As a DRI integrated science center, CAVCaM is tasked with creating new project opportunities that span multiple groups of DRI faculty. Plus, the CAVCaM center in particular also provides physical resources that are available for all DRI faculty.
Presently, CAVCaM's primary project work has been through a grant from the U.S. Army's Simulation and Training Technology Center (STTC). Through this grant, we have funded several internal DRI faculty collaborative projects that make use of the CAVCaM facilities — primarily the CAVE. The STTC funding has been awared in three phases. We are currently in phase II of the project. Three of the internal projects were initially funded under phase I, and have continued on into phase II. The other projects were initiated in the Spring of 2006 within phase II of the STTC funding.
Each of the three projects initiated under Phase I of the STTC funding has been extended for another year under Phase II. Because they have now been underway for over a year, we have applications that will run in the CAVE, with many more features to be added.
A project to produce realistic simulations of wildfire experiences. The developed application can then be applied to the purposes of training firefighters, simulating potential fire outcomes from tactical and strategic planning, viewing results of wildfire research, and educating municipalities on the benefits of particular mitigation activities.
An effort to integrate DRI's knowledge of soil types, dust resuspension and atmospheric factors into an integrated simulation of dust production and visibility effects of military road and air vehicles operating in desert locals.
This project is for the study of atmospheric conditions and their effect on air quality and visibility. In particular, we are using simulations produced by researchers in DRI's division of atmospheric scienes (DAS) to interactively analyize the movement of chemicals in the atmosphere within the western United States.
Now, with over a year of experience in developing immersive visualization tools and presentations with the DRI CAVE facility, the Center is expanding its horizons a little, and working with an additional four projects. These projects began in the Spring of 2006, so there are not yet demonstratable wares, but the overall goal of each project can be described.
A research project to study the hierarchical system of self-organizing bedforms of sand dunes. We will explore visualization techniques for dune sedimentary structures as imaged via ground-penetrating radar (GPR), and the development of sand seas over time.
This project is to model the types and amount of accumulated precipitation that results from weather events that take place in complex, mountainous, terrain. From the predicted accumulation, a map of the terrain that will become immpassible can be created.
The objective of this project is to develop a comprehensive software package to visualize and generate a portable virtual reality system of four-dimensional atmospheric and dispersion forecasts and nowcasts blended with measurements at the Fallon Naval Air Station.
The goal of this project is to develop a prototype visualization incorporating the terrain-vehicle system or terramechanics with a 3-dimensional visualization of a prototype military vehicle operating on a virtual desert test course. A key feature of the project is the integration of existing modeling data and visualization components into a dynamic visualization.