II-NEW: Virtual Reality Infrastructure and Technology Development to Support Architectural Education and Basic Research in Immersive Design, Embodied Interaction, Spatial Cognition

身临其境的虚拟环境为教育、培训、康复、建筑设计以及广泛的其他应用领域的基础性和变革性进步提供了巨大的潜力。这项技术具有特殊的潜力，可以增强建筑设计过程，使设计师能够从设计过程的最早阶段就充分利用他们的想法，并在建筑建成之前从第一手的自我中心角度体验他们设计的结构的内部空间。所需设备提供的研究和教育机会将使设计师及其客户能够体验虚拟环境，就像设计师及其客户真正站在由虚拟环境代表的物理环境中一样，并根据他们在虚拟世界中的经验做出决策，这些决策等同于他们在物理世界中的类似经历所做出的决策。该项目将教导建筑设计的学生从自我中心和分配中心的角度发展他们的设计思想的价值。通过这项工作，建筑师和他们的客户将能够根据他们对3D空间布局的第一人称体验，做出可靠的设计决策，从而提高规划空间的宜居性。该项目将使考古学家、历史学家、城市规划者、游客和其他人能够通过虚拟探索对大型偏远遗址的空间布局获得内在的、以自我为中心的理解。智力价值一个由理工学院计算机科学副教授和设计学院建筑学副教授组成的跨学科小组申请资金购买三件主要设备和相关用品，使他们能够(A)在开发突破性方法以增强沉浸式虚拟体验的认知和感知现实主义方面追求多方面的研究议程，利用来自视觉感知和认知的基本见解，以及(B)最大限度地发挥虚拟现实技术的潜力，从根本上加强设计教育进程，强调将对规划空间的体验式理解融入设计进程的最早阶段的重要性。该提案要求提供资金，用于购买(A)带有嵌入式立体眼睛跟踪系统的宽视场头盔显示器，研究人员将用轻型近距离深度传感器和定制的双摄像头和镜子系统来增强该显示器，以实现收敛适应的立体视频透视增强现实能力，(B)一组摄像头，它将能够在虚拟现实设计实验室可用空间的全部范围内进行实时跟踪，以及(C)具有可选光学透视能力的无系留、适度视场的头盔显示器，该能力将与背包穿戴的膝上型计算机结合使用，允许在大的虚拟空间中自由移动，并与另一个头盔显示器一起，使项目能够在沉浸式虚拟环境中进行自我体现的多人交互的研究。广泛影响所需的设备将使社会受益，因为它允许进行研究，促进人们如何在沉浸式虚拟环境中体验与现实世界环境中的体验相同的理解。该设备将支持设计教育的重大进步，使虚拟环境技术能够更广泛有效地用于教授视觉想象力的基本概念，并将支持教师和学生在计算机科学、建筑和设计方面更紧密的跨学科合作。该项目将通过社区宣传向公众推广科学和工程，例如通过经常参观当地K-12学生的实验室，并将通过为初中生和高中生提供指导和暑期计划来促进对科学的参与。

Immersive virtual environments offer tremendous potential for fundamental and transformative advances in education, training, rehabilitation, architectural design, as well as a wide range of other application areas. The technology has special potential to enhance the process of architectural design by enabling designers to work with their ideas at full scale from the earliest stages of the design process, and to experience the interior spaces of their designed structures from a firsthand egocentric perspective before they are built. The research and educational opportunities made possible by the requested equipment will enable designers and their clients to experience a virtual environment as if the designers and their clients were truly standing in the physical environment that is represented by the virtual environment, and to make decisions based on their experience in the virtual world that are equivalent to the decisions that they would have made as a result of a similar experience in the physical world. The project will teach students of architectural design the value of developing their design ideas from an egocentric as well as allocentric perspective. Through this work, architects, and their clients, will be able to make reliable design decisions that can enhance the livability of a planned space based on their first-person experience of the 3D spatial layout. The project will enable archaeologists, historians, city planners, tourists, and others to gain an intrinsic, egocentric understanding of the spatial layout of large, remote sites through virtual exploration.Intellectual MeritAn interdisciplinary team consisting of an associate professor of computer science in the college of science and engineering and an associate professor of architecture in the college of design requested funding for three pieces of major equipment and related supplies that will enable them to (a) pursue a multi-faceted research agenda in the development of groundbreaking methods to enhance the cognitive and perceptual realism of immersive virtual experiences, leveraging fundamental insights from visual perception and cognition, and (b) maximize the potential of virtual reality technology to fundamentally enhance the process of design education, emphasizing the importance of integrating an experiential understanding of planned spaces into the earliest stages of the design process. The proposal requests funding for the purchase of (a) a wide field of view head mounted display with an embedded stereo eye tracking system that the researchers will augment with lightweight, close-range depth sensors and a custom-built dual camera and mirror system to achieve a convergence-adaptable stereoscopic video-see-through augmented reality capability, (b) a set of cameras that will enable real time tracking throughout the full extent of the space available in a virtual reality design lab, and (c) an untethered, moderate field of view head-mounted display with optional optical see through capabilities that will, in conjunction with a backpack-worn laptop computer, allow unencumbered free physical movement through large virtual spaces and, in conjunction with the other head-mounted display, enable the project to pursue research in self-embodied multi-person interaction in immersive virtual environments.Broader ImpactThe requested equipment will benefit society by permitting research that will advance an understanding of how people can have experiences in immersive virtual environments that are equivalent to experiences in real world environments. This equipment will support significant advances in design education by enabling the broader effective use of virtual environments technology in teaching fundamental concepts of visual imagination and will support closer interdisciplinary collaboration between faculty and students in computer science, architecture and design. The project will promote science and engineering to the general public through community outreach such as through frequent lab tours for local K-12 students, and will promote participation in science through mentoring and summer programs for middle and high school students.