The Visualization Lab at Marshall University in Huntington, WV, is housed in the new Arthur Weisberg and Family Engineering Laboratories building, which was completed in the Fall of 2008.  The lab was initially established by the Center for Environmental, Geotechnical and Applied Sciences (CEGAS) to address the virtual training component of the EDA-sponsored project Mine Safety Technology Innovation Capability and Regional Business Development for the U.S. Mining Industry. Visualization takes advantage of the human eyes broad bandwidth into mind that allows users to see, explore, and understand large amounts of data/information in a moment. 

The virtual reality component of the lab has been coined VISE (Virtual Interactive Simulation Environment). By leveraging highly accessible, emerging, and enabling technologies, VISE blends virtual and real worlds into an immersive interactive environment for a rich variety of applications in industry, education and government and it has become a unique and valuable resource to Marshall University and its community - well-poised to help create new opportunities for business and economic development in the region.

The primary objective of VISE was to create an effective training environment for mine safety training without the hazards and expense of a real mine or emergency situations.  This environment leverages state-of-the-art 3-D visualization, simulation and immersive technologies, such as stereo displays, motion tracking, simulated smoke, etc. 

The centerpiece of the lab is a 9’x17’ rear-projected display powered by two Sony 4K SRXD™ projectors and two high-end nVIDIA Quadro® Plex visual computing systems, providing the industry’s highest-definition single-panel stereo display.  Active and passive stereo viewing is provided by shuttered and polarized glasses, respectively.

Another state-of-the-art feature of the lab is its video-based motion tracking system from Organic Motion that requires no markers, special patterns or other sensors.  It can capture the full 3-D skeletal motion of a person in real-time, which can be used to animate an avatar, navigate a scene, or control other elements in a virtual environment.

The area in front of the screen is highly configurable to allow for a range of immersive experiences—from a small classroom or conference room setting to a fully interactive motion-tracking stage.  The lab has no windows, and it has a blackened interior for optimal lighting control.  The lab is also equipped with surround-sound stereo.

The initial choice for a virtual world platform was Second Life, a highly accessible web-based client-server technology allowing:  multi-player participation across the Internet, user-created content, a good physics engine, audio/video media feeds, decent scalable graphics rendering, voice or text chat, and a scripting language with external communication capabilities.  To make Second Life more immersive, a stereo-capable browser is used, and the motion capture system is used to navigate and control a person’s avatar, provide gesture-based controls and to manipulate virtual objects.

The lab has since started exploring other virtual world platforms with improved physics simulation, higher-definition graphics, and better integration with conventional content creation tools.  The lab is also exploring a variety of panoramic and 3-D capture (scanning) technologies to help replicate real scenes and structures in virtual environments.

The lab is a significant resource for the business community and provides a variety of services through its staff and student interns.  These include content creation, programming, hosting, and training to support the application of 3-D visualization and virtual worlds in the areas of simulation, training, conferencing, social networking, and the arts.   It is continually exploring opportunities to work with University faculty, staff and students to incorporate this technology into courses, student projects, research, and campus events.

Visualization is a key technological component of the cyberinfrastructure being developed at Marshall University and provides researchers with powerful new tools and capabilities that will improve scholarly productivity and enable knowledge breakthroughs and discoveries not otherwise possible.