NSF PR 99-38 - May 13, 1999
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NSF Grant Brings "Virtual Worlds" to Life
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Virtual World Models
Urban simulation model.
Photo Credit: courtesy of the University
of California at Los Angeles "Virtual
World Data Server" project
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(Size: 10KB)
Air circulation around a building.
Photo Credit: courtesy of the University
of California at Los Angeles "Virtual
World Data Server" project
Select image for larger version
(Size: 10KB)
Virtual aneurysm.
Photo Credit: courtesy of the University
of California at Los Angeles "Virtual
World Data Server" project
Select image for larger version
(Size: 15KB)
Note
About Images |
Supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF),
researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles
(UCLA) are developing "virtual worlds" that one day
could allow planners nationwide to design better cities
by "visiting" a computer-generated metropolis or where
firefighters could consult "digital buildings" to
decide how to battle a blaze.
"We really believe that this system has the potential
to revolutionize the way that cities and communities
are planned, managed and governed," said William Jepson,
the director of computing at UCLA's department of
architecture and urban design.
Using a $1.3-million NSF grant, an interdisciplinary
team of researchers led by Richard R. Muntz, the chairman
of UCLA's computer science department, have drawn
from research in field as diverse as architecture,
computer science and psychology to develop three dimensional
computer models for the "Virtual World Data Server."
The team has created complex simulations that may
eventually lead to new ways to study problems in fields
from urban planning to physics and surgery.
The researchers also are tackling the challenges of
making the simulations easily available to users worldwide
in "real time" over computer networks, without transmission
delays that destroy the illusion of inhabiting a computer-generated
"reality."
Among the "virtual worlds" the team already has created
is a “tour” of a Roman forum. But one of the most
visually appealing and practical applications developed
so far is a driving tour of downtown Los Angeles in
which users travel along digitally created roads,
and past computer-generated versions of the city's
landmarks. Such a tool could in the future allow planners
to weigh options for the design of urban centers in
cyberspace.
According to Maria Zemankova, an NSF program officer
who oversees the grant, the project tackles some of
the thorniest research questions in computer science,
including how people interact effectively with computers
when using models and how information can be best
organized and presented. "This is exciting because
it takes an interdisciplinary approach to advancing
the underlying computer science," she noted.
But the long-range value of the research may lie in
solving some very complex technological, and even
psychological problems, that will move virtual worlds
out of the laboratory and onto the desktop. "The challenge
is to make it affordable and available to the millions
to whom it would be valuable," said Muntz.
Currently, limitations on "bandwidth," or the amount
of data that can be transmitted over telecommunications
networks, curtail the most effective use of such simulations.
A high-quality image takes time to transmit from a
"server," where it's stored, to a computer screen.
A delay of even a few hundredths of a second in the
system's response to a command can cause users to
become disoriented. One solution to this problem the
UCLA team is investigating is to devise a way for
any machine to decode "compressed" digital signals
sent over a network.
The UCLA Researchers also are trying to find ways to
have the computers that store the various components
of the virtual worlds work together seamlessly to
recreate them on users' screens.
For more information, see: http://mml.cs.ucla.edu/
Editors: B-roll of "Virtual Los Angeles" is available
from Dena Headlee at: (703) 292-8070/dheadlee@nsf.gov
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