100 million pixels ... the six-sided Cornea immersive room and control desk.
Mechdyne sends Kaust into third dimension
01 October 2009
MECHDYNE Corporation, a pioneer in immersive, interactive and high-resolution visualisation, has provided three-dimensional (3D), audio-visual (AV) and graphic computing systems for the world’s most advanced visualisation centre, which is part of the newly-inaugurated King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Kaust) in Saudi Arabia.
The US-based company has undertaken the design, engineering and installation of advanced visualisation facilities in the geometric modelling and scientific visualisation research centre (GM&SVRC) at the facility in Thuwal, which was inaugurated at the end of last month.
The company has provided complete visualisation systems, a graphics computing cluster and a control room/recording centre housed at the university’s Al Khawarzimi Mathematical and Computer Sciences and Engineering building.
With seven collaborative environments supporting high-resolution, 3D stereoscopic imaging capability, including a 100-million pixel, six-sided immersive virtual reality room, Kaust has realised several “world firsts” for advanced visualisation. Researchers and students from around the world will have unmatched capability to transform data sets into rich 3D visual information.
The GM&SVRC, which Kaust developed in collaboration with the University of California, San Diego, underlies the university’s commitment to provide the world’s best tools for research into some of the most challenging questions in science and technology. Among other projects, GM&SVRC will develop virtual environments for interactive visual exploration of three-dimensional geological structures, dynamic seismic processes and atmospheric processes and effects on built or planned infrastructure.
“We are honoured to have been selected by Kaust to provide design and integration services for the world’s largest scientific research and visualisation centre,” says Chris Clover, president and chief executive officer of Mechdyne. “The university has an incredible vision of how research can be advanced through visualisation and collaboration. We are very excited to have had the opportunity to apply our experience in large-scale projects, including ultra-high resolution, immersive 3D and networked collaborative environments to help Kaust bring this vision to life.”
The following are the highlights of the technology and integration services provided by Mechdyne for the GM&SVRC:
• Cornea (from the Arabic word, Al Qarniya), is a fully-immersive, six-sided 3D virtual reality environment with 100-million pixels of stereoscopic 3D information. Cornea is configured to display 100-million pixel images for the viewer’s left eye and 100-million pixels for the right eye to produce the 3D effect. Imagery is projected by 24 advanced Sony SXRD projectors, each with 4K resolution (four per wall on the 10 sq foot wall screens). The Cornea images are generated by a custom-designed visualisation computing cluster with 96 channels of graphics output at 2048 by 1080 pixels each. The room includes a custom-designed spatial audio system, developed in conjunction with Meyer Sound, to create an acoustic experience that mimics reality like no other system before, says a spokesman for Mechdyne.
• A multipurpose room (MPR) featuring a 10-ft-high by 20-ft-wide Mechdyne PowerWall with 64 million pixels driven by eight 4K projectors. The MPR is a stereoscopic environment with 32 million pixels of 3D resolution. For the MPR, Mechdyne designed a custom computing cluster with 32 channels of graphics connected via fibre-optic connections. The MPR also features 20.4 Digital Surround Sound, six 80-inch plasma displays and HD videoconferencing technology;
• Two 150-seat lecture halls with PowerWall 3D displays – each with four 4K projectors – creating 16 million stereoscopic pixels and providing exceptional resolution for audiences. These displays are networked to the Applied Math Building at Kaust, allowing data from the math department to be displayed in these remote lecture halls.
• Three ‘development systems’ for collaborative teams including one room with a 5.25-ft-high by a 10-ft-wide, 8-million-pixel 3D PowerWall; a second room with two portable 10.5-ft-wide by 6-ft-high stereoscopic Mechdyne ROVR HD display systems; and a third room with Mechdyne’s 61-inch, HD resolution 3D review station. These ‘development systems’ will be used by researchers to prepare data for the larger Cornea and MPR displays as well as the lecture halls.
• A digital control and recording suite that allows record and playback of HD quality information from all of the 3D immersive and display environments within the GM&SVRC. Data recorded in one visualisation system can be played back on any of the other displays in the facility via fibre connections.
• A 10 GigE (gigabit ethernet) high-speed fibe network that connects the visualisation systems to a control and recording room data centre to enable recording of visualisation sessions in any of the collaborative environments. The centre also allows configuring any data set in an appropriate format and resolution for playback and viewing in any of the individual rooms.
• Software for development and viewing of 3D visualisations, including Mechdyne’s CAVElib, vGeo (Virtual Global Explorer) and Conduit packages. Conduit will specifically allow Kaust to experience many standard desktop applications such as 3DS Max, Maya, and Google Earth in the Cornea, the MPR and the other stereoscopic, interactive systems.
• Desktop control workstations and flat-panel displays, as well as secondary large-format flat screen displays used for supplemental viewing in the Cornea and the MPR environments.
As per Mechdyne’s standard procedure, each of the Kaust visualisation systems was completely staged within the Mechdyne Technical Centre in the US, for operational testing, quality control and customer approval prior to shipping to the installation, the spokesman says.
Kaust is an international, graduate-level research university dedicated to inspiring a new age of scientific achievement in the kingdom.
Mechdyne Corporation is considered to be the world’s largest company dedicated to consulting and development of turnkey advanced AV, immersive 3D, networked and collaborative visualisation solutions. Winner of a 2008 AV Award from ArchiTech magazine and Infocomm, the company addresses complex projects where in-depth understanding of user requirements leads to the development of products and customised solutions involving elements of display, graphics computing, software and professional services.
The company is headquartered in Marshalltown, Iowa, US, and includes as its customers leading government laboratories, military research programmes, energy companies and a variety of ‘edutainment,’ manufacturing, and other users of visualisation technology.
