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June 2003 Meeting

Our June 2003 meeting was held at:

7 PM on Tuesday the 24th of June 2003
Australian Resources Research Centre
26 Dick Perry Avenue
Technology Park
Kensington
(near Curtin University)
directions on the ARRC web page

Andre Gehardt from CSIRO and Andrew Squelch from Central TAFE gave a demonstration of their work on the Wedge, an immersive 3D stereo Virtual Reality (VR) system. The AARC Wedge is a flexible stereoscopic rear-projection system, allowing either a V-shaped or flat screen configuration. We saw demonstrations of the system in the V configuration using passive stereo glasses. In the V configuration several people can stand in the Wedge simulaneously and view a virtual environment that fills their field of view from left to right.

Due to the limited viewing space we limited numbers for this meeting to 15 people. We had a full house.

Andre demonstrated some of the software used by geologists to analyse formations and plan drilling for oil and gas. Using 3D stereoscopic imagery than can be manipulated in real-time provides valuable insight into data that might not otherwise be apparent.

Andrew showed us a virtual environment he's been working on with a view to constructing a training tool for firefighters. He also provided some insight into the issues involved in generating stereo imagery for a V-shaped screen and providing positional audio cues to make the environment more realistic.

This was the third in our series of three immersive, virtual reality and augmented reality talks. The first was a presentation on stereo imagery by Eric Pickstone from Continuum Resources. The second included presentations by Tom Caudell (Flatland and visualising neural networks) and Mark Billinghurst (the ARToolkit).

After the demonstration, Andre kindly arranged for some food and drinks, providing a good opportunity for some networking and general socialising.

Credits

Many thanks to our speakers Andre Gerhardt (CSIRO) and Andrew Squelch (Central TAFE). Special thanks to Andre for hosting the meeting, organising after hours access to the Wedge (no small task!) and providing refreshments. Thanks to the Department of Computing at Curtin University of Technology for hosting our web site.