Communications of the ACM
Students Create Virtual Realities in Campus Lab
Richard Corey (left), manager of the Virtual Environment and Multimodal Integration Lab at the University of Maine, with Timothy McGrath (right), exploring a virtual world.
Credit: Paul Perkins / The Maine Campus
The University of Maine's Virtual Environment and Multimodal Integration (VEMI) Lab has given several undergraduate students the opportunity to explore their interests in human-computer interaction and three-dimensional animation. The students are "writing code for experimental design and development of multimodal virtual reality or augmented reality environments to support lab-related research," according the VEMI Lab's Web site.
So far, the VEMI Lab has created a fire rescue scenario that firefighter trainees could use to gain experience without entering burning buildings. The students also have created other virtual reality environments, including an underwater scene with a ship passing overhead, offshore windmill scenes, architectural environments, and a dungeon lair.
In addition, the VEMI Lab is working on a virtual reality environment for an indoor navigation system that would help people find their way around unfamiliar buildings, and potentially work as a smartphone application.
From The Maine Campus
View Full Article
Abstracts Copyright © 2011 Information Inc., Bethesda, Maryland, USA
No entries found