Title of Presentation

Simulation Driven Virtual RealityLacey DuckworthMay 18, 2009ProspectusA Framework for Large Scale Virtual SimulationDr. Andrew Strelzoff, ChairDr. Tulio Sulbaran , Co-ChairDr. Ray SeyfarthDr. Nan WangDr. Chaoyang Zhang1/4/2010 12:49 PM 2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

1AgendaPreambleOverview and Questions from Pre-ProspectusMeeting ObjectivesDissertation ProspectusBackgroundProblemObjectiveMethodologyImpact and Results

1/4/2010 12:49 PM 2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Windows, Windows Vista and other product names are or may be registered trademarks and/or trademarks in the U.S. and/or other countries.The information herein is for informational purposes only and represents the current view of Microsoft Corporation as of the date of this presentation. Because Microsoft must respond to changing market conditions, it should not be interpreted to be a commitment on the part of Microsoft, and Microsoft cannot guarantee the accuracy of any information provided after the date of this presentation. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS, IMPLIED OR STATUTORY, AS TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS PRESENTATION.

2Preamble Overview (Meeting February 16th, 2009)ProblemA robust and reusable communication method does not exist to connect external simulation languages with the compelling and accessible client-server Virtual Reality Environments.

ObjectiveDefine a communication language protocol schema between a simulation language and a client-server Virtual Reality Environments Test the robustness of the developed communication protocol.

3Preamble Question 1 from Pre-prospectusWhat is the relative performance of calculations in Virtual Reality Environment vs. Object Oriented Simulation Languages?Experiment: Compare Second Life, LabVIEW and C++ for sample calculation

For all numbers i between 1 and 1,000,000If i is odd { sum += i }ResultsSecondLife (LSL): 24.708785 secondsLabVIEW: 0.3314 secondsC++ (computer/orca): 0.0148 seconds/0.007 seconds

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PreambleQuestion 2 from Pre-prospectusWhy use LabVIEW as a simulation language?Many potential collaborators are not expert programmers LabVIEW presents a simple visual interface and is widely used in engineering and operation fields.LabVIEW is the most widely used Data Acquisition language long term it will be very useful to have Simulations+VR which can have various devices added easily.LabVIEW is sufficiently fast for 15-30 world refreshes per second and if speed becomes an issue additional faster modules in other languages can be added using LabVIEW as a data integrator and communication hub.

5Preamble Questions 3 from Pre-prospectusAre there other examples of large simulation in Client-Server VR?All examples found were simply visualizations without significant simulation

6Preamble Questions 4 from Pre-prospectusWhat will be the impact of your research?Allow for faster, more complex, and scalable virtual reality environments to be developed. Permit the extension of these hybrid simulations to be extended using the object-oriented functionality.Could result in larger, more complex, and scalable virtual reality simulations to be developed in a large number of fields including construction, medical technology, education, and so forth.

7Meeting ObjectivePresent Ph.D. prospectus to obtain feedback and approval to continue with Dissertation

Approve Ph.D. Plan of Study

8Organization of the ProspectusBackgroundObjectiveMethodologyExpected Results and ImpactAppendix A: A Study in Virtual Reality Appendix B: A Study in SimulationAppendix C: A Study in Communication ProtocolAppendix D: BenchmarkingAppendix E: A Study in Simulation Software

9BackgroundVirtual Reality Environments (VREs)Are used for decision making, design, training and various other purposes.Must maintain breadth (sensory dimensions) and depth (quality) of information to submerge the user into the VRE.

10BackgroundSimulationsUseful for testing products or methods.Base models can be developed and interactions can predict the outcome.

11BackgroundCommunication ProtocolSet of rules for data to be transferred between communicaiton channels.Main focus in developing communicaiton protocols is to improve latency as well as adding new communication protocols.

12BackgroundSimulation SoftwareLabVIEW

13BackgroundSimulation SoftwareOMNNeT++

14BackgroundSimulation SoftwareSimulink

15ProblemA robust and reusable communication method does not exist to connect external simulation languages with the compelling and accessible client-server Virtual Reality Environments.

16ObjectiveTo develop a robust and scalable communication method that connects external simulation languages with client-server Virtual Reality Environments.Two sub-objectivesSub-Objective 1: Define a generalizable communication layer between an external simulation language and a client-server Virtual Reality Environment (VRE)Sub-Objective 2: Test the robustness and scalability of the proposed design a case study with several components.

17Objective (Cont.)Sub-Objective 1: Define a generalizable communication layer between an external simulation language and a client-server Virtual Reality Environment (VRE)A mapping between the finite state machine definitions of the generalized simulation language(1,S1,s01,1,F1) and the event-driven state machine of the client-server VRE (2,S2,s02,2,F2).

18Objective (Cont.)Sub-Objective 2: Test the robustness and scalability of the proposed design a case study with several components.The communication protocol as developed in sub-objective 1 will be tested using a simulation language such as LabVIEW, a VRE such as SecondLife, and a motivational large scale simulation problem.

19MethodologySub-Objective 1: Define a generalizable communication layer between an external simulation language and a client-server VRE.Qualitative Content AnalysisQualitative - focusing on phenomena occurring in the real world and studying the entire complexity of that phenomenonContent Analysis - a detailed and systematic examination of the contents of a particular body of material for the purpose of identifying patterns, themes, or biases.

20Methodology (Cont.)Qualitative-Content Analysis methodology applied to Sub-Objective 1

21Methodology (Cont.)Qualitative-Content Analysis methodology applied to Sub-Objective 1 (Cont)

22Methodology (Cont.)Qualitative-Content Analysis methodology applied to Sub-Objective 1

23Methodology (Cont.)Sub-Objective 2: Test the robustness and scalability of the proposed design a case study with several components.Qualitative - Case StudyQualitative - focusing on phenomena occurring in the real world and studying the entire complexity of that phenomenon.Case Study - in-depth data is gathered relative to the topic for the purpose of learning more about the unknown or poorly understood situation.

24Methodology (Cont.)Qualitative Case Study applied to Sub-Objective 2

25Methodology (Cont.)Qualitative Case Study applied to Sub-Objective 2 (Cont.)

26Methodology (Proof of Concept)

27Methodology (Proof of Concept)

28Methodology (Proof of Concept)

29Expected Results and ImpactBy developing a communication protocol between an object-oriented simulation language and a client-server VREAllows for faster, more complex, and scalable virtual reality environments to be developed. Permits the extension of these hybrid simulations to be extended using the object-oriented functionality.Results in larger, more complex, and scalable virtual reality simulations to be developed in a large number of fields including construction, medical technology, education, and so forth.

30Questions ?Thank you for attending31