CAVE2 immerses scientists and engineers in their research literally!

With support from the National Science Foundation, computer scientists at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) are pushing science fiction closer to reality with a wraparound virtual world in which a researcher wearing 3D glasses can take a walk through a human brain, fly over the surface of Mars, and more! In the system, known as CAVE2, an 8-foot-high screen encircles the viewer 320 degrees. A panorama of images springs from 72 stereoscopic liquid crystal display panels, conveying a dizzying sense of being able to touch what's not really there.For the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at UIC, the CAVE2, also known as the Next-Generation CAVE (NG-CAVE), represents the culmination of decades of experience and expertise developing both immersive environments and scalable-resolution tiled display walls, from the room-sized CAVE virtual environment in 1992, to the office-sized ImmersaDesk in 1994, to the GeoWall in 2000, and the more recent ultra-high-resolution LamdaVision tiled-display wall and autostereoscopic Varrier-tiled-display wall.Each new generation of visualization instrumentation has provided scientific communities with one or more advanced features (higher resolution, unencumbered stereoscopic viewing, multi-Gigabit connectivity, and intuitive user interfaces), better coupling worldwide scientific virtual organizations, and better integrating scientific workplaces with globally distributed cyberinfrastructure.The CAVE2 is the culmination of EVL's 20+ years of expertise in virtual-reality and tiled display walls, creating a hybrid reality environment that can simultaneously display both 2D and 3D stereoscopic information. The CAVE2 is constructed using near-seamless, passive-stereo, LCD displays rather than traditional projectors. The net effect is a new CAVE2 that has a visual acuity to match human vision, can be scaled to even greater resolution, is affordable compared to projection-based approaches, requires little maintenance, can be fully immersive or can display both 2D and 3D information using EVL-developed software called SAGE (Scalable Adaptive Graphics Environment), and is a true collaborative space that can support multiple viewers. The instrument also opens new opportunities in computer science research at the intersection of large-scale data visualization, human computer interaction, virtual reality, and high-speed networking. CAVE2 data provided by: American Bridge Company and Fluor EnterprisesArgonne National LaboratoryEuropean Space AgencyMontana State UniversityNASASkidmore, Owings & MerrillStone AerospaceUniversity of California, San Diego, Calit2University of Illinois at ChicagoUniversity of Massachusetts, AmherstUniversity of Southern California