Most recently recognized for its work in virtual reality with the introduction of the CAVE virtual reality theater in 1992, the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) has a history of innovative contributions to the computer graphics field since its inception in 1973. In the mid '70s, EVL created Electronic Visualization Events, a series of public performances where images were computer generated and color processed in real time with musical accompaniment. Around the same time, EVL hardware and software were used to create the computer animation for the first Star Wars movie. In 1976, based on an idea by colleague Rich Sayre, Sandin and DeFanti developed an inexpensive, light-weight glove to monitor hand movements; the Sayre Glove provided an effective method for multidimensional control, such as mimicking a set of sliders. Projects in the 1970s through mid-1980s centered on videogame technology, real-time computer animation on microcomputers, and interactive multimedia installations.
In the late '80s, the Lab began focusing on scientific visualization, developing and providing tools and techniques for research scientists and engineers. Continuing these efforts, EVL is now applying virtual environments to scientific computing. In recent years, EVL has received major funding from the National Science Foundation, the Advanced Research Projects Agency and the Department of Energy.
EVL promotes the use of advanced technologies to academic, industrial and government research audiences, to make people aware that technology is key to America's leadership role, through installations at museums and professional conferences. EVL's 1987 The Interactive Image is on permanent display at The Computer Museum in Boston. EVL faculty, staff, and students organized the SIGGRAPH 92 Showcase event; Showcase featured 35 projects on workstations networked to onsite and remote supercomputers that illustrated interactive and collaborative scientific computing and visualization research, and marked the introduction of the CAVE. The Lab recently organized VROOM, a major virtual reality exhibition highlighting computational science and engineering applications, that appeared at SIGGRAPH 94. Additionally, EVL has been, and continues to be, a major influence on the advancement of electronic art and entertainment; EVL alumni and artists are internationally recognized for interactive art installations, performance art pieces, and entertainment productions.
EVL advances research in computer graphics and interactive techniques through its unique interdisciplinary blend of engineering, science, and art; its students receive MS, PhD and MFA degrees through the UIC Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department and the UIC School of Art and Design. EVL's current research emphasis is virtual reality; however, faculty and students are also involved in a number of related cutting-edge problems: multimedia; scientific visualization; new methodologies for informal science and engineering education; paradigms for information display; televisualization (distributed graphics over networks); algorithm optimization for massively parallel computing; sonification; and, abstract mathematical visualization.
EVL contains state-of-the-art graphics workstations and an elaborate video editing suite, plus access to Connection Machine, Power Challenge Array and Convex supercomputers at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NCSA) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and to the IBM SP-2 at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). EVL is currently collaborating with NCSA on the Emerging Virtual Environments National Testbed (EVENT), to further develop virtual reality as a scientific discovery and communications tool within the high-performance computing and communications community.
Electronic Visualization Laboratory
University of Illinois at Chicago M/C 154
851 S. Morgan St., Room 1120
Chicago, IL 60607-7053
312.996.3002
312.413.7585 fax
