Immersive Environments Lab
The IEL is now equipped with 3 screens!
The Immersive Environments Lab (IEL) is a joint project of Penn State's
Information Technology Services (ITS) and the School of Architecture and
Landscape Architecture, located in 306 Engineering Unit C. The purpose of the lab is to facilitate the effective
use of VR techniques in the design arts and other disciplines. We will
progress toward that goal through the deployment of low cost, easy to use
and easy to administer VR systems, in a location that is convenient to
an active community of users, from whom we can learn about user needs,
abilities and sensibilities, in order to improve the design for future
deployments of similar systems.
As of 15 February 2002, the IEL is a two-screen facility, with stereo
capabilities across both screens. When used in dual screen 3D stereo mode,
the wider field of view is quite remarkable, and the central seam is far
less obtrusive that had been anticipated. In addition to dual screen stereo
use, the students have been creatively mixing various presentation tools
(e.g. PowerPoint, still image stereo pair viewers, etc.) with immersive
presentation and navigation of their models as appropriate for the task
at hand. We like to think of such use as offering immersive information
environments, as contrasted with immersive virtual environments.
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Architecture 231 design students, our first group of
users, using the lab for final design critiques (12/5/01), before the second
screen had been lit.
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Architecture 232 design students using the lab for project
presentation (2/15/02), now that both screens have been lit.
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Documentation
More pictures from the 15 February presentations are available.
The Immersive Environments Lab is the first public deployment of our
VR-Desktop system.
Online documentation is available
for use of the VR-Desktop applications in the lab.
Funding:
Equipment funding for the Immersive Environments Lab has been provided
by the ITS Academic Services and Emerging Technologies (ASET), the College
of Arts and Architecture, and the Imaging
Systems Lab in the Department of Landscape Architecture.
Related publications on the IEL:
An Affordable Immersive Environment in Beginning Design Studio Education - ACADIA 2002
Virtual Reality Space Visualization in Design Education - eCAADe 2002
Diving Deep into Designs
-- ArchitectureWeek -- October 23, 2002.
SALA CAC
Immersive Studio Project -- Units -- News and views from Penn State's
Department of Architecture, Winter 2002, Issue 2.
Daily
Collegian (12/6/2001) reported how second-year design students use
the Immersive Environments Lab.
Penn
State Intercom (11/18/1999) reported on earlier related student work
in the ITS/ASET's Visualization and Immersive Environments
Testbed.
Please send questions or suggestions about this web page to vizgroup@psu.edu
ASET | ITS | Penn State
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