HCC:Small:Collaborative Research: Exploring the Use of Immersive Virtual Reality Technologies for Scientific Research, Communication, and Outreach

HCC:Small：协作研究：探索沉浸式虚拟现实技术在科学研究、交流和推广中的应用

• 批准号: 0917814
• 负责人: Stanislav Djorgovski
• 金额: $ 19.99万
• 依托单位: California Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2009
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2009-07-01 至 2013-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0917814&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: HCC; Small; Collaborative; Research; Exploring

The goals of this study are to explore the utility of the emerging immersive virtual reality (VR) technologies and virtual worlds (VWs) for scientific and educational uses in the framework of astrophysics and related fields. This work will be done under the auspices of the Meta Institute for Computational Astrophysics (MICA), the first professional scientific organization based exclusively in VWs, representing an experiment in scientific organization and communication by itself. However, the results should be more broadly applicable to most other fields of science and scholarship. Demonstrating the potential and the utility of these emerging technologies to the academic community at large will help engage and facilitate a broader participation of scientists and educators in these developments. Specifically, the research will explore the following topics: (1) The uses of VWs as scientific collaboration and communication environments, ranging from individual and group discussions, to seminars and scientific conferences and workshops. (2) Novel ways of user interaction and interfacing with numerical simulations, in terms of the setup, adjustments, and interpretation of results, especially in an interactive/collaborative setting. (3) Immersive and interactive visualization of highly complex, multi-dimensional data sets, for a direct visual exploration, data mining, and as publishable presentations in electronic media. (4) Uses of WVs as a novel, interactive educational and public outreach platform. (5) An initial exploration of the data architectures and structures for the next generation of the Web with a VR user interface, and interaction of human avatars and intelligent software agents. (6) Investigate VW developments in the non-proprietary Opensim/Opengrid environments. This effort will develop new modalities of scientific research and communication using new VR and VWs technologies in the domain of astrophysics but having positive impacts for comparable fields of science as well. It can open qualitatively new ways in which scientists interact among themselves, with their data, and with their numerical simulations, and thus foster some genuine new "computational thinking" approaches to science and scholarship. Virtual worlds will become a platform to conduct rigorous research activities in the fields of computational astrophysics and data-intensive astronomy, seeking to determine the potential of these new technologies, as well as to develop a new set of best practices for scholarly and research activities enabled by them, and by a combination of the existing Web-based and the new VR technologies. The central idea behind this project is that immersive VR and VWs are potentially transformative technologies on par with the Web itself, which can and should be used for serious purposes, including science and scholarship. By conveying this idea to professional scientists and scholars, and by leading by example, the project aims to engage a much broader segment of the academic community in utilizing, and developing further these technologies. The work will include an active and multi-facetted program of education and public outreach, which will foster the public understanding of both science and information technology.

这项研究的目标是探索新兴的身临其境虚拟现实（VR）技术和虚拟世界（VWS）的实用性，以在天体物理学和相关领域的框架中进行科学和教育用途。这项工作将在Meta计算天体物理学研究所（MICA）的主持下完成，这是第一个专业的科学组织，该组织专门基于大众，代表了科学组织和交流的实验。但是，结果应更广泛地适用于大多数其他科学和学术领域。证明这些新兴技术对整个学术界的潜力和实用性将有助于参与和促进科学家和教育工作者在这些发展中的广泛参与。具体而言，该研究将探讨以下主题：（1）大众作为科学协作和交流环境的用途，从个人和小组讨论到研讨会以及科学会议和讲习班。 （2）用户交互的新颖方式和与数值模拟的接口，从设置，调整和结果解释方面，尤其是在交互式/协作环境中。 （3）高度复杂，多维数据集的沉浸式和交互式可视化，用于直接视觉探索，数据挖掘以及作为电子媒体中的可发布演示。 （4）将WVS用作一种新颖的，互动的教育和公共外展平台。 （5）对下一代Web的数据体系结构和结构的初步探索，具有VR用户界面，以及人类化身和智能软件代理的相互作用。 （6）研究非专有Opensim/OpenGrid环境中的大众发展。这项努力将在天体物理学领域中使用新的VR和VWS技术发展科学研究和沟通的新方式，但对科学的可比领域也产生了积极影响。它可以打开科学家之间与数据以及其数值模拟之间互动的新方法，从而促进了一些真正的新“计算思维”方法。虚拟世界将成为一个平台，在计算天体物理学和数据密集型天文学领域进行严格的研究活动，旨在确定这些新技术的潜力，并为他们提供了一系列新的学术和研究活动的最佳实践，并结合了现有的Web基于基于Web的技术和新的VR技术。该项目背后的核心思想是，身临其境的VR和VW是与网络本身相当的变革性技术，该技术可以并且应该用于严重目的，包括科学和奖学金。通过将这一想法传达给专业的科学家和学者，并以身作则，该项目旨在吸引更广泛的学术界利用并进一步开发这些技术。这项工作将包括一项积极而多面的教育和公众推广计划，这将促进对科学和信息技术的公众理解。