The Envision Center

Today in my Com 435 class, we made a visit to Purdue's Envision Center. It was so cool! I am graduating in 2 weeks and am so happy I got to see what goes on in this place before I am gone.

The Envision Center's goal is to "to serve, support, and collaborate with faculty, students, and industry to be a leader in scientific visualization,and human computer interaction, through learning, discovery, and engagement." They have several cool areas used for research. One of which was this 3D wall. We spent time inside a pharmacy lab, virtually at least. It was projected onto these 4 large screens. Even cooler is that the screens have to ability to move and completely surround you. How cool would that be? They even have a simulation of Rome. Now THAT I'd have loved to see.

I was able to take control of the device and move around in the 3D world. It was awesome. I can see this having good possibilities for communication, perhaps allowing a group to meet even though no one is actually there. It is also great to allow people to learn about an environment without being there. I could see the army using it. But what I'd like to see most, is this used for video games. Can you imagine being surrounded on 4 sides, basically inside a video game? I can. It needs to happen.

The other parts of the center we saw were also interesting. There was a cool haptics area, and they had a neat 3D mouse. All in all, it was a great way to start my morning and I wish I'd have gotten to go there earlier in my student career.