Basically, a decision making tool, the virtual reality centers are now being used by the automotive and defense, as also various museums across India. The centers have attracted attention of CXOs in the healthcare segment, said M.M Prasad, general manager and head-India Business, Systems Integration Services, Tata Elxsi.

A lot of people are involved at various stages before a product is actually launched in the market. For example, in the auto industry, an image is created, data is stored, and the image is then converted into 3D and circulated among the stake holders. Compared to past when people had to fly from distant places for meetings to discuss changes in design or other technicalities, virtual reality is enabling a lot of industries cut down on the travel cost.

It enables a virtual touch and feel effect among stake holders. Senors are used to enable the experience. For that, an enterprise has to set up virtual reality centers at various sites, or alternately, employees can view the changes on their computer screens.

So how is it different from the tele presence and video conferencing concepts? Said Prasad, You do not need any additional infrastructure. The data in VRs is used for decision reviews, and the products are also offered for a touch and feel, which gives the stake holder a real life experience. An example of the use of VR is its use in health care."

The human body is zoomed in a 3D position. The surgeon conducts a surgery in a virtual mode, and then enters the actual operation theatre. It is the same as getting practical training before entering into a new venture. However, the concept is yet to gain traction in the healthcare segment in India. It has kicked-off with the automotive and defence verticals.

Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland have already established the VR centers. Abroad, auto majors such as Honda are using the concept to cut costs.

In defense, the concept is to train airforce pilots. Trainers use satellite data to enable pilots fly on real terrains, and target practice. The centers is used for ship building (design), submarine data (show and avalanche department in Chandigrah), and by the aeronautical agency in New Delhi, at present.

[...]

AVON, Conn., Nov 12, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) --

Magellan Health Services, Inc., the nation's leading manager of behavioral health care, hosted top virtual reality (VR) therapy and anxiety disorder expert Barbara Rothbaum, Ph.D., ABPP, today at the company's annual conference of its clinical and medical leadership team. Rothbaum, director of the Trauma and Anxiety Recovery Program and professor of psychiatry at Emory University's School of Medicine, pioneered the development of a virtual-reality based program to treat anxiety disorders--a program that is now also being widely used to address posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in war veterans. Magellan is exploring ways to include virtual reality therapy as part of its treatment tools in managing PTSD for veterans.

According to the National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, an average of 30 percent of war veterans experience PTSD, which can develop after exposure to traumatic events such as military combat and can cause flashbacks and bad dreams about the event, emotional numbness, intense guilt or anxiety, sleeplessness or other debilitating symptoms. While the military has used VR techniques in combat training for a number of years, only in the past 15 years has it been applied to the treatment of PTSD through Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET).

"VRET uses a new medium to deliver exposure therapy, one of the most evidence-based methods of treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder," said Rothbaum. "The virtual environments used in this type of therapy are more than just multimedia. They're active experiences that immerse patients back in the situations in which their most traumatic experiences occurred so they can see, hear, feel and smell their surroundings. Each environment is tailored to individuals' personal experience so they feel as though they're re-living the event over and over again, but in a therapeutic manner. Through this process, they eventually handle the experience more adaptively and it becomes a less invasive part of their current lives," she said.

VR therapy sessions take place in a therapist's office and require a head-mounted display with a position tracker, sensor and hand-tracker; a computer and monitor, headphones and a microphone. The patient sits on a raised platform with a bass shaker underneath that produces vibrations consistent with the virtual environment. In addition to the Virtual Iraq and Virtual Vietnam programs used with war veterans, experts have created environments ranging from a unique event such as the collapse of the World Trade Center to a much more common occurrence such as a motor vehicle accident, all to help individuals overcome PTSD.*

[...]

By Nivair H. Gabriel

Cross Reality, Dual Reality, X-Reality: all of these terms describe the recent work of an MIT Media Lab team to bring the virtual into the real and vice versa. So far, the X-Reality group has focused their attentions on Second Life; last year, its Shadow Lab project allowed the game's users to virtually check out real-life activity inside the Media Lab building in Cambridge. Later this month, the next X-Reality project goes live — and they've got big, wormhole-tunneling, reality-crossing plans for it.

Group leader, MIT Professor Joe Paradiso, and his students are installing 45 "Ubiquitous Sensor Portals" in the Media Lab building. Each of these portals has a touchscreen, camera, and array of sensors that are wirelessly connected to the active Second Life universe. Through these portals, Second Life users can interact with real-life people, and real-life people can enter and experience Second Life without even having to download the software. As the group itself puts it on their Media Lab project page, in this way "events in the real world drive phenomena in a virtual environment that is unconstrained by time, space, or the constraints of physics." Sounds like the best kind of futurism to me.

Forbes.com quotes Paradiso on the nature of the Second Life portals:

"These devices are designed to be like wormholes that let you tunnel through to a second reality," says Paradiso. "Second Life is detached. We're tying it into the real world."

X-Reality group member Josh Lifton, the mind behind the Shadow Lab project, offers plenty of application ideas for such technology:

Lifton argues that the "Shadow Lab" setup could be expanded to a more complex scenario like a building's emergency response system. In a fire, for instance, responders could map out the building's temperature and even find inhabitants in the virtual world before risking their lives in the real one. Paradiso offers the more prosaic example of a factory floor outfitted with ubiquitous sensors that lets any executive monitor its manufacturing in the virtual world.

[...]

A school installs a virtual reality studio to bring studies into the 21st Century

A Bournemouth girls school has started holding "virtual reality" lessons - with life-like studies including a tour of the Mount St Helens volcano.

Avonbourne School has installed a virtual reality studio for the studies, which include wandering through a virtual Tudor town.

The studio is part of the school's new £750,000 creative technology suite, funded by Bournemouth Borough Council.

Headteacher, Debbie Godfrey, said schools need to respond to change.

"It's wonderful, a wonderful opportunity," she said.

"The world is changing and we need to respond in how we are educating our young people today."

One Year 10 pupil said: "It's really exciting because you can go and see nearly anywhere in the world."

The creative technology block also includes a video conferencing centre, a projection room and a laptop suite.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/england/dorset/7731281.stm

Published: 2008/11/15 15:45:00 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

IEEE Symposium on 3D User Interfaces 2009
March 14-15, Lafayette, Louisiana, USA
(in conjunction with IEEE Virtual Reality 2009)
3DUI 2009 - Call for Papers

http://conferences.computer.org/3dui

##### Call For Posters and Demonstrations #####

- Posters due: November 26, 2008 (extended).
Poster submission page:
http://www.precisionconference.com/~vr

- Demos due: December 26, 2008 (extended).
Email address for demo submission:
3dui2009_demo_chairs@ime.cmc.osaka-u.ac.jp

See below for more detail.

##### Posters #####

The 3DUI Symposium invites posters within the scope of three-dimensional
user interfaces. Posters provide an interactive forum in which authors
can present their work to symposium attendees at a special poster
session and during conference breaks. Posters describe or discuss
research work that is still in progress, sketch out novel ideas or
systems, or present the latest implemented applications. Since posters
are not counted as publications, they will be more lightly reviewed than
papers and tech-notes. However, they will also appear in the printed
proceedings. Please see also the Double-Submissions Policy .

Poster submissions should also be in the form of a one or two page
manuscript prepared in IEEE VGTC format
(http://www.cs.sfu.ca/~vis/Track/3DUI.html). Authors must title their
posters with "Posters: title" to differentiate it from other types of
submission categories in the proceedings. It should describe the
author(s) and affiliation, the research problem, as well as the
contribution to the field. Additional material, such as videos or demos,
may be included in the submission.

Your poster should be submitted through the submission web site in PDF
format.

Submission Page: http://www.precisionconference.com/~vr
Posters due November 26, 2008 (extended).

December 19, 2008: notification to authors
January 5, 2009: camera-ready papers due

After acceptance poster authors are expected to prepare the final
version of their poster to be included in the proceedings by January 5th,
and later on, the posters that they will present in person at the
symposium. These posters will be mounted on boards and in the poster
session, authors will present their work and discuss it with other
attendees. In addition, poster authors are expected to give a short
Powerpoint presentation of their work at the 3DUI poster mania session
in the conference.

For more information, please contact the 3DUI Posters Chairs.

3DUI 2009 Posters Chairs:
- Raimund Dachselt (University of Magdeburg, Germany)
- Pablo Figueroa (Universidad de Los Andes, Colombia)
- Raphael Grasset (HITLabNZ, New Zealand)
3dui2009_poster_chairs@ime.cmc.osaka-u.ac.jp

##### Demonstrations #####

The 3DUI Symposium invites research demonstrations within the scope of
three-dimensional user interfaces. Demonstrations provide an interactive
forum in which authors can present their system to symposium attendees
at a special demo session and during conference breaks. Demonstrations
should interest the broad 3DUI community and be presentable in a
conference setting.

Accepted demonstrations will be invited to participate in an exhibition
of new and innovative work. The conference will provide basic
infrastructure for the demos. In addition, authors of accepted
demonstrations will have a time slot in the Demonstration Session to
communicate more general information about the specific demo and other
work being performed at the lab.

Accepted demonstrations will be presented during the 3DUI 2009 Symposium,
however, those authors are cordially invited to present their systems at
the VR 2009 Conference as well. In this case, the demonstration will be
listed by both events. Please note however that you will need to move
your equipment from the demonstration area of 3DUI to that of VR.

Demonstration submissions should be in the form of a one page PDF
manuscript prepared in IEEE VGTC format. It should describe the author(s)
and affiliation, the research problem, as well as the contribution to
the field. Since demonstrations are not counted as publications, they
will be more lightly reviewed than papers and tech-notes. However,
accepted manuscripts will also appear in the printed proceedings and
thus a certain quality of the poster description is required. Authors
must title their manuscripts with "Demos: title" to differentiate it
from other types of submission categories in the proceedings.

Your manuscript should be directly emailed to the 3DUI 2009 Demo Chairs:
3dui2009_demo_chairs@ime.cmc.osaka-u.ac.jp

In the email, you should also discuss the following setup requirements
in plain text. Please note that we do not guarantee that the
requirements will be satisfied.
- list of items to bring
- list of items to borrow (e.g. chairs, desks)
- necessary space (width by depth)
- power consumption (watts)
- other requirements

Demonstration submission due: December 26, 2008 (extended).

December 29, 2008: notification to authors
January 5, 2009: camera-ready papers due

After the submission due, venue and publication space cannot be
guaranteed. However, researchers are encouraged to contact the chairs to
discuss their potential demonstration and the available options.

For more information or to submit a proposal contact the 3DUI 2009 Demo
Chairs.

3DUI 2009 Demo Chairs:
- Kiyoshi Kiyokawa, Osaka University, Japan
- Sabine Coquillart, INRIA, France
- Ravin Balakrishnan, University of Toronto, Canada
- Laura Monroe, Los Alamos National Laboratories
- Ed Lantz, Vortex Immersion
- Moonho Park, Samsung
- Simon Richir, Laval Virtual
- Diane Favro, University of California, Los Angeles
- Andreas Gerndt, German Aerospace Center (DLR)
3dui2009_demo_chairs@ime.cmc.osaka-u.ac.jp

----
Kiyoshi KIYOKAWA, Ph.D.
Cybermedia Center, Osaka University
Toyonaka Educational Research Center 517
1-32 Machikaneyama, Toyonaka, Osaka 560-0043, Japan
Tel: +81-6-6850-6821 / Fax: +81-6-6850-6829
(PGP FP: A314 67B6 C1B2 7016 2C43 CF6C 3456 0225 3CD7 7AB7)

Virtual Reality Center provides tools online

The Virtual Reality Center (VRC) at Wichita State University's National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR)performs interactive visualization and simulation for design decision and collaboration in areas such as conception, engineering, certification, manufacturing and marketing.

The lab’s website has several resources available for download including a video demonstrating VRC’s full immersive simulation capabilities and an interior configurator.

The video shows manager Fernando Toledo using the VRC’s head-mounted display, manipulation gloves and optical and electromagnetic motion tracking systems to perform a virtual assembly and disassembly of aircraft parts in real time.

Using the 3DVIA Virtools interior configurator, users can interact with a virtual aircraft interior to select and change the aircraft’s carpet, seat upholstery, wall color and wood finish in real time.

Other downloadable resources include a VRC information sheet, research papers and tutorial presentations on various VR capabilities.

For more information about NIAR’s Virtual Reality Center visit the website at http://www.niar.wichita.edu/vrc or contact Fernando Toledo (316) 978-8333.

NewswireToday - /newswire/ - Santa Barbara, CA, United States, 11/05/2008 - Vizard VR authoring toolkit synchronizes up to 32 rendering CPUs via network cluster.

Adapting 3D simulations to CAVE rendering clusters takes minutes instead of months with the VizSim industry's favored 3D interactive content creation toolkit Vizard from WorldViz.

"With the rapidly increasing demand for high-fidelity 3D visual simulations comes the need for render solutions supporting multiple viewports controlled by CPU clusters", explains Peter Schlueer, President of WorldViz. "The advantage of Vizard's cluster tool is that the entirety of a simulation is synchronized automatically ¨C and we mean everything from the low-level gen-locking of the networked machines to maintaining a dynamic scenegraph including content as complex as real-time human mocapped avatars. Conventional simulations can be converted to cluster deployments in a matter of minutes, an exercise we routinely demonstrate at tradeshows and webinars."

With Vizard and its cluster rendering capabilities, VizSim professionals have a powerful 3D prototyping tool at their fingertips, supporting any visual display system from simple 3D screens to stereo head-mounted displays, power walls, 3D projectors, and six-sided CAVEs. Vizard also natively supports most real-time motion tracking systems, data gloves, haptic devices and 3D sound systems. Your existing CAD data libraries can now be easily imported into Vizard and optimized for real-time use at the same time.

[...]

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (October 17, 2008) - Rockwell Collins, Inc. (NYSE: COL) today announced its intent to acquire SEOS, a leading global supplier of highly realistic visual display solutions for commercial and military full flight simulators. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

After completion of the transaction, SEOS will operate under the Rockwell Collins name and will become part of the Simulation and Training Solutions organization.

"We are pleased to bring SEOS' expertise and excellent customer affinity to Rockwell Collins. Their state-of-the-art displays, coupled with our industry-leading image generators, create a fully integrated visual system that is truly greater than the sum of its parts," said Rockwell Collins Chairman, President and CEO Clay Jones. "The addition of SEOS' innovative displays to our simulation and training offering further enhances our ability to deliver a highly realistic training experience to our commercial and military customers."

"SEOS has enjoyed a wonderful 24 years as an independent company within the simulation industry - but we now feel that for the benefit of our customers and staff, we need a strong partner to take us to the next level," said Owen Wynn, executive chairman of SEOS. "Rockwell Collins is the perfect choice because of the wonderful synergies between the two companies. We are all extremely excited about the prospects of working together in the future."

The transaction is expected to be completed in about 30 days and is subject to regulatory approvals. The acquisition is not expected to have a material impact on Rockwell Collins' fiscal year 2009 earnings.

SEOS, which has 150 employees and is headquartered in West Sussex, U.K., provides complete design, development, production, installation and support services that are used worldwide in simulators for military and commercial flight, air traffic control, marine and surface transportation. The company has established a worldwide reputation for supplying innovative, high quality, cost-effective display solutions.

Rockwell Collins (NYSE: COL) is a pioneer in the development and deployment of innovative communication and aviation electronic solutions for both commercial and government applications. Our expertise in flight deck avionics, cabin electronics, mission communications, information management and simulation and training is delivered by 20,000 employees, and a global service and support network that crosses 27 countries. To find out more, please visit www.rockwellcollins.com.

This press release contains statements (such as projections regarding future performance) that are forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may differ materially from those projected as a result of certain risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to the risks inherent in the integration of SEOS into Rockwell Collins.

Contacts:
Pam Tvrdy
Rockwell Collins
Work: 319-295-0591
Cell: 319-431-0951
pjtvrdy@rockwellcollins.com

# # #

RC-NR-05

The OpenGL 3.0 and GLSL 1.30 Windows drivers version 178.25 and Linux drivers version 177.61.02 are available via the links below. Note for Windows users only: To enable/disable OpenGL 3.0 features, please use the latest nvemulate tool.

OpenGL 3.0 Beta Driver Release Notes
This driver is aimed at developers to start coding to the new OpenGL 3.0 and GLSL 1.30 features. These features are not enabled by default. They can be enabled using the nvemulate utility, as described here: http://developer.nvidia.com/object/nvemulate.html. You do not need to do anything on Linux drivers to enable OpenGL 3.0.

You need one of the following graphics cards to enable the OpenGL 3.0 and GLSL 1.30 functionality:

Desktop
Quadro FX 370, 570, 1700, 3700, 4600, 4700x2, 5600
GeForce 8000 series or higher; GeForce GTX 260, 280
Notebook
Quadro FX 360M, 370M, 570M, 770M, 1600M, 1700M, 2700M, 3600M, 3700M
GeForce 8000 series or higher
This driver implements all of GLSL 1.30 and all of OpenGL 3.0, except for the following functionality:

One-channel (RED) and two-channel (RG) textures
The Clearbuffer API
Windowless rendering support (We suggest you use GPU affinity instead)
Forward-compatible context
Debug Context
This driver exposes the following new extensions:

OpenGL 2.1 extensions:
ARB_vertex_array_object
ARB_framebuffer_object
ARB_half_float_vertex
OpenGL 3.0 extensions:
WGL_create_context
GLX_create_context
ARB_draw_instanced
ARB_geometry_shader4
ARB_texture_buffer_object
The following has been added over the previous Windows beta driver release (177.89):

Linux support - OpenGL 3.0 and GLSL 1.30 functionality support between the Linux and Windows releases are identical.
Now allows rendering to a FBO with mixed-size attachments
VAO bug fixes and performance improvements
EXT_texture_swizzle support
Transform feedback missing functionality is implemented
Various other bug fixes

Official Press Release

TrianGraphics releases DBGS Trian3D Builder 2.1 with new Airport and
Roads Modules

Berlin - October 15, 2008

TrianGraphics GmbH today announces the release of the new version 2.1 of
Trian3D Builder – a database generation system for detailed 3D terrains
of arbitrary size.

Trian3D Builder's new version 2.1 comes with a surprising multiplicity
of new features. Some of which are improvements in workflow, whereas
others offer the generation of completely new terrain features. The new
Airport and Roads Modules provide the capabilities to generate complex
terrains for flight simulator as well as for driving simulators with a
few mouse clicks.

New Features:

The modifier concept has been further enhanced for higher complexity of
vector attributes. Several attribute sets may now be assigned to a vector.
The new Bridges tool automatically places bridges in the scene, and lets
the user edit the placement afterwards if demanded. Directional and
flashing light points are now supported. Vector snap, the integration of
external editors and many more small improvements optimize the workflow
of the Trian3D package.

"The flexibility of Trian 3D Builder makes it unique on the modelling
and simulation COTS market", noted Gaël Ramaen, European Marketing
Development Manager at Antycip Simulation. "The new features and modules
make Trian3D Builder very useful for an even wider range of applications.“

Antycip Simulation, a subsidiary of ST Electronics (Training &
Simulation Systems) Pte Ltd., is the European leader in the distribution
and support of modelling and simulation COTS tools. The company
represents TrianGraphics in Europe for the distribution and support of
its COTS tools.

Airport Module:

The Airport Module enables the user to import and generate complex
airports due to international standards.

The airports are generated automatically with full lighting, markings,
taxiways and apron areas. As the airport's data is translated into
vector representation, every single airport feature can be edited
arbitrarily. Alternatively to importing an airport the generation of a
fully featured own airport is also supported.

Various types of approach lightings, edge lights and runway light
indicators are support. Furthermore several types of runway markings
dependant on the runway width, as well as displaced thresholds and
stopways are generated.

The Airport Module is delivered with a continuously updated database of
over 20000 airports from all over the world.

Roads Module:

The Roads Module offers the generation of advanced roads from profiles
supporting very complex smooth crossings from arbitrary vector data.
The modifiers Profile and Crossing generate complex road networks from
line data, which are integrated seamlessly into the terrain. Those
modifiers may also be used for the generation of other profiled objects
like detailed rivers with bank.
In the modifier Profile you may define the segments of the tracks, curb
or pavement along the road profile. Furthermore you may define arbitrary
road markings. Where lines with Profile modifier assigned are
intersecting, crossings are generated automatically. The constellations
of the lines are arbitrary, and thus very complex crossing and also
roundabouts may be generated. Different lane settings of the roads are
blended over seamlessly.

TrianGraphics GmbH

Company

TrianGraphics was founded in 2004 and is based in Berlin, Germany.
TrianGraphics is operating on the Vis/Sim market and is specialized on
the generation of databases for all types of realtime simulations.
Besides the service of terrain generation, TrianGraphics is developing
the DBGS Trian3D, which came into the market 2006.

Product Line Trian3D

Trian3D Builder is a tool for the automated generation of georeferenced
terrains of arbitrary size and is mainly addressing companies of the
simulation market. Unique selling points are ease of use as well as the
generation of generic and geotypic terrains. In addition to the basic
product for geospecific terrains the following modules are available:
Geotypic Module, Airport Module, Road Module, GDB Exporter (MÄK's CGF
Format).

Contact

For any further information please feel free to contact us.

Stephan Kussmaul
stephan.kussmaul@triangraphics.de
+49 (0)30 48495565