21-Screen NexCAVE Aids Research at UCSD

UCSD and Kaust have partnered up to build an impressive new visualization system called ‘NexCAVE’.  The ‘NexCAVE’ isn’t actually a new name (First I heard of it was a year ago), but this is the first I’ve heard of a 21-panel version.  Built entirely out of JVC’s 3D LCD HDTV’s with Passive Displays (far simpler than trying to synchronize 21 active displays), it builds a hemispherical display around the user (if you can withstand the bezels).

Projectors are inherently hard to align and keep aligned in these kinds of CAVE environments, but the NexCAVE panels’ left- and right-eye images are automatically aligned, which significantly reduces eye fatigue. The NexCAVE system is well suited for faculty and students to review and manipulate 3D data of all kinds.

An impressive construction to be sure, but the bezels are always an annoyance.  When will consumer bezel-less televisions hit the market?

NexCAVE Aids Research at UCSD | insideHPC.com.

This story written by Randall Hand

Randall Hand is a computer graphics programmer and news junky that's been working in the field for the last 15 years. He's responsible for visualizations generated on some of the most powerful supercomputers in the world, ytnef, mullion support in ParaView, and VizWorld.com.