INDUSTRY

By Jen Winfrey, San Diego State University -- Imagine you could create a synthetic environment that obeys real-world laws of physics. Thomas Impelluso did more than imagine; he’s creating a digital reality by developing a physics-based virtual reality platform – one that incorporates all the majesty of modern computer graphics but puts physics back into the equation. Virtual reality simulations have come a long way in a short time as evidenced at the SIGGRAPPH (Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics) convention held in San Diego this summer. SIGGRAPH is the preeminent gathering for high-tech graphics, animation and virtual reality research. Impelluso, a professor of mechanical engineering, had two booths at the conference highlighting his work. “If Huck Finn had had a laptop, SIGGRAPH would have been his Mississippi River,” says Impelluso. “It’s the best computer graphics display in the world, with the best graphic designers and computer manufacturers in attendance.” Impelluso’s booths, one displaying his research, the other his educational applications, sat alongside Apple, Adobe, James Cameron’s Digital Domain, George Lucas’ Industrial Light and Magic, Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks and too many others to name. Impelluso’s broad educational background has informed his current research. He has a B.A. in liberal arts, a B.S. in civil engineering and an M.S. in bioengineering all from Columbia University and earned a Ph.D. from UCSD in applied mechanics. Along the way, he acquired the coding skills that allowed him, among other things, to write network protocols enabling Russian and American scientists to extract databases of seismic events from each other's repositories. After a life-altering event 11 years ago, Impelluso decided to write a screenplay incorporating elements of virtual reality. “I connected with The Institute of Systems Science in Singapore which had formed The Center for Information Enhanced Medicine with Johns Hopkins Medical School to create a platform for image analysis using virtual reality,” says Impelluso, who thought they would be a great source of information for his screenplay. “I suggested they incorporate the laws of physics into their research efforts and offered them advice on how to create a physically based virtual reality platform,” says Impelluso. “So I took my own advice and began doing it.” Impelluso’s vision for virtual reality might take the virtual to as real as it can be, but it will never be real. “Reality and virtual reality, unlike the notion of a derivative in calculus, will never equal each other,” says Impelluso. “One can observe a virtual world, and encompass it in one's mind: one can surround it, one can know it. One's mind cannot ever encompass the real world.” Fluent in several computer programming languages, engineering, science and the arts, Impelluso has procured nearly $900,000 in sponsored research since 1999. This year, Impelluso garnered a grant from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to further his work in creating a physics-based mechanical simulation server. When complete, this server architecture is intended to solve coupled mechanical problems: fluid mechanics, solid deformation mechanics, and rigid body motion. Impelluso’s goal is to use this architecture to integrate extant biomechanical models and deliver their power into the surgical ward to enhance surgical planning. Along the way, Impelluso hopes to initiate the consortiums that will define data frame design and data transmission protocols for physics based simulations. “Together, this server architecture and these network protocols will exploit high-performance computing, high-speed networks, advanced visualization, inter-process communication, and most important, the numerical algorithms of applied and computational mechanics in a radically new way,” explains Impelluso. “The deployment areas include surgical planning, manufacturing, and, of course, entertainment. Perhaps we can one day all take the same trip down the Mississippi.”