SALA CAC Immersive Studio Project
While some Penn State Architecture students are walking the streets of Europe, others are
walking through their design models -- at least that's how it appears with the virtual reality display system
now available in the Center for Academic Computing (CAC) and the School of Architecture and Landscape
Architecture (SALA) Immersive Environments Lab.
The Immersive Environments Lab was opened in fall 2001 as a multi-disciplinary research
studio for SALA students and others working with the CAC visualization group staff. The purpose
of the lab is to facilitate the effective use of virtual reality techniques in the design arts
and other disciplines, and has been a true collaborative process.
From the moment Dick Durst, dean of the College of Arts and Architecture, and Kevin Morooney, Senior Director of the Center for Academic
Computing signed a memorandum of understanding that a facility would be located in the Engineering
Units for use by the students, the collaborative work began.
Architecture students Spencer Tuck (fifth-year) and Michael Crnjarich (fifth-year) each have
contributed significantly to the design and construction of display structures, projection pedestals, signage and
items to meet the unique needs of such a facility. Befitting its home in the studio space,
the hardware itself is a work of architecture.
"I designed and built the frames for the panels (6X8 feet each) and the concrete pedestals
for the projectors," said Tuck who has also been using the VR display for his fifth-year thesis
investigations directed by architecture professor Darla Lindberg.
Software for viewing and navigating student CAD models in stereoscopic 3D was developed by Jack Gundrum,
Applications Programmer at CAC, and has gone through a number of iterations during its first semester
of use based on student feedback and input.
"They have written the software so it's very easy to use -- you could almost stumble in and figure it out," said Tuck,
"They would come in and get our feedback and then update the software and hardware." For example,
when the students couldn't effectively navigate with an initially provided hand-held device and suggested an off-the-shelf joystick,
that's exactly what they got and are currently using.
For CAC, this is an ideal setting for researching the software and hardware. "From our perspective,
there's no better place to figure out user needs than from within an active community of people working
with the tools we provide," said George Otto, Manager of the CAC Visualization Group. "Here we have
committed faculty and students using the lab and giving us valuable feedback on what's important to them
and how we can do it better going forward."
Open student access to such facilities is a unique situation, not only at Penn State, but also in the country.
Due to the high costs of equipment involved (generally upwards of $100,000), often presenting a challenging
programming environment for users, virtual reality labs usually are restricted to a limited number of users.
The Immersive Environments Lab employs applications with which users already are familiar and utilizes
durable, lower cost, commodity components wherever possible, so that students can have productive and unattended
access to the equipment 24 hours a day.
"We're the only school that makes this equipment available to all of our students on such an open basis," said
Loukas Kalisperis, "It has become an important asset in educating young architecture students as part
of our second year digital design studio." And the results have been remarkable.
In fall 2001 second-year students developed their projects first using FormZ, a 3D modeling program,
and then transferred the designs to the virtual reality software that displays the designs in stereoscopic 3D.
By using a joystick for navigation and wearing inexpensive plastic glasses with polarized lenses, students
are able to virtually walk through their models.
Architecture professor Katsu Muramoto said, "Early on students have a hard time imagining the change
of scale that occurs with model making. This program helps the students visualize moving through the space.
It also allows them to get inside a model."
Bruce Burchfield, a second-year student said, "My design was especially helped through this process.
The whole idea of my design was that the walls would conform to a person's shape and I was able to put it on the screen
and check the idea early on. It was also helpful because you could hand the joystick over to someone
and they could navigate through the building while you explain the design concept."
The first projection based virtual reality system acquired by the CAC in 1997 was an ImmersaDesk -
a worktable sized, interactive, rear-projection VR display from Fakespace Systems.
The ImmersaDesk has provided a test bed for student and faculty investigations into the use of VR
technology within their respective disciplines. Among the early users were geographers, psychologists,
kinesiologists, chemists, fuel scientists, computer science and engineering students, and, of course,
architectural design students for reviewing their designs under the guidance of Kalisperis, Muramoto,
and Raymon Masters, Senior Research Programmer with CAC and an affiliate associate faculty member in
architecture. "It was largely due to the enthusiasm and success of the architecture users of the ImmersaDesk
that we knew we could be confident of success in the current partnership with SALA," said Otto.
Durst said, "I think it's necessary for a world class institution to be providing these opportunities for our students.
Most importantly, we are actually participating in the further development of the field - we are the
control group that helps shape the future. I think we are so fortunate to have the faculty and CAC who are pushing the envelope in order to
discover new directions and perfect the systems."
The new lab opens up possibilities of interdisciplinary investigation and the further integration of
related technologies. For example, a three dimensional rapid prototyping system could be located in the
departmental model shop and networked with the VR system to allow students to make physical models directly
from the digital scene descriptions.
Brian Orland, Director, Landscape Architecture said, "Accelerating graphic performance capabilities
of computers suggest possibilities for conveying architectural and landscape design issues
that will replace existing design procedures. The contrast between the new dynamic tools and our earlier
reliance on static pictorial tools is striking because it is not a simple evolutionary step but a paradigm
shift in the way we address the landscape."
In addition, the computer can connect Penn State students to others in the United States and abroad.
Penn State students have already participated in virtual design crits with students from the Ohio
State University, and possibilities exist for collaborations with students in Rome and elsewhere.
Travel and internationalism take on new meaning in this environment.
What next? All of the possibilities are yet to be discovered, but one thing is sure. "This partnership
with SALA affords a unique opportunity to provide convenient access to VR tools for an active community
of students and faculty," said Morooney, "The experience will allow us to better determine the key
benefits of VR techniques for SALA users, which in turn will improve the ongoing design of more affordable,
robust and easy to use VR tools for teaching and research across many disciplines."
Please send questions or suggestions about this web page to vizgroup@psu.edu
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