Menagerie: designing a virtual experience

Scott S. Fisher; Susan Amkraut; Michael Girard; Mark Trayle

doi:10.1117/12.173895

15 April 1994 Menagerie: designing a virtual experience

Scott S. Fisher, Susan Amkraut, Michael Girard, Mark Trayle

Proceedings Volume 2177, Stereoscopic Displays and Virtual Reality Systems; (1994) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.173895
Event: IS&T/SPIE 1994 International Symposium on Electronic Imaging: Science and Technology, 1994, San Jose, CA, United States

Abstract

This paper describes an ongoing effort to develop one of the first fully immersive virtual environment installations that is inhabited by virtual characters and presences specially designed to respond to and interact with its users. This experience allows a visitor to become visually and aurally immersed in a 3D computer generated environment that is inhabited by many virtual animals. As a user explores the virtual space, he/she encounters several species of computer generated animals, birds, and insects that move about independently, and interactively respond to the user's presence in various ways. The hardware configuration of this system includes a head-coupled, stereoscopic color viewer, and special DSP hardware that provides realistic, 3D localized sound cues linked to characters and events in the virtual space. Also, the virtual environment and characters surrounding the user are generated by a high performance, real-time computer graphics platform. The paper describes the computer programs that model the motion of the animals, the system configuration that supports the experience, and the design issues involved in developing a virtual environment system for public installation.

Citation Download Citation

Scott S. Fisher, Susan Amkraut, Michael Girard, and Mark Trayle "Menagerie: designing a virtual experience", Proc. SPIE 2177, Stereoscopic Displays and Virtual Reality Systems, (15 April 1994); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.173895

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