Engineering in Three Dimensions: Immersive Virtual Environments, Interactivity, and 3D User Interfaces for Engineering Applications
Doug A. Bowman, Andrew A. Ray, Marte S. Gutierrez, Matthew Mauldon, Joseph E. Dove, Erik Westman, Mehdi Setareh · GeoCongress 2006 · 2006
In recent years, engineering disciplines have begun to experience a revolution based on the use of information technology. In particular, the use of computer graphics and visualization have allowed engineers to gain unprecedented insight into both spatial and abstract datasets, resulting in better designs, more in-depth understanding, and more efficient analysis. In this paper, we argue that many engineering datasets are best visualized in three dimensions because of their inherent three-dimensional (3D) spatial properties. Traditional 3D visualizations are still limited, however. In order to mitigate these limitations, we describe two additional technologies that will further increase the benefits of 3D engineering visualizations. First, immersive virtual environments (VEs) allow an engineer to "get inside" the data and view it naturally, resulting in greater spatial understanding and potentially greater insight. Second, interactive visualizations allow the user to navigate within the 3D space, change the visualization parameters, query objects, and even test design ideas, clearly adding value to the visualization. When these two technologies are combined, a need arises for 3D user interfaces (3D UIs), which provide interactivity within an immersive VE. Throughout our discussion of these technologies, we draw upon our own experience with two interactive VEs for engineering — AMADEUS and Virtual-SAP.