From: kai@kai.nada.kth.se-dd (Kai-Mikael J\d\d-Aro) Subject: LABS: VR research within the MultiG project Date: Wed, 13 May 1992 11:48:32 GMT Organization: Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden MultiG is a Swedish effort to create the infrastructure for a Multi-Gigabit/s computer network, as well as develop methods for Computer-Supported Cooperative Work in such a network and study issues in connection with it. The project is jointly operated between institutions such as the Royal Institute of Technology, The Swedish Institute of Computer Science, Swedish Telecom, Ericsson and several others. Cooperation with the EC COMIC project is currently underway. Information about MultiG is irregularly posted to swnet.multig. The one subproject within MultiG described in this article is TelePresence, software for distributed virtual worlds. TelePresence uses the ISIS system from Cornell University for the distribution of replicated data and uses software developped within MultiG for the distribution of live video and audio. There is currently no modelling software, though a limited facility for importing Archi-CAD data exists. The emphasis has instead been on distribution and applications. TelePresence has a concept of "AIs", autonomous objects that can run on compute servers and communicate with each other and with Visualisation and Interaction Nodes on graphics servers. These are currently coded in C with hook functions for various events. (Since all communication goes through ISIS with data conversion etc, one can write AIs in any language that has an ISIS-API. Some experimentation has been done with Prolog-AIs.) Some experimental applications that have been implemented in TelePresence include MDraw, a conferencing system with virtual whyteboards; a 3D computer network surveillance application; a prototypical Air Traffic Control system; a model of Electrum (where SICS is housed) with an imaginary squash court; and a Seven-11 shop. Visualisers exist for Sun 4 (colour using XGL, black-and-white using Xlib), IBM RS/6000 and Silicon Graphics computers and are based on "through-the-window" imagery, though a headmounted high resolution colour display is being constructed. The input devices currently consist of keyboard, mouse, spaceball and a "magic wand" made of a Bird and a drumstick. Further work in I/O devices will incorporate the use of PowerGlove and DataGlove (we haven't found much use for these yet) and an improved magic wand with buttons. The current version of TelePresence is V1.4 and a V1.5 will probably be released within a few weeks. Work on V2.0 is underway. V2.0 will have undergone a major revision of the object system and the event distribution. More information will follow. TelePresence is available for anonymous ftp from ftp.kth.se [130.237.72.201] in /pub/MultiG/software/vr.tar.Z and sics.se [192.16.123.90] in /pub/vr.tar.Z. It depends on ISIS V2.1 which can be found on ftp.cs.cornell.edu [128.84.218.75] in /pub/ISISV21.TAR.Z. People involved in TelePresence are Magnus Andersson , Jan Bogdanski , Christer Carlsson , Lennart E Fahl`n , Olof Hagsand , Kai-Mikael J{{-Aro and Olov St}hl . Christer and Kai-Mikael are primary contacts. Questions about MultiG in general are best answered by either Bj|rn Pehrson or Yngve Sundblad . Reports on TelePresence can be found in Proceedings of {First-Fourth} MultiG workshop, some of them can also be found on ftp.kth.se in /pub/MultiG/reports/. -- Kai-Mikael J{{-Aro email: kai@nada.kth.se "Don't win, don't lose." IPLab voice: +46 8 790 91 05 -- Yoshigasaki-sensei NADA, KTH fax: +46 8 790 09 30 S-100 44 Stockholm telex: 812 6154 7052 SICS SWEDEN teletex:2401-812 6154 7052=SICS