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| Issue 5 Home | Editorial | Features | Regular Columns | News & Events | Misc. | ||
By Patrizia Coluccia, Francesca Garofalo, Maria Chiara Liguori, Silvia Monfardini and Francesco Serafini - October 2001
The CINECA team (Interuniversity Consortium) talk about their role as a leading player in the visualization field.
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CINECA (Interuniversity Consortium established in 1969) is a Consortium of 15 Italian Universities and the CNR (National Research Council) whose mission is:
Since 1988, Cineca has been investing in visualization techniques to support the research through a dedicated laboratory.
VIS.I.T. (VISual Information Technology) [1] is an inter-disciplinary laboratory dedicated to developing human-centered, powerful, interactive 3D graphics tools in a variety of fields, including Scientific Visualization, Bioengineering and Cultural Heritage. The mission of the lab is to present concepts and techniques, as well as massive or complex numerical data through Interactive Computer Graphics, Virtual Reality and Human Computer Interaction technologies. The VIS.I.T. Lab is an open space room with several workstations and an Onyx2 SGI graphic supercomputer connected with the Origin 3800 and the Cray T3E massively parallel computer of CINECA by a high-bandwidth interconnection. Some 3D graphics applications developed in the lab benefit from being viewed in real time in two semi-immersive Virtual Reality environments: the CINECA's Virtual Theatre (VIS.I.T. Theatre), based on SGI Reality Center technologies, and the Workbench BARCO Baron. The Virtual Theatre is a structure dedicated to the immersive three-dimensional computerized visualization with a surround sound system and a semicircular screen that allows the spectator to experience the illusion of a three-dimensional vision [2].
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| Figure 1: CINECA’S Virtual Theatre |
Virtual Reality [3] is increasingly viewed as a powerful instrument of knowledge. VR enables us to see the world through a sense and motion learning process, a more natural process for human beings than the symbolic-reconstructive way (i.e. writing). VR applications allow users to experience a high degree of realism that grows with the use of immersive technologies.
The word “virtual”, increasingly used in everyday language, has become a moment of comparison and reflection for a great number of researchers, who supply us “shaded” definitions with increasingly complex meanings. If in common language the meaning is stretched to include every surrogate of the digital format of reality, from a technical point of view, with “virtual reality” we refer to a particular kind of interactive simulation, in which the viewer has the feeling of being in an environment he can go through, and observe even if it does not exist concretely, but it is created “in real time” from electronically processed data. The data can regard almost every topic: a land model, a flight simulation, a biochemical system, an engineering plan, an architectonic environment, etc.
At the moment several interdisciplinary projects are developed at VIS.I.T.’s laboratory, with the aim of realizing immersive high-resolution virtual environments.
The simulations benefit from the 1:1 scale fruition that the CINECA’s Virtual Theatre offers, aiding the visualization of scenarios thanks to the visual width and the fruition immersiveness. In a research structure like CINECA, a Virtual Theatre represents a valuable source for research and development in the scientific field, in Cultural Heritage and industrial production, representing a useful resource also for Public Administration. As Tomaso Poggio states in his text L'Occhio e il Cervello: Che cosa significa vedere [4], “the sight is more than a sense, it is intelligence, and so the processing and the immersive visualization of complex data allow multiplying the available information making it comprehensible with greater immediacy.”
Applied to research, Virtual Theatre therefore becomes an instrument that increases collective intelligence. Pierre Lévy [5] sees collective intelligence like a common understanding between human beings, aimed to exchange culture and reinvent the social tie in function of the mutual teaching and the synergy of competences. The availability of these technologies opens up a new perspective and a new way of interpreting already known aspects, realizing once again the more authentic sense of the word " theatre", that ancient Greeks intended as the space of observing in order to understand.
Some opportunities have been immediately picked up on by surgical research (using the projection table in the Virtual Theatre, for scientific visualization, obtaining a vision of the object comparable to the one the surgeon has of the patient on the surgical bed), by meteorology, astronomy, GIS (Geographic Information Systems), Landscape analysis, and, in Cultural Heritage, by archaeology and History.
Scientific visualization [6] is very useful for graphic exploration of complex data sets. Users and researchers have the capability to better comprehend visual patterns and dynamical relationships of great complexity thanks to the use of visualization tools for viewing, analyzing and understanding scientific data.
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| Figure 2: Molecular Dynamics simulation of a potential peptidomimetic drug |
Initially, in chemistry and physics the possibility of seeing the phenomena in 3 dimensions has been considered useful, above all in divulgation and didactics. Currently researchers are beginning to obtain interesting data from the point of view of the experimentation. In astrophysics, the observations produce very huge amounts of data, not easy to manage, and the immersive three-dimensional visualization offers remarkable advantages in understanding. In the last years, as an example, the development of powerful systems of computing has allowed us to study the evolutive mechanisms of the Universe, and to visualize its results.
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| Figure 3: Clusters of Galaxy: formation of clusters of galaxies in the universe |
Moreover, advanced projects in the field of meteorology have been developed, like the simulation of relevant atmospherical events (such as tornadoes), and periodical events (as the level of the waves in Mediterranean Sea, the surface oceanic temperature between 1980 and 1996).
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| Figure 4: Simulation of a Tornado |
In medicine, the applications of virtual reality show at best their usefulness. In this field some applications of planning and simulating surgical operations are performed. Hipop application aids surgeons who perform operations of total hip replacement, previewed in thecase of deforming arthrosis and other pathologies. The program allows completion of important tests longer before performing the operation of positioning the replacement within the hip.
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| Figure 5: The HIPOP
interface The left window shows the projections of the CT data set along the axis of its system of reference. The right window shows the cross sections corresponding to the lines drawn in right window. |
The techniques of virtual surgery have also opened new important horizons in the operations of maxillo-facial type, concurring, for example, to simulate the operation on the face and to preview the final result with optimal approximation. Similar programs have also been used in a plan aiming to characterise a fast, scientific and automatic method to reconstruct the human faces: a study case was a mummy head conserved at the Archaeological Museum of Florence. In the field of the Cultural Heritage, the fundamental role of the visual components is being considered, the virtual technologies are adapted and offer a series of interesting opportunities to the visualization.
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| Figure 6: Virtual reconstruction of an ancient Mummy starting from digitiset CT scan |
Virtual Reconstructions allow:
[7] In particular CINECA is developing several projects related to the concept of Virtual historical environments in different historical periods: from Ancient to Contemporary History, passing through Modern history, also paying attention to educational purposes [8].
The transfer of culture to the younger generations is made easier if accessed through 3D reconstructions, big and small historical events can be better perceived through narration, images, voices and music set in an immersive environment.
Some examples of the work performed in this area are:
[9] The interface has been developed in order to allow visitors to witness the evolution of the city, from the end of the first millennium to the present day, enabling them to visit the city in the four dimensions with simple and efficient navigation tools; and with an innovative kind of access to the historical sources that validate this virtual reconstruction. Interacting with the Nu.M.E. interface the visitors should be able to:
The first implementation of Nu.M.E. has been a Web based Virtual Environment, and a 'light' version of it can be downloaded from Internet. A prototype version of Nu.M.E is accessible at the CINECA's Virtual Theatre [10].
[11] From stove to air-conditioner, from steel pen to computer, the Twentieth Century has seen amazing changes in everyday life and the most important evidence can be found in consumer goods and in the way we use them. The first virtual environment developed by the MUVI project is a house of the 1950s, chosen as a significant starting point in order to understand some relevant changes occurred in 20th century daily life. Post-war Italy had to confront new concepts, images and behavioural patterns inspired to welfare and mass consumption. Washing machines, refrigerators and trousers for women had already made their appearance decades before, yet only in the Fifties they spread out at all social levels, together with other products, entirely new in certain cases, such as television sets. So, for example, in the virtual kitchen there's a Fiat fridge, set in relation to photos of real 1950's fridges, advertisements and other sources - used as an authentication of the virtual reconstruction - and accompanied by written/oral witnesses and historical analysis explaining changes that followed the spreading of the fridge (as it happened in the way of doing shopping for food) [12].
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| Figure 7: Daily Life in the 20th
century Bologna - The Virtual Museum (left the reconstructed Kitchen, right its wire frame version) |
Another important project is called “Bologna city of waters, from the 16th to the 19th century". The aim is to communicate concepts related to the Reno canal and other artificial hydraulic systems that enhanced the development of the manufactories in Bologna – i.e. silk mills - enabling, at the same time, trade and transport thanks to a link leading to river Po, and from there, to Venice and to oversee lands. Along the Reno canal there were hundreds of water wheels and this profusion of “factories” indicates that the Bologna district was a proto-industrial area well before the 18th century. In the second part, the canal, thanks to a series of leaps increasing power and speed of water, fed also the large wheels of wheat mills.
“Casa del Centenario in Pompeii”: in this project part of a Pompeian house is going to be reconstructed starting from the present structures; frescos, which have been taken away and stored in a museum. They will be artificially set again in their original position; frescos left on the walls and damaged due to weather impact will be “replaced” with a less spoiled version worked out using photos taken in the thirties; the ruins will be integrated to reconstruct lacking sections (e.g. the higher part of walls, coverings, fixtures and eventually some furnishings). Once the 3D reconstruction is completed, it will be possible to transmit information about the specific house and about life as it was in ancient Pompeii [13].
The first set-up of a Virtual Theatre realised by VIS.I.T Lab outside its structures, took place in October 2000 during the exhibition “Communication” held in the city centre of Bologna and concerning history, technologies and the future of communication. The presence of a Baby Reality Center, as it has been called, the smaller version of the Virtual Theatre, was created not as a sensationalistic demonstration on computer graphics, but in order to give some examples about possible applications of immersive computer visualisation in scientific and humanistic research fields.
The results weren’t high impact videogames or movies, but demos. For use at the exhibitions the demos had to be made more suitable for a non-specialist audience by adding simple audio explanations and involving music. Two visualisation modalities were applied: automatic or real-time navigation, each with its pros and cons. The automatic navigation avoids technical errors due to the operator and enable a good, under control management of the demos - thanks to the possibility of realising predefined paths, sequences, and view points - and a good sound management and synchronisation. Yet, in a way the demos tend to look like simple movies but without the quality and level of involvement of TV documentaries. Manual navigation, even with its limits, can show, in a way, better the computing power and the huge bulk of work lying behind these applications, enabling also a real-time interaction. The demo is more flexible towards curiosities and specific interests of the audience, easily fitting to its cultural background and age.
The experience gathered during the exhibition is now used for the realisation of new demos, in particular for those related to Cultural Heritage. The aim is to blend the two different kinds of navigation in order to reach a more involving result with: an automatic part explained by recorded audio and a second part with manual navigation and further explanations given by the operator, who would be able to use specific databases realised for many projects and linked to the immersive application.
Demos are available at the Virtual Theatre (images, descriptions, and short movies provided) [14].
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Patrizia Coluccia
CINECA’s Press Office
Francesca Garofalo
CINECA’S High Performance Systems Public Relations
Maria Chiara Liguori
University of Bologna.
Maria Chiara Liguori Created the "Daily life in the 20th century Bologna – the Virtual Museum" project and works on the domestic life section, on the iconography and the Web site. Her research interests include: Material and Consumer Culture, Women's Studies, Visual Information Technologies and Virtual Reality applied to History.
Silvia Monfardini
CINECA’S High Performance System VIS.I.T. Lab
Francesco Serafini
Università-Città Consortium (Bologna)
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For citation purposes:
Coluccia, P., Garofalo, F., Liguori, M.C., Monfardini, S. & Serafini, F. "A Survey of Virtual Reality in the VIS.I.T. Theatre: from Research to Divulgation", Cultivate Interactive, issue
5, 1 October 2001
URL: <http://www.cultivate-int.org/issue5/cineca/>
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