Sharing virtual environments over a transatlantic ATM network in support of distant collaboration in vehicle design

Abstract

Research in Virtual Reality no longer is focused only on computer graphics, it has become an interdisciplinary, involving new fields such as teleconferencing, networking, and distributed computing. This article presents results of a research project in the Distributed Virtual Reality. The goal of the projects was to evaluate the capabilities, practicality, performance, and cost of this technology for performing collaborative product design review on an industrial showcase application. In the course of the project a dedicated network between two virtual reality visualization systems was established across the North Atlantic. Tele-conferencing applications were integrated with a virtual reality system allowing users from geographically remote locations to see and talk to each other in the shared virtual environment while performing collaborative product design review.