Wave Issue 9612 11/8/96 Article 2-01

***Company Profile - Computer Graphics Systems Development Corp.
by John Latta

Often lost in the rush to bring 3D to the PC is the fact that there has
been and still exists an industrial base in real time 3D technology.
Originally coming from the flight simulator industry, largely funded by
the U.S. Department of Defense, this base has moved to distributed
simulation, of which SIMNET was an early DoD initiative. However, moving
the expertise and technology as a defense contractor to commercial
markets, the so called defense conversion, is difficult to do. Computer
Graphics Systems Development Corp.(CGSD), headed by Roy Latham, was
founded in 1990 and now has 15 full time employees. It straddles both the
DoD and commercial worlds with two business areas: engineering services
for the design and integration of simulation systems and data base
development.

CGSD is near completion of a virtual cockpit with TOPIT (tm) technology
(Touched Objects Positioned in Time). The user wears a HMD (helmet
mounted display) with a stereo view of a cockpit and out-of-window
imagery generated by an SGI computer. The objective of the system is to
generate a cockpit completely with software while the user has accurate
tactile feedback of the controls. To do this a "payload" made up of a
panel of various types of controls, including switches and knobs, is
moved about a 3' by 4' surface. The system accurately tracks the position
of the user's hand using both magnetic tracking and innovative CGSD
technology using an inertial platform strapped to the back of the hand.
The result is accurate and real time position information on the hand.

As the hand reaches a particular position in virtual space the panel of
switches and knobs slew to the correct position so that the fingers grasp
the correct type of control. The positions of the respective controls are
also set to the last setting based on the respective location in virtual
space. The technical details behind this system are likewise impressive:
the 40 lb. panel can move up to 4G's and 100'/sec and with a positional
accuracy of .01". Three computers are required: SGI RE2, Pentium based PC
for tracking and a VME based servo control computer. The system was
designed and implemented under a $600K contract, of which $300K was
required for just the hardware. CGSD expects to commercialize this
technology and hopes to have a demonstration system in time for SIGGRAPH
1997.

One outgrowth of its work in developing data bases for visual simulation
are two commercial products, the Real Texture Tools and Library. High
quality texture maps are critical to creating realistic looking images in
real time, and the impact of this was very evident at the SIGGRAPH
Digital Bayou Savage. CGSD's tools are a collection of 6 Adobe Photoshop
plugins for Windows which take photographs and modify them for use as
textures. Some of the functions include: AutoTile to make images tilable,
Perspective to perspective correct images for tiling, color correction to
create color correct images. The tools cost $495.

The Real Texture library is a CD-ROM with 1,300 high resolution images
for use as texture patterns. Images include: vegetation, obstacles,
camouflage, symbols, transportation, architecture, explosions and natural
surfaces. Given the unique requirements for collection, close to the
ground aerial photography, many of these were collected using kite aerial
photography. The complete CD-ROM sells for $2,395. Samples of the
textures are on the home page.

WAVE spoke with Roy Latham to get his views of the industry. He feels 3D
critically needs applications beyond games. Part of the task of going
beyond entertainment will require the construction of rich visual data
bases. This is a difficult task which much of the today's 3D industry has
ignored. Significant investments will be required to build useful data
bases. Roy also feels that Christmas 1996 will not be a 3D Christmas - it
is heading for a repeat of Christmas 1995. Location Based Entertainment
is a business in which he is optimistic. There are a few examples of
companies making money including the Magic Edge facility, Virtual World
Entertainment (VWE) and he cited signs that Walt Disney appears to be
entering this business. HMD's seem to always be 2 - 3 years away but Roy
is hopeful that the needed 1024 X 768 color HMD is approximately 2 years
away. However, at a projected price of $20K it will only be present in
high end systems.

www.cgsd.com

Check out our links to CD-ROM texture libraries at

www.fourthwave.com/textures/cd-rom.htm