In NEC Corp’s Computers & Communications Systems Research Laboratory, researchers are working on combining virtual reality systems for real-life applications. So far in Japan the use of virtual reality has been dominated by amusement-oriented applications, although Matsushita Electric Works has licensed the US VPL virtual reality system for the development of an ideal kitchen simulation system through which housewives can experience virtual benchtops, virtual taps with virtual water and the sound of virtual crashes when virtual crockery is broken. NEC’s development is focussed more on industrial rather than consumer-oriented applications and the other week, NEC showed journalists a virtual network computer-aided design system in which models of car designs could be manipulated under virtual reality in a networked environment. NEC’s developments are based on the existing design software that it markets, on top of which it has developed software that enables the definition of smooth surface B-spline models; changing of models displayed on the screen at will using the virtual hand for holding and manipulating, and tools for cutting and shaping (using a new plane cursor method); assembly of different parts of a model from a library, as in placing the wheels on a car (using approximation by polyhedron techniques) and the effective joint manipulation of the models over a network, in real time. A new high-level protocol has been developed which will operate on top of any network (an Ethernet network is used currently), which restricts to a minimum the amount of transmitted object data sent on the network; for example if a pieces are sliced off a model, only data concerning the sliced off piece is transmitted rather than the definition of the whole object. The software is written in C. The hardware used for development to date has come from the US, with SolidRay and Silicon Graphics Inc graphics workstations, and VPL’s gloves; the network server used to link the workstations in the demonstration was an NEC 4800/20 model workstation. However, NEC plans to implement the virtual reality system for general workstations such as its MIPS Computer Systems Inc RISC-based 4800 series under PEX and X Window standards. The virtual reality gloves, which are based on magnetic field technology are difficult to work with and subject to disturbance from electric and electronic devices; more work will be needed to ensure environmental stability, according to NEC researchers. NEC’s demonstration simulated a design process being conducted concurrently in Osaka and Tokyo, over a network; it is in this area of co-operative product design that NEC expects Japanese manufacturers to display considerable interest in its networked virtual reality. The research is being conducted at NEC’s C&C Systems Research Laboratory in Kawasaki just outside Tokyo. Researchers at the lab indicated that NEC is also exploring other virtual reality applications.
