Cave Automatic Virtual Environment
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A Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (better known by the recursive acronym CAVE) is an immersive virtual reality environment where projectors are directed to four, five or six of the walls of a room-sized cube. The name is also a reference to “The Simile of the Cave” in Plato’s Republic where a philosopher contemplates perception, reality and illusion.
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The first CAVE
The first CAVE was developed in the Electronic Visualization Lab at University of Illinois and was announced and demonstrated at the 1992 SIGGRAPH. It has been used and developed in cooperation with the NCSA, to conduct research in various virtual reality and scientific visualization fields. CAVE is now a registered trademark of Fakespace Systems and is a commercial product.
Description of technology
A lifelike visual display is created by projectors positioned outside of the cube and controlled by physical movements from a user inside the CAVE. Stereoscopic glasses are used to convey a 3D effect. The glasses rapidly send images to a computer which controls a visual display on the monitors. Since the projectors are positioned outside of the cube, mirrors are used to reduce the distance required from the projectors to the walls. One or more computers, often SGI workstations, drive the projectors. Software and libraries designed specifically for CAVE applications is available.
Applications
The concept of the original CAVE has been reapplied and is currently being used in a variety of fields.
External links
- Electronic Visualization Lab homepage (http://evlweb.eecs.uic.edu/)
- The Cave at NCSA (http://cave.ncsa.uiuc.edu/)
- Fakespace Systems' CAVE® product page (http://www.fakespacesystems.com/cave.shtml)
- Dave Pape's CAVE page (http://www.evl.uic.edu/pape/CAVE/) (University of Illinois)
- Technologyreview.com - Exploring The Cave (http://www.technologyreview.com/articles/98/03/trends30398.asp?p=1)
- Virtual Environment Enclosures (http://www.cs.nps.navy.mil/people/faculty/capps/4473/projects/christianson/CavesLong.html)
- The CAVE at ARS Electronica CENTER (http://www.aec.at/en/center/project.asp?iProjectID=11197)