Presentation

The VR platform offered by LSIIT is based on the supply of hardware resources, mainly in form of a workbench, and the supply of software tools allowing to benefit from the best of this environment.

Indeed, despite the problems of application development linked to the specific hardware, exploiting these immersive environments requires a complete re-engineering of the applications' design and HCI. In order to compensate the lack of tools, standards and existing techniques, a software platform dedicated to these problems is being developed. It follows the research work of IGG's group in the field of interaction in immersive environment.

Hardware platform

Initially installed and managed by the 'Centre d'Etude du Calcul Parallèle et de la Visualisation' (Study center of parallel computation and visualization) of UDS in February 2002, the available hardware has consistently evolved and happens to be currently mainly operated by IGG of LSIIT. Indeed, end of 2007, the projection system has been entirely renewed thanks to the funding from CPER IRMC thme Virtual Reality. Its access still remains free to the whole community of researchers at Université de Strasbourg.

Hardware

The available hardware consists of:

a (virtual) workbench, with two displays of 2m diagonal each;
a stereoscopic system allowing to restitute a real depth feeling (active stereoscopy);
a system of movements capture, capable of identifying the movements of the user;
a micro-cluster of computers handling display, peripheral devices, and applications' execution.

Displays
Projector
Glasses
Movements capture

This immersive environment device has several other peripheral devices:

a joystick presenting a set of buttons;
two data gloves, capable of measuring the flexion of the user's fingers, and the contact;
a SPIDAR, wired force-feedback device, capable of restituting a force to the user.

Joystick
Gloves
Spidar (effector)

Execution environment

The common employed system on the cluster is GNU/Linux (Debian distribution), but Windows is also available. The library VRJuggler is available, and usually used, in order to abstract from the problem of distribution and synchronization of the application on the cluster, and the handling of most peripheral devices.

Note that any application can exploit the visualization device, provided that it handles itself the stereoscopy, the movements capture, the distributed execution and the possible peripheral devices.

Software platform

This platform has the goal of providing software components which will simplify the development of applications in immersive environment, and particularly on the workbench. It is organized as a set of independent modules, each one offering a high-level functionality, such as an interaction technique or the communication with a specific type of peripheral device. It merges both ad-hoc components (mostly in order to use hardware or accomplish specific tasks) and more generic components, essentially turned to interaction with applications and coming from research conducted at IGG.

The components currently developed or which are planned for development are the following:

Hardware usage

Native interfacing with the installed system of movements capture ART;
Interfacing with the available data gloves X-IS, avec information offset through the network. In form of a vrjuggler driver from one side (client), and a data transmission software on the other side (server);
Interfacing with the available force feedback system SPIDAR. On the form of a remote and complete emulation of the SPIDAR's native API.

Interaction

VRLIB: swindowing system in immersive environment.
C³ menu: application control in immersive environment. "Under development"
Spin menu: application control in immersive environment. "Under development"

Modeler based on VRLib
Example of controls offered by VRLIB

Applications - Links

These platforms are mostly used in the context of research in interaction conducted at IGG.

They are also made available to students from several computer science classes offered by the University of Strasbourg, in particular to the students from the Master "Informatique et Sciences de l'Image" (Computer science and image sciences).

Contacts also exist with the VR platform set up by Alsace region within its pole Image Iconoval.

Contact

For any complementary information, please contact O. Génevaux.

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