Research

Immersive Modeling

Mark R. Mine (mine@cs.unc.edu)
Research

Immersive Modeling Index:

Related Work ISAAC CHIMP
Research Overview ISAAC: Immersive Simulation Animation And Construction CHIMP: Chapel Hill Immersive Modeling Program
Related Work and other links

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Research Overview:

Thesis Statement:

Immersive modeling enables a user to design three-dimensional spaces more easily than modeling through-the-window by avoiding the accidental difficulties that result from the limitations of a two-dimensional interface.

Primary Goals:

Driving Problem:

Architectural Design.

Advisor:

Frederick P. Brooks Jr

Committee:

Gary Bishop
Henry Fuchs
Anselmo Lastra
Carlo H. Sequin
John Tector (NCSU School of Design)
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ISAAC: Immersive Simulation Animation And Construction

ISAAC (Immersive Simulation Animation And Construction) is a testbed for virtual environment interaction techniques and a precursor to my immersive modeling system.

ISAAC is a scene composition application which can be used for the interactive construction of virtual worlds. Working directly in a virtual environment, objects can be positioned, oriented and scaled using direct and indirect manipulation techniques. Object configurations can be stored in ASCII files which can be used to recreate object configurations at a later date for further manipulation and interactive exploration. ISAAC is not a modeling program, worlds are created by manipulating pre-generated three-dimensional models (which can come from sources such as Computer-Aided Design programs or three-dimensional scanning devices). ISAAC has been designed to overcome some of the limitations of working in a virtual environment and to take advantage of the natural and intuitive forms of interaction available in a virtual world.

Detailed description of ISAAC's interaction techniques (includes images and mpegs)

References:

Mine, Mark (1996). ISAAC: A Meta-CAD System for Virtual Environments. Computer-Aided Design (to appear).

Mine, Mark (1995). ISAAC: A Virtual Environment Tool for the Interactive Construction of Virtual Worlds, UNC Chapel Hill Computer Science Technical Report TR95-020.

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CHIMP: Chapel Hill Immersive Modeling Program

CHIMP (Chapel Hill Immersive Modeling Program) is intended for the preliminary stages of architectural design. It is an immersive system; users work directly within a virtual world. The main goal during the development of the CHIMP system has been to develop interaction techniques that exploit the benefits of working immersed while compensating for its limitations. Interaction techniques used in the CHIMP system include:
* Action at a distance
* Look-at menus
* Remote controls (hand-held widgets)
* Constrained object manipulation using two-hands
* Two-handed control panel interaction
* Worlds in miniature
* Interactive numbers

Detailed description of CHIMP's interaction techniques (includes images)

First scenes (images)

References:

Mine, Mark (1996). Working in a Virtual World: Interaction Techniques Used in the Chapel Hill Immersive Modeling Program., UNC Chapel Hill Computer Science Technical Report TR96-029.

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Great Work at Other Sites:

* Conceptual Design Space (Georgia Tech)
* Design Space (Stanford's Center For Design Research)
* JDCAD (University of Alberta)
* MultiGen's Smart Scene
* PolyShop (Institute for Simulation and Training)
* Virtual Environments Lab (North Carolina State University)
* Worlds-In-Miniature (University of Virginia)
* Sketch (Robert Zeleznik, Brown University)
* 3D User Interfaces for Scientific Visualization (Brown University)
* THRED - Two-handed Refining Editor (Chris Shaw, University of Regina
* University of Toronto - Human Computer Interaction Group (Bill Buxton)

Other UNC Research Links:

* Graphics and Image Cluster
* Architectural Walkthrough Project
* Just-In-Time Pixel Display
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Return Links
Mine Home Research Publications Publications UNC
Home Page Research Publications Walkthrough UNC CS


Revised: August 14th, 1996 by: Mark R. Mine (mine@cs.unc.edu)