Several projects involving scientific simulation and visualization using VRML and Java are being pursued under the direction of Scott Smith, Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at SIUE.

This page contains information useful for project members:

 - Ideas, questions, areas to investigate....

-  Current work.

-  List of members and their work.

-  Useful information.
 

Mailing list:   vrmlgroup@ee.siue.edu

 
Ideas, questions, areas to investigate:                                                     [back to top of page]
 

Can Java [applet] read MIDI (and .wav?)  file and use it to control VRML and put it out to sound card; can it get real-time MIDI input from keyboard?

Controlling more than one VRML "window" with a java program

Java control other than with Web page applet
(applet's file/network security crippling problems  - application does not have restrictions but can get to VRML???
                                                                                            can just use libraries to compile it? different 'opener'
                                                                                             than browser lib call ...)

Stereoscopic  Capabilities    (remember easier to implement using Joe's progam)

Java3D vs/with VRML  -- can either of them control display to point of interlacing screen - and filling it with
                                            2 slightly different images?
 
Dancer moves, runner, athlete ..., karate,  ...  [controlled by sound, MIDI, video, MOTION CAPTURE]
fingers on piano, guitar, ... [controlled by MIDI]                                                    ^^^ its own project

Virtual <--> real [microcontroller-based] earthquake investigation shaker table

Java/VRML is display front-end to supercomputer's heavy-duty simulation capabilities which sends info thru NW

Scripted VRML scene --> sequence of jpegs --> MPEG video --> extract model from (=? VRML scene)
 
"hardware accelerators have definitely been used with Cosmo Player"..., check out the Cosmo Web site and especially www.cosmosoftware.com/support/hardware_faq.html

Next year's Excellence in Undergraduate Education project

Current work:                                                      [back to top of page]

Diode improvement

Cahokia Mounds: elevation data, stick figures - multiple threads,  walking to build mound,  design of visualization project

New Engineering Building:  week-by-week progress animated model - up-to-date with some future, pictures
 
 

Current project members:                                                      [back to top of page]

Students and their particular projects/assignments are listed below.

Gerald Clamors ( gclamors@siue.edu)
 

Nabil Daoud  ( ndaoud@siue.edu)   (Courses:  582, 438, CS438=AI)
?work on reading files, getting at sound card (MIDI info in and out), ?network? ?
?start construction site layout editor/planner ?

 
different browsers to work - compile w/o netscape library call - supposedly IE workd this way???
        should be able to get Communicator with new Cosmo Player to work
 

Dave DeVon ( ddevon@siue.edu)
Dave created the new engineering models which show its construction progress.  He is not actively involved this semester, but has volunteered to help those continuing his work.
 

Luther Guo (lguo@siue.edu)    (Courses:  580, 438, independent topic/thesis research)
- above ideas for Sateesh apply
 
texture mapping

add soil movement models to Cahokia
start by adding ability to get outer surface according to any of the levels (little buttons with arrows indicating
   setting outer surface to this level -- changing button text (underline font) )

performance analyses of various Java/VRML appls:  mound's set level,  fework stuff,  diode with X particles, some simulation application that we also parallelize (NN?)
 

Jawad Khan ( jkhan@siue.edu)
 

Don Kim  (dkim@siue.edu)   (Courses:  482, 574, independent topic, CS447=networked distributed processing)

 
Jun Liu ( jliu@siue.edu)
Jun has completed his course work, and is about done.  He worked on the silicon crystal, doped silicon, and diode models which ECE 326 makes use of.   His home page has a link to an overview of the different models he created.
 

?? Tan  ( ?tan@siue.edu)   (Courses:  )
- grad student working with Rich Romick-Allen:  Noise Barrier Wall studies project

 
Sateesh Samman?   ( ssamman@siue.edu)     (Courses:  592-nw, 438, independent topic/thesis research)
- scanning in pictures (aerial, of excavation), integrating as texture map into Cahokia mounds model; what kind of resolution can we get? ...
- integrating remote sensing, real images into GIS and with VRML displays .....
 

Ralph Walden ( rwalden@siue.edu)   (Courses:  582, 438,  independent topic, CS 564= database, 'CS 438=AI')
specify equipment to buy for these projects.
get stereoscopic VRML going, 2 windows,  2 Voodoo cards, 2 PCs each driving .?., Java NW communication?
 

------

Carlos Bedoya, Randall Thomas, Adam Ritzel ... ????


 Useful information for project members:                                                      [back to top of page]

 
(when reloading these pages, hold down the Shift key while doing View-->Reload)
 

IEEE MM article about VRML

list of books on VRML
-  We have 3 VRML books around to share/keep in the lab.  I am checking into buying 1 or 2 more to share like this; and
    whether discounts are available for student purchases.

 

 RGBTest - this is a very simple example that is good to get an idea of the html, wrl files and how Java programs "get" and control objects in the .wrl file (.wrl is the extension for VRML code).
 
Any of our projects make good examples to get up to speed (and then progress further!)   Some are good beginning examples  (pianoguy is about the next simplest example - especially if you ignore the walking stick figure stuff [person class]).  Others (like the earthquake work) are more complex and illustrate how to use many features of the technology.
 

The browser that we develop and test the models with is Netscape Communicator with Cosmo Player 1.0: b cp32e404.exe  (17,624KB 3/18/98 1:24p).  When you install this, it puts a 34KB zip file (npcosmop.zip) into the drive:\Program Files\Netscape\Communicator\Program\Plugins directory.  Copy this (I think you must also leave it zipped and in that directory) into a directory you will compile Java code from and unzip it.  It will create several directories of libraries.

On the lab PC(s), there is a cosmodev directory that we compile from.  It includes these libraries.
ALSO, it has an examples_info directory with a Web-page "ExternalInterface.html" that provides some documentation for the libraries. The RGBTest example is also here (4 files associated with it: RGBTest.html, RGBTest.java, RGBTest.class, and sphere.wrl).

CosmoWorlds is a 3D editor used to create VRML files (instead of hand-coding).  We have a thirty-day version you can test out:  cosmowor.exe   (18,144KB 9/19/98 5:10p)