ACADEMIA

Mechdyne has designed the world’s first Small Form Factor Computer Aided Virtual Environment (SFF CAVE) system for commercial and educational visualization.

This innovative immersive solution utilizes new active stereo screen segments that dramatically reduce the footprint associated with conventional CAVE systems, while at the same time maintaining the high resolution and brightness of traditional immersive environments. The key advantage is its ability to be deployed into smaller spaces than standard CAVE systems.

Historically, in order to accommodate the support structure and projectors, a standard projection CAVE environment required a facility space four to five times larger than the usable workspace. Mechdyne’s ground‐breaking SFF design compacts the overall system footprint significantly, allowing a 10’ x 10’ usable workspace to be incorporated within 14’ x 18’.

Doug Betts, Mechdyne Manager of Research Engineering, says the new low‐depth design may reduce the need for costly facility modifications. “A standard projection CAVE typically requires 800‐1,000 square feet to result in 100 square feet of usable CAVE workspace. The SFF CAVE design shrinks that requirement to approximately 300 square feet. This innovative design also allows clients the option to place CAVE technology closer to end‐users within their current work environments. This improves work‐flow, increases utilization, as well as decreasing the system’s cost of ownership by minimizing facility modification costs.”

Mechdyne’s SFF CAVE could also be attractive to organizations with leased space, as the
system requires minimal facility changes and may be easily relocated.

This quarter, Mechdyne is expanding their SFF technology into their FLEX solution. The FLEX is a reconfigurable VR environment that transforms from a CAVE configuration to a flat display, an immersive room, or an angled wall, all with the press of a button. Depending upon the situation, both the CAVE and FLEX solutions may accommodate either floor or ceiling projection options. Also, both of these immersive solutions can be custom designed to fit specific structures and applications.

For more information about Mechdyne’s new SFF technology, contact: http://www.mechdyne.com/contact‐us.aspx