Building Virtual Worlds

Moshell - Fall 98

Lecture 22: Designing a Virtual World System
This is the last lecture of the course. In this lecture, you will be presented with a design problem and a set of cost/benefit assumptions about VR technology. Your team will have a chance to debate the merits of various design tradeoffs and to come up with a set of recommendations. On Wednesday, each team will present their recommendations and reasoning behind their choices.

The textbook's last two chapters on Applications and Futures may be of some use in thinking about this design task.

Assignment: There are about 32 people in the class; so this suggests 7 to 8 teams of 4 each. I'm going to give you three design problems, and put 2 or 3 design teams on each problem. In Wednesday's class, each team will have 5 to 8 minutes to present and defend its design decisions. The audience will then serve as the "customer" and select the winning design team.

Setup: You have 2 minutes to choose your partners, form a team of 3 or 4 workers, name your company and make your first, second and third priority picks from the design problems. You may begin with setup as soon as we have discussed the problems.

PROJECT 1: Location Based Entertainment

Customer: Universal Studios Florida
Objective: Entertain large numbers of guests with a unique interactive show in which the guests find themselves crossing the ice above Niagara Falls in the wintertime. The ice breaks up and the guests, riding an ice floe, are approaching the Horseshoe Falls.
Constraints: Protect public safety & health; Minimize cost per user; provide an experience that cannot be duplicated by a video game manufacturer for the home market.

PROJECT 2: ATV Ambulance Driver Trainer

Customer: United States Army
Objective: Develop a system to train drivers to maneuver a new "all terrain vehicle" ambulance over a battlefield, avoiding enemy free fire zones, navigating craters, etc. and reaching the field hospital as quickly as possible without killing the patient in the back of the ambulance.
Constraints: Minimize cost per hour of effective training; entire unit to be shippable in at most eight 70-lb packing cases.

PROJECT 3: Micro-Surgery Assistance Tool

Customer: Baxter Medical Supplies Corporation
Objective: Develop a system which can be used by a surgeon conducting live neurosurgery on a patient's brain stem. The system must assist the physician in identifying the neural tissue by function (there are many different, very similar-looking  and other tissues such as tumors and blood vessals.)
Constraints: System must not provide false information; must not make surgeon's job harder.

OPTIONS:

Image Generators:

A: 450 Megaherz Pentium with state of the art 3d graphics card-    $5,000; 500 polys@20 hz
B: Mid-range Silicon Graphics workstation - $40,000 -    1500 polygons@20 hz
C: High end Silicon Graphics workstation - $200,000 -  4000 polygons @ 20 hz

Display Devices:

A: Economy model head mounted display. 70 degree field of view; 320 x 200 pixels; $4000
B: Deluxe model headmounted display; 90 degree FOV, 640 x 480 pixels; $10,000
C: Custom headmounted display, 100 degree FOV, 1024 x 800 pixels; $80,000 (suspended, as at Disney Quest)
D: BOOM display, 100 degree FOV, 1024 x 800 pixels; $80,000
E: CAVE display, three surfaces (wall wall floor or wall wall ceiling); $60,000 + 3 image generators (B or C)
    (Cave requires Stereo Glasses for all users)
F: Flat screen CRT monitors, 1280 x 1024
    F1: 21" - $2500
    F2: 27" - $5000
G: Video Projectors for screen display on 30ft x 24 ft. screen - $35,000
H: Stereo (CrystalEyes) Glasses - $1000 for emitter + $1000 per pair of glasses
    (Requires E, F or G display device above)

Sound Systems:

A: Stereo earphones - $200 - requires sound source (C, D) and can use B as well -
B: Spatialized ("Convolved") sound localizing system - $20,000
C: Economy Digital Sound Generator - $8,000
D: Deluxe Digital Sound Generator - $20,000

Input/Output Systems:

A: Joystick    $200
B: High quality "potato" controller (with no position sensors)- $1000
C: Pinch Glove (one pair, with interface system) $5000
D: PhanTOM tool interface system, desktop model, 4 DOF - $20,000
E: Magnetic tracker, with one sensor - $7000
F: Magnetic tracker, with three sensors - $11,000
G: Optical tracking system, uses reflective dots - $40,000
H: Mechanical tracking system, uses flexible arm - $15,000
I: Treadmill, for straightforward walking - $12,000
J: Customized User Interfaces: Write one-sentence description, ask Moshell for price quote.

Software Systems:

A: VRML and Java - $200
B: Alice    - Free
C: Sense8 WorldUp - $5,000
D: Silicon Graphics Performer - included with most SGI computer systems
E: Cosmo Worlds modeler - $1,000
F: MultiGen Modeling System - $20,000
G: 3D Studio Max Modeling System - $2,000

Personnel:

Budget some number of person-years of effort from software developers ($50,000), mechanical engineers ($60,000), project managers ($75,000), graphics artists ($35,000) and any other categories of labor you would suggest. All personnel costs incur 100% overhead charges to include fringe benefits, physical facilities, etc.

Timing:

Specify a proposed time line you expect to need to deliver the system you have proposed.

Presentation Medium: Your team is trying to convince the customer that you have the best product; so it would be a good idea to produce some overhead transparencies to show the audience.

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