Bedford, Mass. - InterSense Inc.'s custom-configured, IS-900 wireless motion tracking system has been integrated into Psyche, a six-sided immersive display being used in the Cyberpsychology Lab (w3.uqo.ca/cyberpsy) at the Université du Québec en Outaouais.
Psyche is used for research focused on validating the clinical effectiveness of virtual therapeutic environments and of telepsychotherapy for certain mental disorders, including anxiety disorders and sexually deviant behavior.
Psyche is part of a project lead by the Université du Québec en Outaouais to equip several anxiety disorders clinics across Canada with virtual reality based systems that enable the creation of virtual environments with which to treat severe anxiety disorders.
Virtual reality enables individuals to interact in real time with a three-dimensional computer-simulated environment via an immersive display, providing a more confidential and less costly option for therapy than traditional means which has been shown to be just as effective when treating some psychological disorders.
Featuring InterSense’s MicroTrax user interface devices, the IS-900 wireless system in Psyche enables the real-time tracking of users’ movements as they interact with virtual 3D images displayed on the walls of the room. This is accomplished via the InterSense wireless head tracker, which updates the system’s visualization software with precise, smooth measurements of the user’s viewpoint, and a wireless wand input device, which enables the user to navigate through the environment with six degrees of freedom while interacting with the scene.
The tracking of InterSense’s IS-900 system provides the fine level of detail required to achieve perceptual realism while interacting with 3D virtual images in this environment. The custom configuration also allows for a seamless integration of the components into the display while maintaining uniform performance throughout the entire environment.
InterSense joined forces with VizTek, a provider of turnkey visualization systems for professional applications, to incorporate its system into the design of this unique display.
The installation at the Université du Québec en Outaouais marks the fifth installation of InterSense’s six-sided display solution. InterSense has also successfully installed motion tracking systems within six-sided immersive visualization environments at Iowa State University’s Virtual Reality Applications Center (VRAC), Duke University (The Visroom’s “C”), the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (Beckman Institute Cube), and Louisiana Immersive Technologies Enterprise (3D Immersive Visualization Total Immersion System).