Archive for January, 2011

InstantReality 2.0 Released

Monday, January 31st, 2011

After (a way to long) beta period of three years the development process is now at a point where we finally release the official version 2.0:

http://www.instantreality.org/downloads/

Besides major and minor bugfixes this release includes also some new features,  which were added since Beta7. There is also a new online section that provides examples to some of these new features.

http://www.instantreality.org/examples/

_New Base Features_:

New and much easier license installation process with xxx.irlicense mime-types

Realtime texture-compression to improve cluster-rendering (e.g. for movies)

SAI plugins now support DOM access for X3DOM (www.x3dom.org)

New download/ creation manager which creates a context in parallel – used in Inline and GeoLOD nodes

New W3C XMLHttpRequest object in JavaScript

_New Nodes_

Geospatial: GeoPositionInterpolator, GeoProximitySensor, GeoElevationGrid, GeoLOD, GeoOrigin, GeoTouchSensor, GeoMetadata, GeoViewpoint, GeoLocation, GeoCoordinate

TreeSensor: BboxSensor2D

Geometry3D: SphericalHarmonics

Shader: SurfaceShader, CommonSurfaceShader, SurfaceShaderTexture

_New Devices_:

Replaced Wii backend with a new implementation that has improved support for buttons, accelerometer, IR cmera, board, event rumble and LED output.

SHORE-FaceTracker: integrated Fraunhofer IIS – SHORE FaceDetector

TUIO-backend: InstantIO TUIO 1.1 device support for receiving 2D, 2.5D, 3D udp packages.

NI-Backend: Microsoft Kinect and other OpenNI compatible devices supporting camera color and depth frames, skeleton tracking, user and gesture recognition.

_Improved Base Features_:

Large-Scene rendering performance: New hierarchic small feature culler (check Environment.smallFeatureCullingMode)

BUILDS:

We provide 32/64-bit builds for Windows and the major Linux-distributions and Universal-Builds for Mac.

__IMPORTANT INFORMATION FOR IO-PLUGIN DEVELOPERS__

This release now uses VisualStudio 8 on Windows. Please recompile/relink you C++ Plugins for the IO-Subsystem.

DAVE – Definitely Affordable Virtual Environment

Friday, January 28th, 2011

The DAVE is an immersive virtual environment located at the Graz University of Technology, Austria. By using mostly standard hardware components the installation costs are kept low. The DAVE is mainly used for interactive exploration of architectural models and other virtual worlds. It is also a scientific tool for controlled repeatable psychological tests and for the analysis of a variety of research questions, such as a planning tool for the development of efficient signage systems in public spaces.

Project website

Face Tracker

Wednesday, January 26th, 2011

Checkout another example and see, how to use the integrated Fraunhofer IIS – SHORE FaceDetector inside the instantreality Framework.

Simulation for Training and Maneuvering of Wing in Ground Effect (WIG) Crafts

Friday, January 21st, 2011

Wing in ground effect (WIG) crafts are ap­plicable as very fast vehicles for sea transport. The instruction and training of WIG craft pilots on the basis of an international approved program is up to now an unsolved problem. The training on the vehicle would not only expensive but also risky. A realistic simulation makes the operator familiar with the behavior in the water and in the air, even in extreme weather events and critical operating conditions.

Image by Frank Neumann / Rostock

Project website

Coperion – Virtual compounding plant

Thursday, January 20th, 2011

Design and Systems Institute developed an augmented reality application, first deployed at ‘K trade fair on Coperion group’s booth. A big real extruder was the central element and starting point of a complete virtual compounding plant which could be explored by some ar-viewer arranged at the stand. It enables users to see invisible processes inside the machine and plant components in full-scale.

Project website

Gutmann brewery – A guided tour

Thursday, January 20th, 2011

Since generations the gutmann brewery brews weiss-beer in traditional procedures. By the selection of the raw materials up to the storage many well-defined and necessary steps must be considerd to attain the desired result. Design and Systems Institute started to develop an interactive guided tour to explain the many little steps which leads to the treasured drink.

Project website

CommonSurfaceShader

Tuesday, January 18th, 2011

These examples demonstrate the features of the new CommonSurfaceShader node.
Included are examples for normal mapping, the perfect specular component, and an example of a scene exported from 3ds max.

Geospatial Component

Tuesday, January 18th, 2011

geospatial example

The new Geospatial-Examples demostrate the support for X3D’s Geospatial component in InstantReality.

OpenNI/Kinect skeleton tracking

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

This example in our SVN repository shows how a hooked up Kinect device can be used to track a user skeleton. The new NI InstantIO node provides the input data which is converted to a small stick figure. To get going, simply stand in front of the camera and hold your arms up to form a Psi pose. This will trigger the user calibration, which after a successful run, will allow the skeleton tracker to run properly.

Timer

Monday, January 10th, 2011

Experimenal example, downloadable from our SVN with the intention of understanding the X3D spec about timers.