9622665 Gadh This award is for the acquisition and development of a Virtual Reality Studio at the I-CARVE Lab at University of Wisconsin-Madison. This Virtual Reality set-up consists of a Silicon Graphics Onyx Computer with a Reality Engine II graphics processor. To this computer attaches a Cyber Glove for tracking the hand position. Also attached to this computer is a head-mount display device by Visual Research that supports three dimensional visualization. The head-mount device carries a 6 degree of freedom head tracker that determines head position in space. The hardware is supported by software that consists of a number of virtual reality device interfaces, graphics modules and solid modeling software programs. The grant also supports a part-time student for maintaining the Virtual Reality Studio. This equipment will be used for research in three innovative engineering design application areas: (1) virtual reality for product design, (2) virtual prototyping, (3) virtual de-manufacturing. The virtual-reality-for-design research addresses a fundamentally new method for performing concept-shape design in a virtual reality set-up. This integrates human voice command control and human hand control as input mechanisms. The virtual prototyping research involves developing representational frameworks for defining and extracting information from near-net shape manufactured products so as to determine the prototypability of such parts in a virtual environment. Using this research, questions of production and tooling can be addressed in the virtual environment. Virtual de-manufacturing allows innovative methods for evaluating product designs for disassembly and recycling--all in the virtual environment.
