The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) has both a 4-sided CAVE (3 walls & a floor), and a large 9-projector display wall, that they use for education and research. In a fluffy writeup on the UAB website, they talk to Dr. Bharat Soni about the potentials for the technology.
“This facility creates a virtual environment and multi-dimension visualization capability resembling a real world,” explains Bharat Soni, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering. “At UAB, we’re using this technology mostly for engineering and health-care applications, but the possibilities really are virtually endless.”
They cover uses for visualizing airflow simulations, biomedical data sets, and connecting it to haptic devices for even better results. I like this idea in particular:
Soni’s team is exploring collaborations with the School of Health Professions and Birmingham’s Lakeshore Foundation that will enable patients to perform rehabilitation activities in this controlled environment. “This is an exciting area in which to expand our 3-D capabilities because it has so many practical applications,” says School of Engineering Dean Linda C. Lucas, Ph.D. “In this virtual environments you can see the limitations and the areas that are showing progress, and all this is done with minimal risk to the patient.”
For example, amputees often are taught to water ski as part of their therapy in order to strengthen their muscles and improve balance. The cube can become a lake, and with the help of haptic and other devices the patients can experience virtual skiing.
See the article, and see the smiling Dr. Soni & Alan Shih, at the UAB site.
via Visualization cube offers infinite educational possibilities.
