Gaia Journeys: a museum-based immersive performance exploration of the Earth

Abstract

Gaia Journeys is a collaborative multimedia musical and virtual reality art performance conceived by author Williams, with the aid of staff at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. Inspired by astronauts who spoke of seeing a border-less world from orbit, Gaia Journeys’ chief goal was to deliver this experience to museum audiences via photo-realistic virtual depictions of the Earth (from orbit as well as via spherical photographic panoramas taken from the ground) choreographed to live musical accompaniment. Gaia Journeys took place in the high resolution digital ‘fulldome’ Gates Planetarium, with Williams playing the violin and keyboards, enhancing a previously recorded backing track, while visuals were generated with SCISS AB's Uniview. The eight tracks of audio were three-dimensionally spatialised to the 16.4 sound system of the Gates Planetarium, providing an immersive sound experience to match the visuals. The audience feedback was generally positive, with great interest in repeat or similar future programming. These visitor evaluations suggest the potent power of the new class of digital planetaria for displaying virtual globe datasets to the public, via both multimedia entertainment like Gaia Journeys as well as traditional lectures.     

Three-dimensional trees for virtual globes

One of the problems in virtual globes technologies is the real-time representation of vegetal species. In forest or garden representations, the low detailed plants produce a lack of realism. Efficient techniques are required to achieve accurate interactive visualisation due to the great number of polygons the vegetal species have. This article presents a multi-resolution model based on a geometric representation of vegetal species that allows the application to perform the progressive transmission of the model, that is, the transmission of a simple representation followed by successive refinements of it. It has a hardware-oriented design in order to obtain interactive frame rates. The geometric data of the objects are stored in the graphics processing unit and, moreover, the change from one approximation to another is obtained by performing mathematical calculations in this graphics hardware. The multi-resolution model presented here enables instancing: as many vegetal species as desired can be rendered with different levels of detail, while all of them are accessing the same geometric data. This model has been used to build a real-time representation of a not imaginary scenario.     

论虚拟地理环境对地理知识的表达与共享

地理知识是通过对地理科学领域独特的背景、过程和结果进行解释而得到的知识。如何有效表达和共享地理知识是地理学研究和应用中的重要问题。本文首先将地理知识划分为3个层次,事实型知识、规则及控制型知识和决策型知识,分析了不同阶段地理语言对地理知识表达与共享的支持能力。对比地图和GIS语言,发现新一代地理语言—虚拟地理环境VGEs(Virtual Geographic Environments)能够较为全面地支持3个层次的地理知识。针对VGEs,从多个角度分析了其服务于地理知识表达与共享的能力,包括虚实结合理论、地理模型库及管理系统、动态可视化表达和异地协同工作环境。结合面向珠江三角洲地区空气质量研究问题的虚拟地理环境平台,对上述各方面进行了阐述。最后从地理知识生成、管理与应用角度对未来研究提出展望。     

基于LabVIEW及TCA2003的工程变形监测自动化及网络化

为了实时监测变形体的三维形变量,将现场监测数据实时传入计算机处理,并根据人工设定变形体形变量和形变速度的阈值,对变形体安全及稳定性做出及时判断和预警.利用图形化编程语言LabVIEW开发虚拟仪器以提供强大的界面可视化及连接仪器与计算机的功能,联合TCA2003智能全站仪的ATR功能,开发了一套变形监测自动化及网络化虚拟...     

GPS运行轨道仿真系统的设计与开发

为了进行航天器系统仿真技术研究,本文提出了应用虚拟现实技术开发GPS运行轨道仿真系统框架体系:利用Matlab仿真,得到并验证了通过对SP3星历数据处理构建正确三维仿真运行轨道的方法;完成了实时交互的三维可视化仿真系统主要功能的实现;最终取得了良好的仿真效果,有利于GPS用户系统的设计与监控.     

虚拟航空摄影测量实验系统的设计与实现

随着网络教学的兴起,虚拟现实技术用于实验教学,成为强化实验室建设、改革实验教学手段的一个重要发展方向。介绍虚拟建模和开发软件,并以我院仿真模拟摄影测量与遥感实验室为原型,采用VRML软件为主,三维建模软件SkecthUP和3Ds Max为辅,阐述系统设计与实现的具体过程,构建虚拟航空摄影测量实验系统。该系统主要包括虚拟地形地貌沙盘(虚拟校园模型和虚拟栅格地形)、虚拟全数字摄影测量工作站模型、虚拟无人机和控制轨道动态模型,以及虚拟实验室场景。具有数字摄影测量工作站动态操作演示、无人飞机航空摄影测量操作演示,以及实验室参观展示等功能。研究成果无实体实验室的时空限制,有利于学生开展自主学习,有效地提高摄影测量实验教学质量,其对于虚拟实验系统的研发具有一定的借鉴意义。     

基于GIS和VRML技术的东圳水库3维仿真建模

以福建省莆田市东圳水库为例,讨论了基于VRML的水库及其周围地理环境、流域状况仿真建模过程,以及所采用的技术和方法。通过仿真系统可以直观分析水库的环境情况,水库管理者可在场景中漫游,从不同位置进行观察分析,进而提出相应解决措施。同时该系统作为对水库进行研究的人机交互平台,可进行实时完善和扩展。     

虚拟现实技术在地理信息系统中的应用

本文分析了虚拟现实技术的构成和技术特点，介绍了虚拟地理信息系统（VR－GIS）的特点及其应用。     

地形RSG模型的动态构网算法

论述了一种基于规则格网地形模型的动态构网算法。通过定义模型中顶点间的约束关系以及顶点误差的继承方法，利用四叉树构建出顶点的层次结构，有效解决了不同分辨率网络间接边的裂缝问题，实现在模型误差控制下的多分辨网络的实时正确构网。实验证明，该方法对于实时控制地形模型的细节层次，增强地形模型的绘制效率是非常有效的。     

虚拟实体生成技术研究

介绍了虚拟实体的定义、研究内容和一个研究实例，并指出了虚拟实体生成研究对测绘保障的意义。