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Watch out for news of Transformer, Daniel Gosling's voyage to the Arctic Circle.
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Mixed Reality Lab
Can You See Me Now?
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>> BLAST THEORY HOME
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Interview with Professor Steve Benford, principle investigator at Nottingham University's Mixed Reality Lab.
What is MRL?
The MRL is the Mixed Reality Laboratory - a research laboratory at The
University of Nottingham that is home to a range of projects that are
looking into new ways of merging the physical and digital (i.e.,
online) worlds. Physically, the MRL is a configurable studio space that
is equipped with various projection, tracking, computing and networking
technologies. This is home to about 40 researchers with backgrounds
in computer science, sociology, psychology, architecture, and
engineering. Current projects in the MRL include Equator a 10 million,
six-year initiative, involving eight UK universities that has been
funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)
[see www.equator.ac.uk]. We are also involved in three projects under
the EC's Disappearing Computer Initiative [see
www.disappearing-computer.net].
Could you explain a bit about its areas of research and the work that
you do?
Broadly speaking, we do three kinds of things.
First, we generate new technologies. These include new software such as
MASSIVE for multi-user virtual worlds and Equip for interfacing wireless
devices and tracking technologies to virtual worlds. We also develop
devices that join physical and digital worlds in new ways. Some recent
examples include:
- traversable interfaces - screens that you step through in order to
enter a virtual world (the most extreme example being a large curtain of
water into which an image of a virtual world was projected as part of
the Desert Rain project);
- the augurscope - a tripod-mounted display for use outdoors that knows
where it is located, and in which direction it is being pointed wherever
you take it;
- the storytelling tent - a portable immersive environment for children
that can automatically sense who and what is entering and leaving its
structure.
Second, we explore new applications of these technologies. In recent
years, we have focused on new forms of entertainment, television and
performance as well as on technologies to support home and social life.
However, we also have projects in areas such as manufacturing and
scientific visualisation.
Third, we evaluate the kinds of experiences that people have when using
these technologies. For this, we draw on techniques from the social
sciences and psychology, including ethnography, a technique where
skilled observers observe and then analyse social interaction in
different environments, drawing on field-notes and video recordings.
How is augmented reality different to virtual reality?
Whereas virtual reality involves cutting yourself off from the real
world in order to immerse yourself in a computer generated virtual
world, augmented reality involves overlaying a virtual world on your
view of the real world so that you experience both at the same time. The
computer might label physical objects with instructions, guidance and
directions, or the everyday physical world might become populated with
virtual characters and objects. There are several ways of experiencing
augmented reality: you can wear a see-through head-mounted display, can
point a handheld display at a physical object; or can see digital
information mixed with a video view of a remote environment. In each
case, the computer system needs to be able to track where you are
looking and possibly determine what you are seeing in order to augment
your view. This requirement to 'register' virtual with physical objects
is probably the most difficult technical challenge for augmented reality.
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