the walls and floor. The CAVE's theater area sits in a 30x20x13-foot light-tight room.

A user wears stereo shutter glasses and a six-degrees-of-freedom head-tracking device. As the user moves inside the CAVE™, the correct stereoscopic perspective projections are calculated for each wall. A second sensor and buttons in a wand held by the user provide interaction with the virtual environment. Other devices such as VR gloves and haptic feedback devices are also employed. The CAVE is currently located at the Waste Policy Institute building at the Virginia Tech Corporate Reaseach Park. These facilities are used to conduct research on innovative designs/concepts and then to simulate and test those designs either using the RDFVL’s stereoscopic projection wall or in the more sophisticated emersive CAVE™.