INDUSTRY

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., -- Move over, IMAX. Interactive kiosks? A thing of the past! Sci-Quest, the North Alabama Science Center, in Huntsville, Ala., is the first science center in the United States to offer interactivity in an immersive, high-definition theater facility. The Immersive Theater was designed and integrated by SGI (NYSE:SGI) . It uses SGI(R) Reality Center(TM) technology powered by the SGI(R) Onyx(R) 300 visualization supercomputer and also features 6.2 surround-sound in a 56-seat interactive 3D environment. Visiting students, from fourth grade to college level, will experience and interact with the world's scientific discoveries using the same SGI(R) technology that leading researchers depend on for groundbreaking discoveries in medicine, cosmology research and energy. Sci-Quest and SGI have also created a graphics and engineering design lab, which includes Silicon Graphics Fuel(TM) visual workstations. High-school-level science clubs, college students and industry professionals will be able to perform engineering and graphic design projects in the lab and then render their final product through the SGI Onyx 300 system onto the 26.6x12-ft screen in the Immersive Theater. The grand opening of the Immersive Theater begins with previews for local government officials, industry groups, educators and media on March 7 and 11; the facility opens to the general public March 15. The SGI Reality Center solution was selected for this state-of-the-art educational facility over the products of several other computer companies, in part for its capacity to create the real-time stereo-viewing experience necessary for an immersive visual environment. An SGI Onyx 300 visualization system equipped with SGI(R) InfiniteReality(R) family graphics will generate rich three-dimensional graphics from complex data sources and present the fastest, most realistic visualization possible. Sci-Quest chose SGI Professional Services as the prime contractor; its role included developing software that allows all of the hardware components of the Immersive Theater to communicate and content development including modeling, 3D texture mapping and graphics for several 3D presentations. SGI Professional Services also designed the capability of multi-user interactivity into the SGI Reality Center facility-a key factor in Sci-Quest's choice. "SGI has a very fine, high-quality capability for immersive theater, which is used in over 600 academic and industry locations around the world," said J.D. Horne, who, after 45 years of government service, retired from NASA to become executive director of Sci-Quest. "One of our major objectives in building the Immersive Theater was to add interactivity, because if you can't let children touch something or create something or change something, you don't really engage them. An IMAX theater production, for example, is an immersive movie experience, but it doesn't change; every time you go see it, it's the same scenario. I felt that if we could make an immersive theater with an interactive feature, then each visit to Sci-Quest would be unique, because the children would get to participate and steer the scenario of whatever data sets are being used. It's like having an IMAX theater but with a steering wheel-you can go anywhere you want." "SGI Professional Services took Sci-Quest's vision and made it a reality," said Terry Oberdank, vice president, SGI Technology Solutions. "Our Reality Center technology is a perfect solution for Sci-Quest's interactive education facility. The Sci-Quest solution demonstrates SGI's commitment to creating unique solutions to solve our customers' technology challenges." "SGI Professional Services put the whole thing together for us," continued Horne. "They designed a cost-effective solution including hardware, software, support and training that addressed Sci-Quest's requests and, in fact, anticipated future needs." Future plans include a federal grant that has been approved by the Congress and the president that will fund installation of two other Reality Center technology-based interactive science theater facilities in Alabama. Horne anticipates immersive facilities with interactivity will be a popular idea for smaller science centers around the country. "Our goal is to attract enough attention so that we can grow our little network, because the more science centers that join us, then the larger the inventory of data sets becomes that are available to show the children," explained Horne. "If we can prove we can do this in Alabama, and thanks to SGI Reality Center technology we can and we will, we think we can offer something to the Association of Science and Technology Centers across the country. There are around 162 hands-on science centers, and we think a lot of those will be interested in joining. Everybody wins in a situation like this." Initially, Sci-Quest will use a combination of public domain research databases from a variety of federal agencies and data sets developed by SGI Professional Services. SGI Professional Services will develop three real-time data sets for Sci-Quest that will focus on space called the Cosmic Connections program, followed by programs that will allow the exploration of the human body and the ecosystem. These data sets are made up of 3D models, animation and textures created by SGI's Professional Services and will also have subsets that will run on student workstations. The student workstations will allow each student to use the data sets to explore, learn and discover new facts about space, anatomy and ecology. In the future, Sci-Quest plans to engage an HDTV facility to create original programming. "It's a very big, exciting project, and we've been very happy to work with Sci-Quest. Adding multi-user interactivity to the Reality Center technology at this level is a first," said Tony Karam, SGI Professional Services project manager. "Being able to experience 'science in action' to see and hear the workings of the universe, the human body or ecology-makes science compelling in a way that textbooks can't touch. "SGI immersive, interactive, visualization technology allows Sci-Quest to serve up an educational and entertaining experience that can turn kids on to science. This is the future of science education. Ten or 15 years from now, I'd like to think that some of those kids will be using SGI technology to do scientific research and make groundbreaking discoveries themselves." Grand Opening Festivities On March 7, at the VIP Preview, excerpts from several data sets will be shown during an approximately 25-minute demonstration powered by the SGI Onyx 300 system. The audience will experience immersive, high-definition segments, including: the Cosmic Connections program, featuring the raw beauty of the universe captured by the Hubble Space Telescope; Space To Face, where viewers are taken out to a satellite's view of the Earth and then zoomed back in to various points (in detailed close-ups of streets and terrain); a 3D exploration of the DNA chain; the National Library of Medicine's guided tour of The Visible Human; and a virtual tour of Nefertari's Tomb (considered the most beautiful in Egypt's Valley of the Queens, and no longer open to the public). The general public opening on March 15 will present the full data set of Cosmic Connections in 3D, which will explore, through the images that the Hubble collects, the planets, various nebulae and galaxies. In the process, an interactive session will allow the children, led by a facilitator or teacher, to actually create their own planets by selecting the temperature, water content, vegetation, and other data. The stadium-like Immersive Theater is equipped with 34 Linux(R) OS-based student workstations, each with a retractable touch screen and two Linux OS-based control workstations for the facilitators, all linked to the SGI Onyx 300 system, which drives the images to the Barco(R) projector display system and onto the screen. For the VIP Preview, longtime Sci-Quest supporters Sen. Richard Shelby and Congressman Bud Cramer have confirmed their attendance. Many elected officials from the area, as well as key civic leaders, local mayors and city council members, industry leaders, and sponsors and supporters of Sci-Quest will be on hand. "We're inviting SGI officials, too, since they are instrumental in putting this all together for us," added Horne. "It should be a nice crowd of people who are all interested in seeing us be successful." Funding for the Immersive Theater is part of a $2.925 million grant from NASA. SGI Professional Services, as prime contractor, and Alabama-based subcontractors COLSA Corporation and Sentar combined efforts and began work last June to develop the immersive, interactive learning system.