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3D Technologies

DIMENSION (Distributed Multimedia Environment for Synchronous Interaction Over a Network)

The NRC-IIT project, DIMENSION (Distributed Multimedia Environment for Synchronous Interaction Over a Network) is an ongoing collaborative effort within NRC-IIT’s Visual Information Technology group (IIT-VIT). This project creates and develops an advanced 3D collaborative visualization environment which allows for the sharing and dynamic transformation of complex 3D worlds.

The DIMENSION project integrates research work in the fields of tele-collaboration, 3D sensing and modeling, advanced visualization, distributed computing and multi-modal interfaces. Research findings from related IIT-VIT projects are also incorporated into the project, testing and augmenting their utility.

The resulting application brings those features together into one powerful software platform that can be adapted to many concrete applications:

1. Generic Tele-Collaboration Infrastructure

Since the project builds on the generic tele-collaborative framework developed by the related NRC-IIT project Application Framework for Tele-Collaboration, the infrastructure can be easily adapted to new application domains, and is not constrained to the sharing of 3D information.

2. High Resolution 3D Sensing and Modeling

The dimension software is capable of interfacing 3D sensors and displaying the acquired data in real-time in the shared 3D environment.

3. Advanced 3D Visualization

Advanced multi-resolution visualization techniques, such as those developed in the related NRC-IIT project Advanced Visualization Systems, allow for easy sharing of large 3D datasets. This is an advantage over typical Collaborative Virtual Environments (CVE) based on VRML (Virtual Reality Modeling Language), in which sharing large 3D datasets is a major problem.

4. PC Clustering Infrastucture

Multi-PC configurations, in a clustering infrastructure, provide more processing power to display complex and dynamic scenes. The application can be distributed on multiple PCs, each connected to a projector, allowing for different display configurations, such as:

tiled wall display mode
passive stereo system configurations
multiple walls
high resolution foveal configurations

5. Multi-Modal Interfaces

The application also integrates the result of research work on multi-modal user interfaces in the related NRC-IIT project, Multimodal Sensing and Display, which provides advanced interfaces such as laser pointing and voice control.

Opportunities

We are seeking partners interested in bringing 3D tele-collaborative technology into their application field. Typical target applications are:

shared visualization
environment exploration
tele-assisted and supervised operations
distributed design and simulation
virtual museums and virtual heritage sites

If interested, please contact the research contact listed below.

Related NRC-IIT Publications

Research Contacts

Louis Borgeat
Research Officer
Visual Information Technology
NRC Institute for Information Technology
1200 Montreal Road
Building M-50, Room 353
Ottawa, ON K1A 0R6
Telephone: +1 (613) 991-5477
Fax: +1 (613) 952-0215
E-mail: Louis.Borgeat@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca

Guy Godin
Research Officer
Visual Information Technology
NRC Institute for Information Technology
1200 Montreal Road
Building M-50, Room 361
Ottawa, ON K1A 0R6
Telephone: +1 (613) 991-6970
Fax: +1 (613) 952-0215
E-mail: Guy.Godin@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca

Business Contact

Charles Gauthier
Business Development Officer
Business Development Office, NCR
NRC Institute for Information Technology
1200 Montreal Road
Ottawa, ON K1A 0R6
Telephone: +1 (613) 993-2491
Fax: +1 (613) 952-7998
E-mail: Charles Gauthier