MRI: Acquisition of a FLEX Reconfigurable Multi-User Immersive Visualization System

该项目获得了一个可重构的多用户沉浸式可视化系统（Mechdyne FLEX），旨在支持在人类健康和福祉、人类认知、人类行为、计算机科学、游戏和基于游戏的应用、产品设计、语言和语言学、数字艺术和新媒体等领域开展一种新型的协作和跨学科设计和实验。FLEX提供了机会，通过观察和操纵发生在遥远空间的事件和信息，在时间上延长或扩大，是危险的，或者太小或太大而无法观察复杂的细节，从而提高对世界的认识和感知。FLEX还允许用户创建不再存在（例如，历史事件）、从未存在（例如，幻想世界）或可能不容易体验（例如，水下）的地点、人物、声音和地点的逼真表示，应用于研究和教育。更广泛的影响：FLEX对研究和培训基础设施的影响将发生在几个层面：-研究：由于沉浸式可视化系统的高成本，目前大多数设计和实验都是在二维环境和二维虚拟对象中进行的。FLEX将对可执行的各种设计和实验产生深远的影响。此外，FLEX将在工程、社会科学和艺术研究领域之间架起一座天然的桥梁，并将促进与硅谷行业的合作。-本科和研究生教育：FLEX将丰富该机构目前提供的课程，在各个应用领域触发虚拟现实的创新新课程，提供新的学习和实验方式，并为研究生开辟新的研究领域。-校园影响：该系统将是校园内第一个多用户可配置的沉浸式可视化系统，该仪器将成为新举措和计划的核心。收购FLEX沉浸式可视化系统将影响许多研究小组，既增加了当前的研究，又开辟了新的研究领域。该系统可以使科学与工程（S&amp；E）研究以及培训和教育对学生（特别是那些在该领域代表性不足的学生）更具吸引力。FLEX将为校园研究和教育创造令人兴奋和引人入胜的组件。辅助技术和健康与健康生活技术等领域的应用由于其社会重要性，将吸引代表性不足的学生。FLEX还将用于使艺术教育更加现代化和数字化。将通过定期出版物、会议和讲习班介绍以及技术报告广泛传播这一工具所促成的研究。将维持包含各种研究和培训活动的交互式可视化的网站，并向公众介绍虚拟现实在各个应用领域的作用。开发的软件将作为开源发布，具有潜在的重大广泛影响。研究生和本科生在项目中的参与提供了指导机会。

This project, acquiring a reconfigurable multi-user immersive visualization system (Mechdyne FLEX), aims to support a new style of collaborative and interdisciplinary design and experimentation in the fields of human health and wellbeing, human cognition, human behavior, computer science, gaming and game-based applications, product design, language and linguistics, and digital arts and new media.FLEX provides opportunities to improve knowledge and perception of the world by enabling observation and manipulation of events and information that take place in remote spaces, are protracted or dilated in time, are hazardous, or are either too small or too large to view in intricate detail. FLEX also allows users to create realistic representations of places, people, sounds and sites that no longer exist (e.g., historical events), never existed (e.g., fantasy world), or may not be easily experienced (e.g., underwater), with applications for both research and education.Broader Impacts: The impact of FLEX on the research and training infrastructure will occur on several levels:- Research: Due to the high cost of an immersive visualization system, most design and experimentation are currently conducted in two-dimensional environments and with two-dimensional virtual objects. FLEX will have a profound impact on the kinds of designs and experiments that can be performed. Furthermore, FLEX will provide a natural bridge between engineering, social sciences and arts research areas and will facilitate collaborations with industry in Silicon Valley.- Undergraduate and graduate education: FLEX will enrich courses that are currently offered at the institution, trigger innovative new courses on virtual reality in various application areas, provide new ways of learning and experimenting, and open up new areas of research for graduate students.- Campus Impact: This system will be the first multi-user configurable immersive visualization system on the campus, where the instrument would be central to new initiatives and programs.Acquisition of the FLEX immersive visualization system will impact a number of research groups, both augmenting current research and opening up new areas of research. The system can make Science and Engineering (S&E) research, as well as training and education, more attractive to students (especially those who are underrepresented in the area). FLEX will create exciting and engaging components for research and education on campus. Applications to such fields as assistive technology and technology for health and healthy living will attract underrepresented students, due to their societal importance. FLEX will also be used to make Arts education more modern, and more digital. Broad dissemination of the research enabled by this instrument will take place through regular publications, conference and workshop presentations and technical reports. Websites that contain interactive visualization of the various research and training activities will be maintained, and inform the public about the roles of virtual reality in various application areas. The software developed will be released as open source, with potential for significant broader impact. The involvement of graduate and undergraduate students in the project provides mentoring opportunities.