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A GeoWall is a low cost interactive 3D stereoscopic projection system. Stereoscopy, stereoscopic imaging or 3-D (three-dimensional imaging is any technique capable of recording three-dimensional visual It consists of a computer with a dual-output graphics card, two projectors, a rack to hold them, polarizing filters, silver screen, a pair of cheap polarized glasses for each user, and (optionally) one or two monitors. Polarized 3D glasses create the illusion of three-dimensional images by restricting the light that reaches each Eye, an example of Stereoscopy. This can be put together for well under US$10,000, or bought as a turnkey system at a higher price from various vendors. There are equivalent systems under other names e. g. passive 3D display.

This article uses the word 'GeoWall' as a convenient trisyllabic equivalent for "low-cost polarization-based dual-projector interactive 3D stereoscopic system". Interactivity is a crucial aspect to GeoWalls, particularly for real-time data exploration. Without interactivity, a GeoWall is merely a system for viewing 3D films — a cheap 3D IMAX on a smaller screen. See also [[stereoscopy]] In film the term 3-D (or 3D) is used to describe any visual presentation system that attempts to maintain or recreate moving images IMAX (short for Image MAXimum is a Film format created by Canada 's IMAX Corporation that has the capacity to display images of far greater size and

GeoWalls are examples of passive Virtual Reality, in the sense that there is no head tracking. Virtual reality ( VR) is a technology which allows a user to interact with a Computer-simulated environment be it a real or imagined one A head-mounted display or Helmet mounted display, both abbreviated 'HMD' is a display device worn on the head or as part of a helmet that has a small display optic Instead of a complete immersive experience for one user, there is a partial immersive experience for multiple users. This makes it suitable for classrooms, group presentations, and interactive museum shows.

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Origins of the name

The first GeoWall was built in January of 2001 by Prof. Jason Leigh at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) at the University of Illinois at Chicago, home of the Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE), when asked by Paul Morin if a stripped-down single-wall CAVE would provide a level of 3D immersion acceptable for exploring geoscience data at a price affordable to smaller institutions like museums and academic departments. The Electronic Visualization Laboratory ( EVL) is a cross-disciplinary research lab at the University of Illinois at Chicago. The University of Illinois at Chicago, or UIC, is a state-funded public research university located in Chicago. A Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (better known by the Recursive acronym CAVE) is an Immersive Virtual reality environment where projectors So instead of a complete CAVE, it was only a single wall, and being used primarily for geology, it was a "geology wall" or GeoWall.

Shortly after the first GeoWall was built, the GeoWall Consortium was created to support the development and distribution of software and data for the GeoWall users. Today, the GeoWall Consortium remains an active user group, whose members have made available free and/or open-source software, content, and documentation. Over 500 GeoWalls have been built since 2005 and the numbers continue to grow. The GeoWall Consortium can be accessed through its website geowall.org and mailing list.

Equivalent Systems


Data Interactively Explored with GeoWalls

GeoWalls have been used to explore data in several domains. Stereo photographs and movies can be viewed on a GeoWall, as well as most 3D models. Here are some examples of other data sets that are freely available. All can be modified to work on regular single-screen computers.

Nick Schwarz has a list of more GeoWall resources.

Software that works on GeoWalls

Graphics Cards for GeoWalls

The following graphics cards have been reported as capable of supporting GeoWalls. Geowall.org says that "on the most general level the graphics card needs to have two monitor outputs to provide output to left and right projector".

References

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