An Overview of Important Sites for VE Research
This page is intended to give you a flavor of some of the most well-known
and highly-regarded sites performing basic and/or applied research in virtual
environments (VEs). The list is by no means complete, but should provide
a good starting point for exploration of the work being done around the
country and the world. The list has been divided into academic, government,
and industrial sites.
Universities/Academia
-
Georgia Institute of Technology
- Graphics, Visualization, and Usability (GVU) Center
The Virtual Environments group has research in the treatment of
phobias, education, immersive design, human-computer interaction, and system
software for VEs. Larry Hodges is the main faculty researcher.
-
University of North
Carolina, Chapel Hill
UNC performs research in real-time computer graphics, both hardware
and software, augmented reality systems, tracking systems, and scientific
applications. Fred Brooks and Henry Fuchs are two prominent faculty researchers.
-
University of Washington - Human
Interface Technology (HIT) Lab
The HIT Lab is an industrially-funded research center that is currently
focusing on applications of VEs to education, evaluation of interaction
techniques, a retinal display system, and novel input devices. Prominent
researchers include Tom Furness, Suzanne Weghorst, and Max Wells.
-
Carnegie-Mellon University
The UIgroup at CMU migrated from the University of Virginia when
main researcher Randy Pausch took a new position. They have produced Alice,
a simple interpreted VE programming tool, and do research in HCI, 2-handed
interaction, and low-cost VEs.
-
University of Illinois-Chicago -
Electronic Visualization Lab (EVL)
The EVL is best known for their development of the CAVE (CAVE Automatic
Virtual Environment), an immersive VE setup that uses large projection
screens. Within this environment, they have created several interesting
applications in education, teleconferencing, etc. The group also researches
uses for the combination of supercomputing and VEs. Carolina Cruz-Neira
is one of the faculty members.
-
Naval Postgraduate School
NPS is best known for the NPSNET work, a large-scale distributed
VE system used for military simulation purposes. Within this framework,
research is done on the topics of virtual navigation, input devices, and
distribution strategies. Mike Zyda and Rudy Darken are two faculty researchers.
-
Stanford University
VE work at Stanford is centered on displays other than the HMD,
such as the virtual workbench. There is also an interesting project in
the
Center for Design Research that
attempts to produce 3D models in a virtual space.
-
University of Central Florida - Institute
for Simulation and Training (IST)
IST is involved in research leading to training applications for
VEs, especially military training. This has led to research in simulator
sickness, 3D modeling, etc. Kay Stanney is a prominent researcher.
-
Rutgers University
Rutgers is best known for work on force feedback displays for virtual
environments. Grigore Burdea is a leading researcher.
-
Brown University
Brown's graphics group performs research in 3D interaction, 2-handed
interfaces, and telecollaboration. Andries van Dam is the leading faculty
researcher.
-
University of
New Mexico
Researchers here have an interest in the uses of VEs for scientific
visualization.
-
University of Alberta
Alberta produced one of the first, and most widely-used VE libraries,
the MR Toolkit. They have also done research in 3D modeling and interaction.
Mark Green and Ben Watson are on the faculty.
-
University
of Iowa
At the Center for Computer-Aided Design, researchers developed the
Iowa driving simulator, with a motion platform, wide field-of view graphics,
and hi-fi audio.
-
Iowa State University
ISU's Virtual Reality Applications Center houses the C2 and C6 projection-VR
projects. Carolina Cruz-Neira, inventor of the CAVE, is one of the principal
faculty researchers.
-
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
(MIT) - Media Lab
The Media Lab is well-known for many projects in graphics, mobile
computing, etc. Of particular interest to VEs is the ALIVE project, which
incorporates the user into a large-screen display, and has research value
for autonomous agents, computer vision, and interaction.
-
University of Geneva
Geneva is best known for work in animation and VR with human figures.
Nadia Thalmann is the director of MIRA Lab here.
-
University of Pennsylvania
Work at Penn also involves the modeling and animation of human figures.
The software system 'Jack' was developed here, under the supervision of
Norm Badler.
-
University
of British Columbia
Anyone have information?
Government
-
Wright-Patterson
Air Force Base
The Synthesized Immersion Research Environment (SIRE) lab is working
on projects involving simulator sickness, dome displays, and novel input
and output devices.
-
Sandia National
Labs
The Virtual Reality/Intelligent Simulation Lab at Sandia does work
in the fields of military and medical training, avatars, and virtual actors.
-
NASA Ames Research
Center
The main research at NASA Ames centers around the Virtual Windtunnel,
an immersive fluid flow visualization tool. From this has come research
in interaction, hardware, visualization, etc.
-
Navy Research Labs
(NRL)
NRL is involved in research using tools such as the Virtual Workbench
for naval applications including design and planning. Work has also been
done in training for hazardous duty.
-
Army Research Labs (ARL)
The main VE project for ARL is our own VGIS
project which is a real-time 3D Geographic Information System that
has many military applications.
Industry
-
Sense8
Sense8 markets the WorldToolKit (WTK), which is a primary environment-building
tool for the low-end VR industry.
-
Multigen
Multigen produces 3D modeling and scene-building software, including
an immersive system allowing construction of virtual worlds.
-
Virtual Research
Virtual Research is one of the leading makers of mid-range to high-end
head-mounted displays.
-
Division
This British company sells hardware and software specifically designed
for real-time 3D applications, based on UNC's PixelPlanes architecture.
-
Fakespace
Fakespace produces immersive displays such as the BOOM (HMD that
is not worn on the head) and Immersive Workbench.
-
Boeing
Boeing has used 3D graphics extensively in the design and testing
of aircraft, and has also done research in the use of immersive VEs for
verification of aircraft designs.
-
Fraunhofer Centre for Research in Computer
Graphics (CRCG)
CRCG is both academic and industrial, and does research in virtual
conferencing and workbench-based VR. GVU graduate Greg Newton works here.
-
Silicon Graphics (SGI)
SGI is the leading maker of high-end 3D graphics workstations. Warning:
do not click on this link unless you have a few minutes to wait while it
downloads.
-
Mitsubishi Electronic Research
Labs (MERL)
MERL is headed by Jim Foley, former GVU director. Research has focused
on distributed VR, social virtual environments, etc.
-
IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
Anyone have infomation?