Scientists at the University of California, San Diego have developed
something called
StarCAVE, a 3-D virtual reality environment used by researchers in
neuroscience, biomedicine, structural engineering, archaeology and more. The
StarCAVE is a five-sided virtual reality (VR) room where scientific models and
animations are projected in stereo on 360-degree screens surrounding the viewer,
and onto the floor as well. It was constructed by the UC San Diego division of
the California Institute for Telecommunications and Information Technology
(Calit2). At less than $1 million, the StarCAVE immersive environment cost
approximately the same as earlier VR systems, while offering much higher
resolution and contrast. The room operates at a combined resolution of over 68
million pixels - 34 million per eye - distributed over 15 rear-projected walls
and two floor screens. Each side of the pentagon-shaped room has three stacked
screens, with the bottom and top screens titled inward by 15 degrees to increase
the feeling of immersion (while also reducing the ghosting, or 'seeing double',
that bedevils VR systems).