Room B650: The Cube
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Cube quicktime movie
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The Beckman Cube is an immersive, stereo-capable (true 3-D)
visualization chamber manufactured by TAN
Projektionstechnologie of Dusseldorf, Germany. It is located in a
room specially modified to eliminate all ferrous metal within tracking
range of the Cube. The six surfaces of the Cube are 3-meter square
acrylic panels, coated with a dark rear-projection surface screen
material. Wall panels are 10mm thick, the top and bottom surfaces
are 35mm thick. The entrance panel is a vertical sliding surface, which
when closed leaves no visible gap, ensuring complete immersion in the
space.
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The Cube can be driven by two separate computer systems, a Silicon
Graphics Onyx with three Infinite Reality graphics engines or a cluster
of pc's with genlocked 3-D Labs Wildcat 4210 graphics cards.
RS-232 enabled video switching allows rapid change between the two
computer systems. Traditional CAVE libraries or the ISL-developed
Syzygy cluster architecture software are available for researchers to
use as toolkits for the visualization/sonification of their data.
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The viewer/subject in the Cube enjoys a completely untethered
visualization experience. A twenty-four sensor wireless Ascension
MotionStar tracking system transmits 6DOF information from the subject.
Active stereo is viewed through a Stereographics LCD shutter-glass system.
Spatialized sonification is afforded each subject through head-related
transfer function-generated sound, based on information from the
Motionstar system. Additional data gathering/presenting devices,
such as hand-held wireless computers, wireless microphones and wireless
cameras can be incorporated in an individual experimenter's research.
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Research in LIVE funded in part through National Science Foundation grant
EIA 0079800
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New machines for
the Cube
A stroll through history
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