SIGGRAPH 2004 - The 31st international conference on computer graphics and interactive techniques

The Iowa Virtual Soldier at SIGGRAPH 2004

Iowa City, IA July 4, 2004  The Virtual Soldier Research (VSR) Program at The University of Iowa College of Engineering announced today that their
real-time presentation of human modeling and simulation technologies has been accepted for this year’s Real Time 3DX: Demo or Die at SIGGRAPH 2004 in Los Angeles, California.  This event, which takes place Monday, August 9th, 6 - 8 pm in West Hall A and is organized by Sandy Ressler, National Institute of Standards Technology and Leonard Daly, Daly Realism, will offer attendees a glimpse into the early stages of VSR’s research in real-time human simulation.  SIGGRAPH’s Real Time 3DX event highlights real-time graphics of all types in a fast-paced, fun, and inspiring way. It exhibits the best real-time computer graphics work from industry, universities, and "secret" labs.  SIGGRAPH, now in its 31st year, is the most prestigious conference of its types in the world, with the largest audience and the highest quality, state-of-the-art computer graphics publications.   

 

VSR is an independent research group within the Center for Computer Aided Design (CCAD) at The University of Iowa.  This eight-month young project, funded primarily by the US Army TACOM, conducts basic and applied research for creating new technologies dealing with digital human modeling and simulation.  TACOM and the industrial design industry in general are looking for ways to eliminate one of the few remaining reasons to build extremely expensive, real-world prototypes.  VSR’s objective is to create autonomous, digital humans that can answer human-factors questions in the virtual world.  The use of autonomous, virtual soldiers that can experience computer-modeled versions of proposed vehicles and weapons systems in the virtual world - and then provide feedback on those designs - would go a long way towards eliminating the need to produce expensive, real-world prototypes for human factors research.  University of Iowa researchers (faculty, staff, scientists, engineers, clinical researchers, and graduate students) from various fields including engineering, gaming, psychology, biomechanics, human factors, computers, optimization, and industrial design have come together to create this new technology.