Immersive Modeling Environments

Abstract

The paper describes development and use of a large-format panoramic display environment. Unlike the ’window-on-the-world’ metaphor associated with small displays, immersive environments foster a sense of ’being-in-the-world’. That raises a question: Which aspects of human-computer interaction and information perception scale up or change substantially from small displays to immersive environments? The paper first describes implementation of our display environment, projects being explored in it, and motivates a focused research agenda. Finally, the paper describes an experiment to study differences in spatial judgments by subjects while working in traditional and immersive environments.