Few students know that the Engineering Research Center has a cave in it. It is not a typical cave, though. It’s a Cave Automatic Virtual Environment.
The CAVE is a 3-D projection room that creates a virtual environment for those who stand in it, said Derek Irby, research associate at the GeoResources Institute.
“Physically the CAVE is a 10-by-10 (foot) square that is 9-feet high and has four projection screens,” Irby said. “Each screen portrays a virtual image that can be seen with stereoscopic glasses that stay in sync with the projections.”
The CAVE also has a tracking system for the glasses so it can detect the wearer’s movements and change location in the virtual environment accordingly, Irby said.
The virtual environment is a part of the Visualization, Analysis and Imaging Lab under the GeoResources Institute, said VAIL Director Robert Moorhead.
The Department of Defense, the Navy, Mississippi State’s Center for Advanced Vehicular Systems and the Nissan Group have used the CAVE.
“The CAVE provides the ability for visualization analysis. It has been used for atmospheric models and ocean currents,” Irby said. “The CAVE would be helpful to any group that is doing research that would benefit from 3-D environments.”
The environment is used for research, teaching, master’s projects and presentations, Moorhead said.
“Right now the CAVE is being used about 40 hours a week. The forestry department is currently using remote sensory data to re-represent a forest and develop a method for monitoring forests and collecting data without actually having to trudge through the forest for data,” Moorhead said.
The College of Architecture uses the CAVE for visualization purposes, said Larry Barrow, director of the College of Architecture’s digital research and imaging lab.
“We have used it to have the students experience the digital projects they are creating for class so that they can get a visualization of the space that they have created. We take the students who are taking Digital Design I and sometimes those who are taking Digital Design II,” Barrow said.
The interactive part of the CAVE is located in a room called the COVE, Irby said. The computers are downstairs in a machine room.
“We are currently running a Unix system on an OnyxII computer produced by SGI, composed of eight 500MHz R14000 processors, 16 Gigabytes of RAM and two infinite reality graphics cards,” Irby said.
The CAVE was built in 1998 by an advanced visualization company called Mechdyne, which has since merged with Fakespace Systems, Moorhead said.
“The original equipment was funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation,” Moorhead said. “The operating costs are funded by the MSU Office of Research, the Department of Defense, NASA and the National Science Foundation.”
Open CAVE demos are held every Friday from 1 to 4 p.m. Contact the ERC receptionist at 325-8278 to schedule a visit.