| Iowa
State Innovation
Mainstreams Virtual Reality
 Virtual
Reality (VR) was once a technology reserved only for science
fiction. Today, an innovation by Iowa State University may
bring it into everyday life.
Faculty,
students and staff at Iowa State's Virtual Reality Applications
Center (VRAC) have designed and built a low-cost, portable
virtual reality system. VRAC was able to provide the best
quality image at the lowest cost by using standard components
from personal computers, meeting-room video projectors and
other off-the-shelf items. Additionally, it uses polarized
light and inexpensive polarized glasses to create the stereoscopic,
3-D images necessary for virtual reality.
Corporations
are already seizing the opportunity for affordable VR systems
to aid in the visualization of scientific, engineering and
manufacturing data. Proctor & Gamble has plans to install
a VR system based on VRAC's new design.
The
system can be set up in two hours in any office environment.
It can be made into an immersive system with four walls,
or an ultra-wide, 32-foot-long display.
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