Georgia Tech's GVU Center

echnology for therapy? Sounds unusual, but the Georgia Institute of Technology's Graphics Visualization and Usability (GVU) Center is doing just that with virtual reality simulation and futuristic interface technology.

The GVU Center is one of the world's top research institutions for human and computer interfaces. For instance, many armed-forces veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder are now able to turn it off thanks to therapy guided by the GVU Center's virtual reality simulation.

VISUALIZATION CENTER BREAKS GROUND IN VIRTUAL REALITY

"That's why [the GVU Center] has been so successful, that collaboration," Jerding says.

Twelve years ago, before there was a GVU facility, professors from various university departments met informally to discuss computer graphics and their possible applications, says Larry Hodges, a professor at Georgia Tech's College of Computing and a developer of the virtual reality simulators. Now, through the GVU Center, the university has projects with other colleges, local hospitals, the military and other content providers. Ongoing research includes wearable computers, unobtrusive monitoring systems for live-at-home elderly patients, collaborative Web sites and improved 3-D graphics.

The GVU Center's goal is to enable multisensory communication between users and data as well as between users, says Jarak Rossignac, director of the center and a professor at the College of Computing. "We want people to focus not on the interface but on their communication," Rossignac says.

Projects at the GVU Center undergo a multistep process: understanding the problem in-depth; identifying constraints, such as dexterity and organization; examining the potential applications of emerging technologies; and getting feedback and funding from various industries to gauge the virtual reality solution's potential uses. "We are using our industrial connections as a sanity check to make sure we are involved in their future," Rossignac says.

Other projects arising from the GVU labs have entered the marketplace. For instance, parts of a project to help the visually impaired use GUIs, called Mercator, have been folded into accessibility pieces of programs by Sun Microsystems and Microsoft to aid compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, says Ian Smith, a Georgia Tech graduate and now a researcher at Xerox PARC.

	BREAKTHROUGHS IN TECHNOLOGY
	The GVU Center aims to allow multisensory communication between users and data,and between users. Collaborative Web sites: Allow multiple users to "edit" Web pages and add hyperlinks as desired. Wearable computers: Virtual reality enables data access on the go.

Other GVU Center efforts are even more forward-looking, exploring different modes of computer use. One project is developing ways to use wearable computers in everyday life, including products that could replace devices such as stereos or DVD players, says Professor Thad Starner, head of the center's wearable computing project.

"There are lots of things you can't do with a laptop," Starner says. "For instance, as I walk down the street, my headset could show hyperlinks of the restaurants to show how good the food is. Or as someone listens to a speech, speech-recognition software can let me pull up related information," he says.

GVU faculty and students have also built what they call an Aware Home, which enables them to monitor residents. For instance, devices connected to the Aware Home allow observation of elderly or Parkinson's disease patients for changes in their routines,without violating the patients' privacy.

Smith says he continues to marvel at the breadth and openness of the GVU Center's research environment. "I just can't say enough things about it," he says. "I never had difficulty doing the things I wanted to do."