Using computer clusters with relatively inexpensive "off-the-shelf" software, a Texas A&M professor is developing a new technique for generating high performance spatially immersive visualization environments that offer real-time, wrap-around views of complex visual data.

The technique, developed by Frederic I. Parke, professor and coordinator for the Department of Architecture's graduate program in visualization sciences, utilizes polyhedral display surfaces with large numbers of identical modular components and networked visual computer clusters.

Parke, whose specialties include computer graphics and immersive visualization, presented a paper on his research at the SIGGRAPH Conference held in November 2002 in Caracas, Venezuela.

"Current and near future technologies and computational economics will allow the development of better and more cost-effective, spatially immersive visualization systems," Parke said. These systems will provide better approximations to the immersive environment's surrounding spherical display surface. The result is very high-resolution, real-time wrap-around views of very complex data.

Parke is currently exploring and evaluating this new class of systems to determine their practicality and effectiveness.