STUDENTS in the School of Computing and Technology at The Nottingham Trent University will be able to take their design work to the third dimension, thanks to a Virtual Reality (VR) system from Virtalis. 

An £800,000 grant from the Higher Education Funding Council of England (HEFCE) has allowed the university to develop a state-of-the-art facility, featuring a stereoscopic projection system and Virtalis’s StereoWorks software. 

Dr. Wayne Cranton, a reader in visual technology at Nottingham Trent, explained: “Our courses combine elements of art and design with audiovisual technology and engineering.  The new VR facility will act as an infrastructure for our students to explore and research how different display technologies affect vision and perception. 

Virtalis’s StereoWorks system will also enable us to bring our work to a wider audience outside academia.  We are hoping to involve business and to develop applications for them.  For example, we are looking to create a 3D mock-up of a theatre, which, when downloaded from the web, can show people sightlines from individual seats.  The VR suite will become a research hub, as different disciplines design experiments that will benefit from 3D visuals.  For example, The School of Computing and Technology is actively researching the use of x-ray stereoscopy for airport security scanning of baggage and human factors in electronic information display, focussing on colour and luminescence perception." 

This system will allow students to convert and play back their work in 3D.  Using 10 desktop systems, they will also be able to develop projects destined for advertising, entertainment, education, and training. 

The new VR suite will form part of the University’s new ‘Keith Short Centre for Creative Technologies’ (CCT) – a multi-disciplinary centre, which is due to open in May 2004.  Head of School, Adrian Hopgood concluded: “We are delighted to have secured HEFCE funding for the new VR facilities.  The Virtalis projection system will now be the ‘jewel in the crown’ of the new Centre for Creative Technologies, bringing together expertise across disciplines to re-enforce Nottingham Trent’s position as a leader in teaching and research in the field of multimedia and audiovisual technology."