Slashdot Mirror

The way I look at it I would use Aperture as a virtual light table. I really like that loop tool and the intelligent stacks organization aids (See the Quick Tours)This is software is meant for the professional to serious photographer and this program is metadata crazy. Great for photographers for stock photography, as well as ones who do weddings, sports, photojournalism...etc. After selecting a handful of images from hundreds to a thousand + images using Aperture, I can see using Photoshop at the end of the of workflow. Where I need Photoshops large array of filters, brushes and text tools. graphics artists won't care about Aperture but professional photographers who now shoot digital will probably love this application.

On a side note I'm glad there is finally a workstation class graphics card for the Mac. I can forsee that stereo based projections, Powerwalls, and even CAVEs aren't so far off in the future once you add the genlock/framelock daughter card to the Nvidia Quadro FX 4500 board.

The way I look at it I would use Aperture as a virtual light table. I really like that loop tool and the intelligent stacks organization aids (See the Quick Tours)This is software is meant for the professional to serious photographer and this program is metadata crazy. Great for photographers for stock photography, as well as ones who do weddings, sports, photojournalism...etc. After selecting a handful of images from hundreds to a thousand + images using Aperture, I can see using Photoshop at the end of the of workflow. Where I need Photoshops large array of filters, brushes and text tools. graphics artists won't care about Aperture but professional photographers who now shoot digital will probably love this application.

On a side note I'm glad there is finally a workstation class graphics card for the Mac. I can forsee that stereo based projections, Powerwalls, and even CAVEs aren't so far off in the future once you add the genlock/framelock daughter card to the Nvidia Quadro FX 4500 board.

Virtual Reality is still very alive, only not on a consumer level. There are several companies still making advancements in the VR field, but due to the expense of the technology involved, VR in the home is still a long way off.

For example:
http://www.fakespace.com/
http://www.christiedigital.com/

Besides that, if we're splurging for monitors, why beat around the bush?

Go CAVE

The article is very vague about the display hardware. Anybody know more? How is this different than the CAVE and other comparable systems?

Immersive Displays:
Fakespace Systems:
http://www.fakespace.com/products1.shtml

Visbox:
http://www.visbox.com/x2.html

Barco:
http://www.barco.com/virtualreality

fishing in my weblinks....

unreal cave
projection links and type breakdowns
uaeu cave
elumens products are droool
fakespace
vrml 3d projection
not quite cave.... this is 3d projection
this one is further leading.....

io2tech

Ok guys, these games are becoming scarily beautiful and realistic...now where is my virtual reality? Hell, even something as simple as the original Doom series (or even better, Doom Legacy) in fully immersive 3D would be a nice start.

Lawnmower Man? I want that. Come on, it must be trivial now!

Try:
StereoQuake for the stereovisualization code.
Stereographics for the goggle systems.
Barco for the monitor.
Immersion for the gloves and haptic devices.
Windows NT/2000, Irix, and Solaris support most all of this equipment.

Additional applications and systems can be found at Sense8, Fakespace, and Mechdyne.

Have fun... (I use to work as an "information technologies associate" setting up this equipment for a major research universities... you can find your Lawnmower Man style VR equipment in the nuclear engineer and genetic engineering laboratories of research universities.... "Digital Media Laboratory" is another moniker for it....)

Yeah, multiple screens. Nifty.

It's no Fakespace.

Projector technology right now sucks for the high end. The CAVE uses CRT projectors (much like the ones in the old big screen TV's) instead of a brighter technology such as LCD, DLP, or Digital Light Valve. Unfortunately, the manufacturers of these brighter products have not pushed the refresh rate limit. In order to use the StereoGraphics shutter glasses, you need at least 100 Hz refresh rate out of your projectors. Currently, the only types of projectors that can handle 100 Hz are CRT's.

These CAVE's are not really multiuser. There are some real problems with perspective in these environments. Only one person can have a corrected view frustrum, and everyone else has to put up with a warping and shearing scene. Of course, this is assuming you are trying to visualize something floating in front of you. This is very hard to describe, but if you think about it, imagine projecting an object floating in front of you, while trying to give your user the ability to walk all around it. Anyhow, this is impossible in any multiuser mode.

CAVE are small. 10'^3 may seem like a lot of space, (as most people's dorm rooms are 12'^3), but oftimes people are limited in movement. This also limits the number of people who can share this experience.

The Electronic Visualization Lab at University of Illinois, Argonne National Labs Futures Lab, and NCSA all have major research going on in CAVE technology.

-Stryemer
We are the music makers,
and we are the dreamers of the dream.