1. Electrical and Computer Engineering Department
Welcome to 14:332:376 Virtual Reality and 16:332:571 Virtual Reality Technology Spring 2012
Grigore C. Burdea Ph.D.
Professor
Director, Tele-Rehabilitation Institute

2. Class web site:
Textbook site:

3. Grading Criteria (376): Quizzes 20%, Midterm 40% Final 40%
Attendance penalty – one letter grade lost for 4 absences. Midterm and Final are mandatory to pass
Cheating is an automatic F. All exams and quizzes are closed books/notes/etc. Quizzes are announced.
Laboratory assignments graded separately (for 378 – co req)
TA Mr. Timothy Phan

4. Grading Criteria (571): Quizzes 10%, Midterm 25% Final 25%
Laboratory 40%
Attendance penalty – one letter grade lost for 4 absences.
Midterm, Final and Laboratory Term Project Mandatory to pass. Quizzes announced, Cheating results in an F.

5. Textbook: Burdea and Coiffet, Virtual Reality
Technology, 2nd Edition, Wiley, 2003

6. Textbook web site: www.vrtechnology.org

7. Textbook web site: www.vrtechnology.org

8. Laboratory Hardware

9. Virtual Reality - Introduction
Updated class notes (PowerPoint) will be posted on the web
Quiz and Exam Solution on Sakai
Supplemental materials, surveys, links to companies and labs on the textbook site.

10. Topics

11. Introduction

12. What is Virtual Reality?

13. Introduction
It is not augmented reality….

14. Introduction What is Virtual Reality?
“A high-end user-computer interface that involves real-time simulation and interaction through multiple sensorial channels.” (vision, sound, touch, smell, taste)”

15. Introduction

16. Sensorama Simulator, US Patent #3,050,870, 1962
Introduction
Sensorama Simulator, US Patent #3,050,870, 1962

17. VR Short History
1963+
Ivan Sutherland's doctoral theses: SKETCHPAD: stereo HMD, position tracking, and a graphics engine
Tom Furness: display systems for pilots;
1967+
Brooks developed force feedback GROPE system;

18. Introduction
Ivan Sutherland’s HMD
(1966+)

19. Introduction
Brooks’s Grope Project (1977)

20. VR Short History 1977 Sandin and Sayre invent a bend-sensing glove
1979
Raab et al: Polhemus tracking system
1989
Jaron Lanier (VPL) coins the term virtual reality
1994 VR Society formed

21. Introduction
NASA … a pioneer in VR
The first complete system was developed by NASA “Virtual Visual Environmental Display” (VIVED early 80s; they prototyped the LCD HMD;
Became “Virtual Interface Environment Workstation” (VIEW) 1989

22. Introduction
NASA VIEW system (1992)

23. Introduction Large simulation and training needs;
Why NASA?
Large simulation and training needs;
Could not send humans to other planets;
Relatively small budgets.

24. Introduction Towards Commercialization…
The first commercial VR systems appeared in the late 80s produced by VPL Co. (California):
The VPL “Data Glove” and
The VPL “Eye Phone” HMD

25. Introduction
The VPL DataGlove (1987) cost $8,500

26. Introduction
The Matel PowerGlove (1989)

27. The first commercial VR glove for entertainment –
Mattel Power Glove $50 (1989)

28. Early HMDs were massive
The Flight Helmet (ca. 1990) weighs 5 lbs

29. …and had poor resolution

30. Introduction Virtual Reality in the early 90s….
Emergence of first commercial Toolkits:
WorldToolKit (Sense8 Co.);
VCToolkit (Division Ltd., UK);
Virtual Reality Toolkit VRT3 (Dimension Ltd./Superscape, UK);
Cyberspace Developer Kit (Autodesk)

31. Introduction
Superscape VRT3 Development System

32. Introduction Virtual Reality in the early 90s….
Emergence of first non-commercial toolkits:
Rend386;
Later Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML 1.0);
Later still Java and Java 3D;

33. Introduction
Successor is AVRIL ("A Virtual Reality Interface Library“)
C library for authoring. Created at U. Waterloo, Canada
ece.uwaterloo.ca/~broehl/avril.html
Scene created with Rend386

34. Introduction Virtual Reality in the early 90s….
PC boards still very slow (7,000 – 35,000 polygons/sec);
First turnkey VR system – Provision 100 (Division Ltd.)
Emergence of faster graphics rendering architectures at UNC Chapel Hill:
“Pixel Planes”;
Later “Pixel Flow”;

35. Introduction Stride PC graphics accelerator 35,000 polygons/sec;
$26,000 (with two co-processors)/card
Require up to 6 PC slots for stereo version
Stride PC graphics accelerator

36. Introduction Provision 100 VR turnkey system (Division Ltd., UK)
35,000 polygons/sec;
$64,000 (including texture generator, tracker, 3-D audio, HMD and software)
Provision 100 VR turnkey system (Division Ltd., UK)

37. Introduction
~ 1 Million triangles/sec;
Pixel Planes 5 VR system (UNC)

38. Rendering speed comparison SGI vs. PCs
xBox 360
500 Million poly/sec
2005

39. Laboratory VR Station prices (2002)
PRODUCT
Price/user
% of Budget
PC 1.7 GHz
FireGL 2 accelerator
2,347 48
Polhemus 3D tracker
4 receivers
1,823 37
5DT sensing glove
five-sensor version
482 10
Stereo Glasses wired
179 3
Force feedback Joystick 88 2
Java and Java3D -
VRML
Total
4,919
100

40. VR Market growth

41. The key elements of a conventional VR System

42. The key elements of a modern VR System