The ReaCTor

This is a system where the correct projection of imagery on large screens creates a VR experience. It was designed and implemented in 1991 at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago. An extended version, called CAVE++, has been available at Iowa State University (ISU) at Ames since May 1996. The name "CAVE" has two meanings: it is a recursive acronym (CAVE Automatic Virtual Environment) and it is also a reference to "The Allegory of the CAVE" found in Plato's Republic (Plato c. 375BC), in which the philosopher discusses inferring reality (ideal forms) from projections (shadows) on the CAVE wall. The system in Reading is a Trimension's ReaCTor, which is a CAVE in all but name.

A Brief Overview of the System:

The Display System.

Screens:

Dimensions: 3m (w) x 2.2m (h) per wall (there are three walls),
3m (w) x 3m (h) floor

Projectors:

8" Barco 808s Stereo CRTs x 4

Glasses:

CrystalEyes ® x 5

Also:

DigiBlend 200 ® with Advanced User Handset
ELF Long Range Emitters

The Tracking System.

Type:

Intersence IS-900 (based on Inertia and Ultrasonic measurements).

Tracked Devices/Positions:

Head
Wand

The Computer System.

Hardware:

SGI Prism
ATI FireGL graphic cards
16 Gb of RAM.
Four Graphics Pipes.

Software

Operating System: Suse enterprise server 9
OpenSG
SGI Preformer ;
SGI Volimizer ;
CaveLib;
V.T.K-2.4;
Trackd;

These pictures are an artistic representation of the layout of the the ReaCTor, showing all the different components that make up the whole system. They hopefully give a better idea as to how it all goes together.