COMPUTATIONAL STEERING IN THE CAVE

Scientists can gain much more insight from their simulations if they a re enabled to change simulation parameters on the fly while observing the results immediately. A crucial aspect of such computational steeri ng is an intuitive user interface. We have developed an environment th at enables researchers to construct such interfaces efficiently and ef fectively for graphical workstations. In this paper we report on our n ext step towards more intuitive user-interfaces: We have modified our system for use in the CAVE. The CAVE is a projection-based virtual env ironment. Virtual environments are designed to provide the effect of i mmersion in an interactive three-dimensional computer-generated enviro nment. We show that the use of virtual environments for computational steering interfaces can improve interaction with the simulation and im mersion in the computational process. We present our system, the metho ds we have developed for improved 3D interaction, and describe three a pplications. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.