Time: 2008 - Present

Description: This is a 10-model ensemble of the protein Ubiquitin (PDB code: 1D3Z). It was built in VirTools using accurate scientific data. The users can view the structure in various modes, manipulate the molecule, as well as view information on selected parts of the molecule. This project was the VirTools prototype that led to the creation of KinImmerse.

Time: 2008 - Present

Description: The Syzygy open-source toolkit for VR software was used to write the KinImmerse program, which translates the molecular capabilities of the kinemage graphics format into software for display and manipulation in the DiVE or other VR system. In addition to molecular visualizations and navigation, KinImmerse provides a set of research tools for manipulation, identification, co-centering of multiple models, free-form 3D annotation, and output of results. The molecular research test case analyzes the local neighborhood around an individual atom within an ensemble of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) models, enabling immersive visual comparison of the local conformation with the local NMR experimental data, including target curves for residual dipolar couplings (RDCs).

²Visualization Technology Group, Duke University

³Electrical and Computer Engineering Department, Duke University

⁴Biochemistry Department, University of Washington

Time: 2008 - Present

Description: This VirTools application investigates how virtual objects can be aligned with the assistance of audio sonification. The user is presented with two identical structures that can be manipulated one at a time. The corresponding segments on the structures are mapped to the same musical note. The user then attempts to overlay the two structures as closely as possible. As the alignment of the two structures approaches an overlaid state, the harmony of the corresponding notes played by the system improves. Conversely, the further the corresponding sections of the structures are from each other, the more dissonance in the sounds produced.

Time: Summer 2007

Description: George Francis collaborated with a number of people to develop an array of math-related applications for use in cluster-based virtual environments such as the CUBE at UIUC and the PORTAL at the Technical University of Berlin. These apps all used a common programming platform, Syzygy. Each application's code (written in C) was modified for DiVE compatibility. Each program can be run in console-mode, allowing the user to experience full functionality of the program (minus the 3-D visualization) from any computer.

Click thumbnail to learn more:

Time: 2006 - Present

Description: This project recreates the human brain with accurate medical and scientific data in the DiVE environment using Avizo. The users can interact and explore various parts of the brain. This application offers stunning visualizations that are very effective as a supplemental teaching tool. It has been regularly used as a part of various Duke classes.

Time: 2006 - Present

Description: This visualization project is developed on the Syzygy platform. It allows the users to explore and interact with linked data. It’s aimed to examine how the manipulability of data in the third dimension improves the users’ abilities to gain understanding and insights in the data as well as the connectivity between the nodes within the data structure. The program reads data through the W3C standard of RDF. A prototype of this application was showcased at the 2007 Duke University HASTAC conference. In 2008, a paper was published at the ISWC conference.

Time: 2006 - Present

Description: Return of fear following cognitive behavioral therapy is problematic for the treatment of anxiety. Specifically, cessation of anxiety appears to be specific to the context in which therapeutic intervention is conducted. The goal of this research is to better understand how the environmental context influences fear memory recall. The DiVE is used to provide three different fully immersive virtual environments in which healthy participants undergo fear acquisition, fear extinction, and finally fear renewal testing across three discrete sessions over three days. Skin conductance is used as the dependent measure of fear and emotional arousal through out the study. The research has yielded insight into how healthy humans retain and recall emotional memories as a function of the context. Moreover, this novel investigation demonstrates the effectiveness of full immersion VR as a tool for conducting informative affective cognitive research.

²Department of Computer Science, Duke University

Time: 2007 - Present

Description: This project aims to understand how the test subjects react and behave in stressful immersive environments. It’s developed in VirTools and presented as an interactive 3D kitchen scene. The test subjects are asked to perform two tasks during their nine minutes in the environment, one of which is impossible to complete. The environment becomes increasingly stressful through irritating audio cues and the frustration of the inability to complete one of the tasks. The GSR (skin conductance) of the test subjects and how long they choose to stay in this environment are recorded and analyzed with the goal of understanding how a person’s ability to cope with stressful situations is related to issues such as addiction.

Author: Jim Crowell (UIUC)

Time: 2007 - Present

Description: This project is a study on “navigation by dead reckoning.” The users are asked to move from one corridor to the next and keep track of the directions they are moving. The path is only revealed one section at a time and the environment is constructed such that the users cannot use their surrounding to track their path. Then, the users are asked to point in the direction of their starting point and to walk in that direction to return to their starting point or at least where they think it is. At the end, the users are allowed to fly through the entire map to see how accurate they were.

Time: 2006

Description: This is a project constructed in VirTools. It is related to a previous study of looming stimuli's effect on the brains of stroke patients. In this environment, the users stand in the middle of the room with lanes extending in all four directions. Balls are randomly generated in one of the four lanes and fly toward the user. The sounds are localized so that the users can distinguid which direction the ball is coming from using the audio cues, which were created by John Bower.

Time: 2005

Description: This is an environment constructed using VirTools. It’s composed of two parts: the green plain above and the hellish underworld below. In addition to the ability to explore the virtual environment, the users also have control over the character Eva. We use her to show the concept of head-tracking as we can move her to the middle of the room and the users are physically able to walk around her. Another feature that can be shown is the sensation of falling. Users can step off from the bridge and fall into the underworld below.

Time: 2005

Description: This application, built using the Syzygy platform, allows users to place any number of control points at any location within the virtual environment and automatically connects these points using cubic splines to ensure smoothness of the path. When users are satisfied, they can travel through the virtual world on the path they have just created as if they were on a roller coaster. The speed is directly proportional to the distance between the control points and a Frenet frame computes the viewpoint's "up" and "forwards" direction as the users travel along the path.

Time: 2004

Description: This minimalist 3D "paint program", also developed with Syzygy, allows users to draw in 3D space just like conventional paint programs let users to draw on a 2D plane. Using an paintbrush that generates colorful ribbons and an eraser the application provides, the users can compose 3D artworks and then walk around and through their work during or after their composition to see it in different perspectives.

Time: 2006

Description: This VirTools application is a 3D version of the game Pong. It was constructed for a gaming FOCUS program cluster when a computer science professor requested a 3D Pong game to be made. The orientation and movement of the paddle corresponds with that of the “wand”. The game uses Virtool’s physics engine to perform the collision calculations, which means that the speed of the ball depends on the how fast the paddle is moving when it hits the ball and the direction depends on the orientation of the paddle during the collision.

Time: 2007 - Present

Description: testing driving skill with different immobilizations.