Report on Research
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Test's of Ascension Flock of Birds
Live Video Broadcasting in the Everest Facility
Introduction
One on my objectives was to incorporate peripherals
that will enhance scientists' sense of immersion while using various display
venues. When scientist start using bigger and more massive display venues to
visualize their data it becomes necessary for them to move away from a keyboard
and mouse and to start using tracking devices. These devices can give the
orientation and position of the tracked object is space. The scientist can then
navigate and explore his data more efficiently than if he was to use other
methods. My first task was to analyze the
Everest facility and then from that determine what is the best solution of
tracking technology that can be implemented. The Everest facility is 30 ft by
30ft. The Power wall in the room is 30ft wide by 8ft tall. The wall is made up
of 27 glass plates. There are 27 projectors behind the glass. These projectors
project at 3000 lumens each. This causes the Power wall to become a significant
source of light. I examined several types of ways to incorporate peripherals
into the room. These types are hand gesture and magnetic tracking.
Hand Gestures
Hand gestures can provide a more natural-computer interface. This can allowing people to point, or rotate a CAD model by rotating their hands. Hand gestures can be broken and classified in two categories: static and dynamic. A static gesture is a particular hand configuration and pose, represented by a single image. A dynamic gesture is a moving gesture, represented by a sequence of images. The type that I looked into was static hand gestures. A static gesture is a particular hand configuration and pose, represented by a single image. This pose or hand configuration then triggers a response from the computer. However I abandoned this idea because of the light conditions that are in the Everest room.
The next peripheral
that I looked into was motion tracking. Motion tracking was already used by the
ORNL viz group when they designed the blah blah blah. However the device that
they used was a wired 6 DOF device. The devices that I looked into were wireless
6DOF(Degrees of Freedom) devices. Having a wired device would only make the
scientist feel that he is hindered and having a constraint placed on him. There
were three companies that I looked into. They were Polhemus, Ascension, and
Intersense. Out of all these companies there was an old Flock of Birds wired
6DOF tracking device that was bought from Ascension in September 2000.
Liberty Latus
The Liberty Latus Liberty 240/16-4 is a 6DOF wireless system. The maximum ranges are between 500 to 1000 square feet. The Latus is compatible with linux and windows. This system ca track position and orientation of up to 12 markers in real time. It communicates to host computer via usb and RS 232. Works by setting up receptors to enable tracking in a certain area. The more receptors the larger the area. Then these receptors can track up to 12 markers in 6 DOF.
Plus Side
Negative Side
left - Polhemus Liberty Latus Marker
right- Polhemus Liberty Latus Receptor
Ascension’s 3-D navigator is a 6DOF system. It connects to the host computer via Ethernet and they would recommend that we use VRCO Trackd software to communicate.
left- Ascension's 3-D navigator
This software is compatible with HP-UX 11.00+, Red Hat Linux 7.0+, SGI IRIX 6.5+, Sun Solaris 5.8+, Windows® 2000, XP and has software applications for
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All CAVELib™ applications |
All VRtigo™ applications |
AmiraVR from TGS |
AVS Express MultiPipe Edition |
CAVE5D |
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CEI Ensight Gold |
CoVISE |
Division MockUp + IDO from PTC |
Fakespace Interaction Engine |
GOCAD VR |
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InsideEarth |
Lake Huron |
Open Inventor™ from TGS |
Opus Studio |
RapidVRM from Visual Advantage (supporting Division MockUp) |
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SARANav |
vGeo™ |
VRCO Immersive Viewer |
VRScape® |
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The 3D navigator is DC Magnetic. With one transmitter the 3-D navigator can track in a hemisphere of a 10' radius. With a second transmitter ($2395.00) it can do a few different configurations (12'x 12') or (7' x 32'). The system can be stored away in minutes.
Plus side
Negative Side
  far left- The Intersense Is -900 wireless receiver module left- Intersense Is-900 head tracking glasses with wireless module adapter |
The IS-900 is a 6DOF system that will track multiple devices. The IS-900 SimTracker will track a Wireless Head and Wand in a 6' x 6' area for $34,900. For a larger tracking area the IS-900 will track two wireless devices in a 10' x 10' area for $46,900. The Wireless receiver does not have to be in the tracking area to communicate with the wireless tracking devices. The wireless modules have a range of about 300ft and will transmit through walls and other solid materials. The IS-900 VETracker system can track areas as large as 50' x 50'. The Wireless receiver is plugged into the IS-900 base processor which communicates to the host computer via RS-232 or Ethernet. It also has libraries for Windows, Linux and IRIX.
Plus side
Negative Side
After analyzing all of the information about the companies and their products I came to the conclusion that the best product was the 3-D navigator from Ascension. However I also managed to negotiate two demo units from both Intersense and Ascension. The Ascension unit the 3-D navigator had a part from the Flock of Birds wired 6DOF tracking system that is currently unused in the visualization lab. My next task was to analyze the hardware from the old Flock of Birds system and then decide on what hardware can be substituted with the hardware from the 3-D navigator.
Test's of Ascension Flock of Birds
One part of the Ascension's 3-D Navigator are exactly the same as Ascension's Flock of Birds. There was a Flock of Birds unit and I decided that it would be wise to test out the unit to see if there were parts that still worked.
After that I then had to test the hardware to make sure that it was still
operational.
Show the system test here and some pic from dos box
There were four system tests that I performed on the FOB unit. The test's were
FACTORY TEST
BIRD OUTPUT
BIRD ECHO
HOST DATA READ
HOST DATA READ BLOCK
All of these tests were successful
FACTORY TEST
The test is used during the manufacturing process of The Bird.
BIRD OUTPUT
During The Bird output test, The Bird will output 4 characters, 'O' (4F Hex),
'K' (4B Hex),
<CR> (0D Hex), <LF> (0A Hex), approximately twice per second over either the FBB
or
RS232 interface, depending on the host control mode. The user can validate his
host
cable and serial communication receive software with this test.
Click on the thumbnail to enlarge
BIRD ECHO
During The Bird echo test, The Bird will echo every character received over
either the
FBB or RS232 interface. Using this test, the user can validate the host
interface
hardware and software.
Click on the thumbnail to enlarge
HOST DATA READ
During the host data read test, The Bird will send one 8 bit character, 0
through 255
decimal, to the receiver, Extended Range Controller and any attached receptors.
Each time it receives any character over either the FBB or RS232
interface it will display it.
The first character sent by The Bird will be a 0, then a 1, 2, 3 and so on. .
Click on the thumbnail to enlarge
HOST DATA READ BLOCK
During the host data read block test, he Bird will send one 8 bit character, 0
through 255
decimal, to the receiver, Extended Range Controller and any attached receptors.
Each time it receives any character over either the FBB or RS232
interface it will display it The block consists of 256 characters where the first will be a 0,
then a 1, 2, 3
and so on. Using this test, the user can verify that his computer's operating
system canreceive a large number of binary characters at the desired baud rate without
problems.
Click on the thumbnail to enlarge
Live Video Broadcasting in the Everest Facility
Numerous scientist use the EVEREST facility to view their data. However until recently in order to view the data one had to be present inside the room. The ability for the EVEREST facility to broadcast live video to other people is very important. However there are certain conditions that had to be taken into consideration when researching on what type of camera will be most suited to install inside the room. The room is completely dark except for when the power wall is turned on. The projectors behind the power wall project light at 3000 lumens each. There are 27 projectors in total. This creates a very high contrast between the power wall and the room. The camera also had to be a network camera with features such as pan, tilt, and zoom. However because of the high contrast the same camera could not be used to view both the screen and people in the room. The solution was that another camera be used. One camera for the power wall and another camera for the people.
Axis 213 PTZ (Pan Tilt Zoom) Network Camera
The camera that was the best for this task was the Axis 213 PTZ Network Camera.
This camera enables remote monitoring with pan, tilt and zoom which
can be control over IP networks. It also features a 26x optical
zoom, auto focus lens and an Infrared mode for dark conditions like the Everest
Room. This camera can also connect directly to an IP network, and includes a
built-in Web server. This feature enables remote monitoring and the
ability for the camera to be controlled from any PC connected to the local area
network or the Internet. The camera provides large coverage with its ability to
pan 340 degrees, tilt 100 degrees and zoom. Your network security will not
be compromised using this camera .It features multiple user access levels and
password protection, IP address filtering. This feature only enables pre-defined
IP addresses to access the camera.
You can broadcast up to 20 viewers if they are directly connected to the camera.
If you are streaming the media through a relay server the number of viewers are
unlimited. The resolutions are 768
x 576 at 25 fps (PAL) or 704x480 at 30 fps (NTSC).
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