UIC remotely deploys VR for tele-collaboration; links two major conferences via STAR TAP℠ November 15, 2000 CHICAGO, IL - Last week, scientists and engineers at the University of Illinois at Chicago’s Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) remotely deployed virtual reality (VR) equipment in Israel, linking its Telecom 2000 conference to SC2000 in Dallas, the SARA institute in Amsterdam and EVL, for a four way, real-time tele-collaboration that Israeli networking engineer Hank Nussbacher deemed a "resounding success." The EVL team, unable to attend the November 7-9 Israeli conference only after shipping an ImmersaDesk® there, attempted to remotely setup and test its VR system using the advanced research networks in place between the US and Israel. Using video teleconferencing, a team from Israel’s Technion University got instruction in setting up the system, and testing and debugging the applications. Using CAVERNsoft - the CAVE Research Network communications toolkit - the two teams had everything operational in less than one day. In addition to enabling collaborative applications, the toolkit proved invaluable for debugging the tracker hardware during the testing phase, when video-aided communication failed to adequately convey the problem. "Ordinarily we fly a team to conferences to perform on-site management of devices and networking," said EVL’s Jason Leigh. "This event advances our goal to see tele-immersion replace commuting someday. We’re particularly encouraged that what began as a routine tele-immersion demonstration, became a means to test the networks, software and viability of tele-immersion as a teaching tool." For three days, an enthralled audience in Israel, which included university researchers and government ministers from Israel, Australia and Turkey, interacted in real-time with EVL student Chris Scharver, who was at SC2000 in the National Computational Science Alliance booth (the Alliance is based at UIUC’s National Center for Supercomputing Applications). Researchers in Amsterdam and EVL took turns interacting as well. Scharver demonstrated global earthquake, climate and solar electromagnetic models developed using EVL’s TIDE (Tele-Immersive Data Explorer), a collaborative, immersive environment for querying and visualizing data from massive and distributed datastores. The data was supplied by SPARC (Space Physics & Aeronomy Research Collaboratory), a collaborative group at the University of Michigan that uses advanced visualization and immersive VR to better understand the structure and dynamics of the Earth. EVL was invited by Israel’s Ministry of Culture to attend Telecom 2000, Israel’s largest telecommunications conference, to showcase VR equipment because of interest by university researchers. The Israeli Academic Network, run by the Israeli University Computer Center (IUCC), is a partner of EVL’s NSF-funded Euro-Link project. Euro-Link was established in 1999 to encourage the interconnection of U.S. and European research and education networks, in support of advanced applications, performance monitoring and technical evaluation. IUCC connects via STAR TAP to US academic research networks. About EVL The University of Illinois at Chicago’s Electronic Visualization Laboratory is an interdisciplinary graduate research laboratory specializing in VR and real-time interactive computer graphics. It is the oldest formal university program to offer degrees in electronic visualization. EVL receives major funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), and is a partner in the National Computational Science Alliance. About STAR TAP and Euro-link The Science, Technology, And Research Transit Access Point, or STAR TAP, is a proving ground for long-term interconnection and interoperability of advanced international networking. STAR TAP is made possible by major funding from the NSF to the University of Illinois at Chicago. The NSF-funded Euro-Link program facilitates the connection of European and Israeli National Research Networks (NRNs) to US academic networks. Euro-Link consortium members are IUCC, NORDUnet, SURFnet, RENATER2 and CERN. STAR TAP and Euro-Link are service marks of the Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Contact: Laura Wolf University of Illinois at Chicago Electronic Visualization Laboratory 851 S. Morgan St., Room 1120 SEO, Chicago, IL 60607-7053 laura @ evl.uic.edu
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