major facilities

High-powered, immersive collaboration
The C6, Mirage/Veldt, and Alliant/Lee Liu Auditorium are linked by dedicated fiber enabling research in collaboration across geographically separated virtual reality systems.
 

The C6
Illuminated by 100 million pixels, VRAC’s C6 displays over 16.7 million pixels per wall (4096x4096). Forty-eight dual-cpu workstations send images to 24 Sony SRX-S105 digital cinema projectors, providing an intensely detailed, high-resolution, immersive experience for researchers and other participants. In addition, audio immersion is possible through the upgraded eight-channel surround sound audio system. The multi-million dollar upgrade, completed in 2007, was engineered and implemented by Mechdyne Corporation’s Fakespace and VRCO divisions (Note: Now known solely as Mechdyne Corporation).

The C6 is a three-dimensional, fully-immersive synthetic environment residing inside of a unique, sculptured enclosure located in atrium of Iowa State University’s Howe Hall. This premiere facility houses a 10ft x 10ft x 10ft room where all four walls, the floor and the ceiling are projection screens capable of displaying back-projected stereoscopic images, providing total immersion for the participants. The C6 incorporates a three-dimensional eight-channel surround sound system. Originally opened in 2000, the C6 was the first six-sided synthetic immersive environment in the world, and the only known system of its kind to support wireless tracking.

At the time of the 2007 upgrade, the C6 was the highest resolution immersive environment of its kind in the world, and remains one of only a handful of environments capable of such extreme resolutions.
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Mirage
The Mirage is a synthetic environment training arena currently under development at Iowa State University. The university along with numerous government and industry collaborators are working together to create a new research lab that will focus on enhancing the effectiveness of LVC (Live, Virtual, and Constructive) training for the Army through the use of high-end virtual and augmented reality.
Once completed, the Mirage will be a modular training environment consisting of immersive graphic displays, human and weapon tracking systems, and real-world sets and props that can be quickly moved and reconfigured to create different training scenarios. The goal is to create a realistic and immersive environment that will enable soldiers to engage both live and virtual combatants within the arena to give them the skills to be better warfighters.
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METaL
METaL lab is a human-scale immersive environment for development of natural interaction techniques in virtual reality. This facility supports rapid development iteration and is comparable to virtual reality systems found in industry. Integration of haptic force-feedback with visual display, audio effects, and physical simulation permits the creation of multimodal experiences. [ more info ]

Alliant Energy/Lee Liu Auditorium
Located in Howe Hall, the 3D research presentation theater seats over 240 participants. Presentations, videos and VRAC’s real-time 3D environments spring to life when the dual 10,000 lumen Sony SXRD 4K projectors illuminate the 24’ x 12.5’ screen with over 17.6 million vivid pixels (8.8 million in non-stereo mode).