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

沉浸式虚拟环境为教育、培训、康复、建筑设计以及广泛的其他应用领域的根本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，可以提高建筑设计的过程，使设计师能够从设计过程的早期阶段就充分发挥他们的想法，并在建造之前从第一手的以自我为中心的角度体验他们设计的结构的内部空间。所要求的设备使研究和教育机会成为可能，将使设计师和他们的客户能够体验虚拟环境，就好像设计师和他们的客户真正站在虚拟环境所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定，这些决定相当于他们在物理世界中的类似经验所做出的决定。该项目将教会建筑设计专业的学生，从自我中心和非中心的角度发展他们的设计理念的价值。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获得对大型偏远遗址空间布局的内在的、以自我为中心的理解。由科学与工程学院的计算机科学副教授和设计学院的建筑副教授组成的知识分子MeritAn跨学科团队申请了三件主要设备和相关用品的资金，这将使他们能够(a)在开发突破性方法方面追求多方面的研究议程，以增强沉浸式虚拟体验的认知和感知现实感；利用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，从根本上增强设计教育的过程，强调将对规划空间的体验理解整合到设计过程的早期阶段的重要性。该提案要求为购买(a)一个带有嵌入式立体眼动追踪系统的宽视场头戴式显示器提供资金，研究人员将使用轻型近距离深度传感器和定制的双摄像头和反射镜系统进行增强，以实现自适应收敛的立体视频透视增强现实能力；(b)一组摄像头，可在虚拟现实设计实验室的整个可用空间内进行实时跟踪；(c)一套无系绳、中等视场头戴式显示器，可选配光学透视功能，与背包式笔记本电脑配合使用，可在大型虚拟空间中实现无阻碍的自由物理运动；使项目能够在沉浸式虚拟环境中进行自我体现的多人互动研究。更广泛的影响所要求的设备将使社会受益，允许研究将推进人们如何在沉浸式虚拟环境中获得等同于现实世界环境的体验的理解。该设备将通过更广泛有效地使用虚拟环境技术来教授视觉想象的基本概念，从而支持设计教育的重大进步，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。该项目将通过社区外展，如对当地K-12学生进行频繁的实验室参观，向公众宣传科学和工程，并将通过指导和初高中学生的暑期项目，促进科学参与。

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.