Distributed design review in virtual environments

ABSTRACT

In large distributed corporations, distributed design review offers the potential for cost savings, reduced time to market, and improved efficiency. It also has the potential to improve the design process by enabling wider expertise to be incorporated in design reviews. This paper describes the integration of several components to enable distributed virtual design review in mixed multi-party, heterogeneous multi-site 2D and immersive 3D environments. The system provides higher layers of support for collaboration including avatars, high fidelity audio, and shared artifact manipulation. The system functions across several interface environments ranging from CAVEs to Walls to desktop workstations. At the center of the software architecture is the Human Integrating Virtual Environment (HIVE) [6], a collaboration infrastructure and toolset to support research and development of multi-user, geographically distributed, 2D and 3D shared applications. The HIVE functions with VisualEyes software for visualizing 3D data in virtual environments. We also describe in detail the configuration and lessons learned in a two site, heterogeneous multi-user demonstration of the system between HRL Laboratories in Malibu, California and GM R&D in Warren, Michigan.

REFERENCES

• 1: Carolina Cruz-Neira , Daniel J. Sandin , Thomas A. DeFanti, Surround-screen projection-based virtual reality: the design and implementation of the CAVE, Proceedings of the 20th annual conference on Computer graphics and interactive techniques, p.135-142, September 1993 [doi>10.1145/166117.166134]
• 2: Daily, M., Sarfaty, R., Jerald, J., McInnes, D., Tinker, P., The Cabana: A Re-configurable Spatially Immersive Display, in proceedings of the Third International Immersive Projection Technology Workshop, 1999, 123-132.
• 3: Glass, G., Voyager, http://www.objectspace.com/products/documentation/Voyag erOverview.pdf
• 4: Habanero, http://havefun.ncsa.uiuc.edu/habanero/
• 5: Vicky Hardman , Martina Angela Sasse , Isidor Kouvelas, Successful multiparty audio communication over the Internet, Communications of the ACM, v.41 n.5, p.74-80, May 1998 [doi>10.1145/274946.274959]
• 6: Howard, M., Tinker, P., Martin, K., Lee, C., Daily, M., Clausner, T., T. Lackner, The Human Integrating Virtual Environment (HIVE), in Proc. 13 th All-Raytheon Software Symposium, 1998.
• 7: Jerald, J., Daily, M., Neely, H., Interacting with 2d Applications in Virtual Immersive Environments, Submitted to VRST2000.
• 8: Jason Leigh , Andrew E. Johnson , Thomas A. DeFanti , Maxine Brown, A Review of Tele-Immersive Applications in the CAVE Research Network, Proceedings of the IEEE Virtual Reality, p.180, March 13-17, 1999
• 9: Leigh, J., Johnson, A., DeFanti, T.A., CAVERN: a Distributed Architecture for Supporting Scalable Persistence and Interoperability in Collaborative Virtual Environments, Journal of Virtual Reality Research, Development and Applications.
• 10: Martin, K., Tinker, P., Daily, M., Shared Virtual Reality, HRL Technical Report, 1997.
• 11: The MASH Project, University of California, Berkeley, http://mash.cs.berkeley.edu/mash/index.html
• 12: Microsoft NetMeeting, http://www.microsoft.com
• 13: Oregon Graduate Institute, Center for Spoken Language Understanding, http://clsu.cse.ogi.edu/
• 14: John K. Ousterhout, Tcl and the Tk toolkit, Addison-Wesley Longman Publishing Co., Inc., Boston, MA, 1994
• 15: Placeware, http://www.placeware.com
• 16: Smith, R. C., Pawlicki, R. R., Leigh, J., Brown, D, Collaborative VisualEyes, in proceedings of the Fourth International Immersive Projection Technology Workshop, 2000.
• 17: Smith, R. C, Peruski, L., Celusnak, T., McMillan, D.J., Really Getting into Your Work: The Use of Immersive Simulations, in Proceedings of the International Body Engineering Conference (IBEC), Advanced Technologies and Processes, Vol. 25, 1996, and Symposium on Virtual Reality Manufacturing Research and Education, Keynote presentation, Chicago, 1996.
• 18: VRCO, CAVELib Users Manual, version 2.7, 1999.
• 19: Wenzel, E.M. Virtual Acoustic Displays, Conference on Human Machine Interfaces for Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 1990.
• 20: WorldToolKit, http://www.sense8.com/products/wtk.html

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.1 Multimedia Information Systems
          Subjects: Artificial, augmented, and virtual realities

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.4 INFORMATION SYSTEMS APPLICATIONS
      H.4.3 Communications Applications
          Subjects: Computer conferencing, teleconferencing, and videoconferencing
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.1 Multimedia Information Systems
          Subjects: Audio input/output

  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.2 ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
      I.2.7 Natural Language Processing
          Subjects: Speech recognition and synthesis
  I.3 COMPUTER GRAPHICS
      I.3.7 Three-Dimensional Graphics and Realism
          Subjects: Virtual reality

General Terms:
Design, Human Factors, Languages, Management, Performance, Theory

Keywords:
design review, global scale collaboration, multi-modal, spatialized audio, speech recognition, tele-conferencing, virtual environments