Fraunhofer gets first TAN VR-CUBE

Düsseldorf 29 October 2001 TAN Projektionstechnologie located in Düsseldorf, Germany has set up the first TAN VR-CUBE using DLP projectors in active stereo mode. The Fraunhofer Institute IPK in Berlin opened the 5-sided room with TAN's latest projection technology. TAN supplies active stereo systems using DLP projectors at up to 10000 ANSI lumens.

"We want to use this VR environment for different steps in the Virtual Product Development process", stated Askan Striepe, the Project Manager at Fraunhofer IPK. "We have chosen this new technology from TAN because of its high brightness, which is 8 times more than standard CRT projectors and because of the unsurpassed colour clarity together with the well known active stereo functionality."

The 4-sided TAN VR-CUBE with sound floor is a cubic room of up to 3 m width, height and depth. On the front and side walls as well as on the floor stereo images are projected. The visualised model appears literally to be floating around wihtin the cube and it is possible for the user to partially walk through and around the object.

Comparable installations are also known under the U.S. trademark CAVE of UICU/EVL. The stereo images are rendered in real time by high performance computer systems. The user can move around or even enter the object or the scene using an electromagnetical tracking system by which the image is calculated in real time for each individual perspective.

The considerable improvements of the TAN VR-CUBE in comparison with known CAVE systems are:

  • optimisation of the seamless corner overlaps without metal wires
  • better screen material for optimised colour and contrast without hot spot effects
  • high convergence stability by modified TAN projectors
  • no metal elements in the screen skeleton

In 1996, it was TAN who produced the first three European VR-CUBEs for the Fraunhofer Institutes IAO and IGD in Stuttgart and Darmstadt as well as for the German National Research Institutes for Information Technology (GMD) in Bonn/Sankt Augustin. TAN also introduced the first installation of this type at a European trade show - the CeBIT'97 - in co-operation with the GMD. The 5-sided VR-Cube at Fraunhofer IGD in Darmstadt was the second installation of its kind worldwide. It was constructed with a raised floor for the rear projection system which was used for all the other walls as well.

In October 1998, TAN finished the world's first 6-sided TAN VR-CUBE for the Royal Institute PDC/KTH in Stockholm/Sweden. This type of VR-CUBE completely encloses the user from all sides. A further developed 6-sided TAN VR-CUBE has been installed in 2001 at the University of Illinois' Beckman Institute, the original inventor of the CAVE system. This VR-CUBE with a size of 10ft for all squares is the first cube with solid walls covered with black material for the optmisation of the contrast and for interiour light reduction.

Ad Emmen

[News on Advanced IT][Calendar][Analysis][IT in Medicine]