Immersive Battlespace Visualization

Under grants from the Air Force Research Lab and the National Guard, researchers at the Virtual Reality Applications Center (VRAC) at Iowa State University are using immersive visualization to addresses the critical need for battlefield information to pierce the confusion and haze of war. As our surveillance and intelligence capabilities continue to increase, the issues of discrimination, selection and dissemination of information become paramount. The key question is: How to deliver the right information to the right people at the right time? The VRAC team is looking to provide insight into these issues in the context of an integrated, immersive environment for battlespace visualization. Working with command and control experts from the 133rd ACS squadron in Fort Dodge, Iowa, the team has developed a virtual Joint Battlespace for collecting, displaying and interacting with battlespace data in an intuitive and easily understandable format. Battlespace managers and weapons directors are able to easily navigate within the environment, reach for data, and relay information with a gesture. By removing the seams between the data and the user, the virtual environment becomes an extension of the battlespace manager's senses. This allows the user to concentrate on the situation awareness problem and not the interface to it.

People:
Carolina Cruz-Neira, Adrian Sannier, James Oliver, Bryan Walter, Jared Knutzon, Justin Hare, Liangshou Wu, Karen Peretti

Biomolecular visualization

To help better understand RNA-protein interactions during the course of E. coli 30S ribosomal subunit assembly, a team of VRAC researchers are working with Dr. Gloria Culver and her team of biochemists to immersively visualize the structure and movement of the 30-S subunit of the human ribosome. These studies involve developing methods for viewing 3-D structures in the C6 virtual reality cave and then incorporating movement within these molecules. We hope that these applications will be of use to any investigator interested in dynamics and complicated structures.

People:
Gloria Culver, Kristi Holmes, Darrin Lemmer, Adrian Sannier, James Oliver, Ronald Sidharta, Jason Schneekloth, Tom Batkiewitz

A Multi-Purpose First Person Environment

VRAC researchers have developed a multi-user, collaborative environment that can be used as a research platform for studies in the psychology of video games, as well as high-fidelity training for homeland security and forensics applications.
The application was originally developed to investigate the linkage between aggressive behavior and increased realism in video games. Professor Craig Anderson of the ISU Psychology Department has built an international reputation studying the link between violent media and aggressive behavior. Working with Dr. Anderson and his team, ISU researchers developed a highly immersive, realistic version of a “first-person shooter” environment based on an accurate model of the ISU Design Center. Multiple participants can interact with one another in this environment, use weapon-based controllers and use their bodies to duck behind objects and move about in the environment. In the fall, researchers will compare the aggressive responses of participants in this highly realistic simulation, with similar responses from players of non-violent, non-immersive desktop based games.
This same research platform is also being used to explore applications to Homeland Security and forensics training. Multiple users, in distributed locations can meet in the simulated environment and together experience specially designed training scenarios that illustrate potentially dangerous situations in a realistic, but safe, environment. This work in progress has been demonstrated for the National Sherrifs Association and Iowa Homeland Security Advisor Ellen Gordon. Immersive training can be used to build the experience of first-responder teams to potential threats without placing them in any danger.

People:
Adrian Sannier, James Oliver, Ronald Sidharta, Jason Schneekloth, Tom Batkiewitz, Chad Austin