CAVCaM offers DRI a variety of computational, display and interface technologies to enhance simulation, communication and visualization efforts.
The CAVCaM facilities includes many cutting edge hardware and software technologies. The hardware lineup starts with a four-sided CAVE/FLEX immersive display from Fakespace Systems Inc. We also have two other stereo displays: an immersive single-screen display from Visbox Inc., and a ceiling mounted stereo display in the Vislab. The Vislab also includes a 3-tile largescreen display from Panoram Technologies, and Apple Macintoshes with the large 30" LCD panel displays. The 3-tile display can be driven by a selection of computing systems, including a 5-node Linux Cluster, a Macintosh G5, or a production computer running off-the-shelf Access Grid Node software.
The Center also includes a computer for medium size computational simulations. An SGI Altix™ computer (ace.dri.edu) features 44 processors, and 168G of memory.
The CAVE™/FLEX™ four sided immersive display is the current
cornerstone of the CAVCaM visualization displays.
As a FLEX system, this large display is able to convert between
standard CAVE-mode, where the participants are nearly surrounded 
by projected computer imagery, and open-mode providing a 27 foot
wide-screen projection system.
In both modes, this system provides for large-scale stereoscopic image projection combined with a 3D immersive interface that allows the participants to interact with the virtual worlds in an intuitive style.
The virtual worlds can be abstract or verisimilar representations of observed data, simulated data, or some combination of the two. CAVCaM staff are building a suite of tools that will allow many data formats to be read directly, with an ever expanding repetoire.
The Visbox™ display is a smaller scale immersive display. It consists of a single screen, approximately 8 feet in diameter with a stereoscopic image projected from behind. Like the CAVE, the Visbox also provides a 3D immersive interface that tracks the movement of the participant, allowing for a more intuitive interface between the user and the virtual world.
The current Visbox display is located in room 13x of the newly remodeled Maxey basement. A second Visbox display, this one for the Las Vegas campus, is currently being chosen.
The Vislab facility located near the Maxey entrance in Reno contains a variety of visualization and communcation hardware and software. At the front of the room is a widescreen tiled display which can be fed by either 3 nodes of a Linux cluster, or a multipipe Macintosh G5. For interactive stereoscopic display, a separate screen can be lowered from the ceiling.
The widescreen display also acts as the viewing surface for
Access Grid Node communication sessions from the DRI Reno campus.
The Access Grid allows multiple-camera viewing between similarly
outfitted sites, including both Reno and Las Vegas campuses of
DRI, UNR, UNLV, plus academic and other sites throughout the
nation and world.
At the back of the Vislab are two machines with useful visualization
software installed.
On the left is a Macintosh G5 (2x 2.5GHz) with two wide displays for
viewing large segments of data at one time.
The G5 Mac is also loaded with visualization software such as the
Lightwave™ Animation package, Final Cut Pro, DVD Studio Pro,
Adobe and Macromedia tool suites, among others.
On the right side is a Linux box equiped with an active stereoscopic display, and a 3D input device. Software on the machine includes Fledermaus and GeoMatica.
DRI has Access Grid Nodes (AGN) located in both the Reno and Las Vegas campuses. The AGN is a video conferencing system that connects DRI sites to each other, UNR, UNLV, plus many other sites.
As part of the computational infrastructure maintained by CAVCaM, we have an SGI Altix 3700 computer with 44 CPUs, and 168 Gigabytes of RAM. Job control is handled by the Open-source Sun Grid Engine (SGE) software.
Funding for the construction of a six-sided CAVE-like display has
been approved, as has funding for a new "Computational Research
and Visualization" building.
Design of the new building is underway, with expected beginning
date for construction in the Fall of 2006, and hopeful completion
by Winter 2007.
In addition to housing the new six-sided CAVE-like display and other virtual reality and visualization facilities, the new Computational Research and Visualization building will also house much of DRI's Information Technology group, plus groups from all divisions of DRI doing computational research.