The Digital CAVE is a (Integrable Systems Laboratory) LSI’s Virtual Reality Nucleus’s infrastructure, tied to the USP’s Polytechnical School. Developed by LSI-EPUSP’s researchers, this system is known at United States as Cave (Cave Automatic Virtual Environment) and at Europe as Cube.

The CAVE started to be constructed in 2000, with (Projects and Study Financier) FINESP’s financing, and it was inaugurated in April of 2001. Much beyond 3D immersive projections allowed by 5 screens of 3x3meters that form it, the Digital CAVE also may receive interfaces that stimulate audition and tactile sense, like stereo sound boxes and force feedback devices; that’s why it’s a virtual reality system that allows a high evolvement from the user.

It can look like a 3d cinema, like those at the amusement parks; but Digital CAVE represents very much to Brazilian’s high technology research and development. Such device, the only one at Latin America, has been used to develop a bigger man-computer interaction that soon will be available to all the Brazilians. The platform of academic activities of education and research that turns around the Digital CAVE is interdisciplinary, as the new technological trends demand.

Applications, already developed, involve Engineering (Naval, Oceanic, Automobile and Electronic Mechanics, Civilian), Medicine (surgical simulations, studies in anatomy), basic sciences (Astronomy, Astrophysics, Biology and Chemistry), Art (Artmedia), Pedagogy (educative interactive games), Architecture (virtual mockups) and entertainment (immersive and interactive scripts and studies in high resolution images).

The Brazilian aeronautic, automotive, oil and gas industries already started to take benefits from this technology. That’s because the costs with the digital production are cheaper, compared to the real archetypes and has the versatility of getting alterations in any phase of the project.

Beyond many virtual mockups that involve the work of modelers, designers and programmers, the Digital CAVE also sheltered installations from Brazilian artists.

To generate all these virtual worlds, 24 computers, the called clusters, work together, producing a performance equivalent to the graphical super machines used at the Caves at great centers of research of the world, but with very inferior costs. The development of this technology is the result of years of research of the LSI’s researchers team, and it is already available to the Brazilian industrial market, bringing the country for the international vanguard of the area.

Virtual model of the Cave (550kb - it is necessary to have the VRML plugin installed)

Gallery of Images - photos from the Digital Cave