A multimedia VR system

Abstract

A multimedia center, containing six main research groups, was established at the University of Aizu in 1995. For one such group, a multimedia VR (virtual reality) system was constructed as a VR museum or interactive theater in a 17-m/sup 2/ room with HDTV, a 10-m/spl times/9-m large screen for 3D images, 17 loudspeakers for virtual sound, and various kinds of video-recording machines. This system is controlled by a high-performance computer using an ATM network. This paper first presents the technical limitations of this system, owing to its construction from a combination of commercially available products, and then introduces a new architecture for computing machines, computer graphics processors and sound generators which has been developed at the University of Aizu in reply to the demand for second-generation multimedia systems.