Navigation Research in 120ft x 60ft Tracked Space
 Client: Miami University, Ohio, Psychology Computer Science Departments
Equipment Used: WorldViz Vizard 3D software toolkit, WorldViz PPT X8 optical inertial hybrid wide-area tracking system, NVIS nVisor SX head-mounted display
Professor David Waller and his fellow researchers have transformed a 120 feet by 60 feet gymnasium space into the "HIVE" (Huge Immersive Virtual Environment), currently the largest immersive virtual environment in the world. "The size of the system is particularly important for studying spatial cognition, because ways of interacting with and thinking about space differ depending on the scale of the space", explains David Waller. In his research he investigates "how people learn and mentally represent spatial information about their environment".
Wearing the nVisor SX high-resolution (1280 x 1024) head-mounted display by NVIS and carrying a laptop-based dual pipe image generator in a backpack, users can wirelessly walk through extremely large computer generated virtual environments.
The head position of "HIVE" users is tracked by the WorldViz PPT X8 optical tracking system at 60Hz. PPT X8 covers the massive walking area at a level of precision and accuracy that provides both high-quality experiment data, and allows users to experience compelling jitter-free immersion in the nVisor SX head-mounted display. With eight wall-mounted optical sensors, PPT X8 can track up to eight targets simultaneously. "No other system on the market both offered such precise large-area tracking, and fit our economic situation as well as PPT X8" says David Waller.
 To design and render their VR worlds, he and his researchers are using the virtual reality rapid development toolkit Vizard, also made by WorldViz. Vizard natively supports most common VR peripheral hardware, such as trackers, haptic interfaces and visual displays, among them all hardware used in the "HIVE". Vizard’s easy-to-use scripting interface allows David Waller to concentrate on creating interactive high-performance 3D graphics for the "HIVE" without getting caught up in low-level programming.
Dave Waller | Space Lab, University of Miami, Ohio
Communications Research
 Client: Stanford University, California, Communications Department
Application: Social behavior and interaction research
Hardware: WorldViz Vizard 3D software toolkit, WorldViz PPT X4 optical inertial hybrid wide-area tracking system, NVIS nVisor SX head-mounted display
Jeremy Bailenson, Psychology Professor in the Communications Department at Stanford University, conducts experiments in his Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL) to study social behavior and interaction.
 His team aims to better understand human interaction based on both physical appearance and behavior. In one project Bailenson creates virtual representations of participants and studies how they relate to their virtual counterparts. During the experiment, physical or behavioral characteristics of the avatars are changed to analyze how participants react.
In his “Diversity Simulation”, created to study the relationships of gender, status, and race, Bailenson lets subjects experience the world through the eyes of someone else. His goal is to test the ‘extended contact hypothesis’, “namely that wearing the face of another in a simulation designed to highlight diversity issues can increase awareness.”
In much of Bailenson’s research, building lifelike avatars plays an essential roll. His students, mostly from the social sciences, are generally little interested in complex programming. At the same time, their research relies heavily on the quality, realism and interactivity of the environments and representations they are creating. “Vizard”, Bailenson comments, “is the most powerful software solution for  social scientists trying to create persuasive 3D graphics without being programming geniuses.”
Particularly useful to the research team at Stanford University is the WorldViz online support forum, “which I cannot speak highly enough of”, says Bailenson. Initiated in 2002, the WorldViz online forum quickly guides users to helpful answers, and provides immediate access to an expert team of Vizard technicians.
Dr. Jeremy Bailenson | Virtual Human Interaction Lab, Stanford
Medical Research
Medical educators are currently exploring 3D computer visualizations as alternatives to traditional anatomical teaching materials. The goals of this project are (1) to understand the cognitive abilities involved in learning anatomy and how these abilities influence learning from visualizations, (2) to test the effectiveness of different types of computer visualizations and (3) to apply the resulting findings to medical education.
Mary Hegarthy | Hegarthy Spatial Thinking Lab, UCSB
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