A human immersed in virtual reality on the example of Immersive 3D Visualization Lab

Bibliogr. s. 114

The paper presents the Immersive 3D Visualization Lab (I3DVL) which offers the possibility of free "travel" in time and space. Its basic equipment is a virtual reality cave, i.e. a room where the walls, ceiling and floor are projection screens, which display computer-generated 3D images forming one coherent view of the scene. A human inside the virtual reality cave is immersed in the computer generated virtual world, but walking is limited by walls. Unlimited movement gives only a second element of the lab equipment - a spherical walk simulator. Thanks to the high degree of immersion of a simulation participant in virtual reality a circle of I3DVL users is very large. On the one hand, designers of different types of buildings, vehicles, machinery, and even the creators of innovative scientific concepts can use I3DVL for virtual prototyping, which allows for quick and inexpensive detection of design errors at an early stage. On the other hand, the uniformed services (army, fire brigade) and civil services (building inspection, ship inspection) can use I3DVL for relatively low-cost training without the risk of losing health or life of the participants. Psychologists also gain new opportunities for both assessing the impact of the environment on human behavior, as well as the treatment of mental disorders. The range of applications of I3DVL is very wide: visualization of design objects, virtual tourism, museums and education, remote presence, training of scenarios for uniformed and civilian, observation of human behavior in different environments, the treatment of anxiety disorders etc. In addition, I3DVL collaborating with other virtual reality systems can become part of a distributed simulation, in which several people are participating at the same time in a single simulation distributed on various devices.