Resources and Facilities

C6
Illuminated by 100 million pixels, VRAC’s C6 displays over 16.7 million pixels per wall (4096x4096). Forty-eight dual-cpu workstations send images to 24 Sony SRX-S105 digital cinema projectors, providing an intensely detailed, high-resolution, immersive experience for researchers and other participants. In addition, audio immersion is possible through the upgraded eight-channel surround sound audio system. The multi-million dollar upgrade, completed in 2007, was engineered and implemented by Mechdyne Corporation’s Fakespace and VRCO divisions.

The C6 is a three-dimensional, fully-immersive synthetic environment residing in the center atrium of Iowa State University’s Howe Hall. This unique facility consists of a 10ft x 10ft x 10ft room where all four walls, the floor and the ceiling are projection screens capable of displaying back-projected stereoscopic images, providing total immersion for the participants. The C6 incorporates a three-dimensional eight-channel surround sound system. Originally opened in 2000, the C6 was the first six-sided synthetic immersive environment in the world, and the only known system of its kind to support wireless tracking.

With the recent upgrade, the C6 is the highest resolution immersive environment of its kind in the world.
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HCI UX Lab
The HCI User Experience (UX) Lab is a dedicated to bringing user-centered design (UCD) practices to ISU and the local community. It is run by a group of HCI Graduate students and housed in Howe Hall on the Iowa State University campus. The UX Lab contains resources for conduction focus groups, prototyping, conducting user studies, and much more.
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Lee Liu Auditorium
located in Howe Hall, the Auditorium seats 244 people and is equipped for real-time active and passive 3D stereo-projection using a pair of Sony SXRD-S110 digital cinema projectors, each outputting over 10K lumens of brightness. The Auditorium has a complete digital surround sound system, and 24' wide projection screen. Public tours of the Auditorium are available by reservation.

METaL
The METaL (Multimodal Experience Testbed and Laboratory) lab is a human-scale immersive environment for development of natural interaction techniques in virtual reality. This facility supports rapid development iteration and is comparable to virtual reality systems found in industry. Integration of haptic force-feedback with visual display, spatial audio effects, and physical simulation permits the creation of multimodal experiences.

Mirage VELDT
The Mirage VELDT is a training arena that focuses on enhancing the effectiveness of LVC (Live, Virtual, and Constructive) training. The Mirage VELDT is a combination realistic and immersive environment that enables soldiers to engage both live and virtual combatants within the arena to give them the skills to be better warfighters. [ more info ]