A virtual reality system for neurobehavioral and fMRI studies

Abstract

The financial resources once required to maintain multi-million dollar facilities dedicated solely to virtual reality applications are no longer an absolute necessity. The technology to develop and display multi-user, stereo 3D immersive environments is now available on the desktop. Personal computers and 3D game-specific graphic cards are now powerful enough to allow anyone with modern personal computers and an inexpensive, multi-player, first person 3D game engine to create and display reasonably convincing 3D stereo immersive environments. I will be demonstrating the use of a popular and inexpensive (<$50) first person shooter (FPS) game engine to create convincing multi-user stereo 3d immersive environments using commodity-level (~$2000) PC hardware. These environments can be experienced by booth visitors using inexpensive (<$100) wireless LCD shutter glasses. Interested visitors may be provided with brief hands-on experience creating these environments, depending on booth traffic.