Visualization research specialist and artist, Bill Brody, along with Chris Hartman, ARSC joint appointee and computer science professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF), are the original collaborators on the Body Language User Interface (BLUI) project. Recently, the team has grown to include Glenn Chappell, joint appointee with ARSC from the Department of Mathematical Sciences at UAF. Several UAF undergraduate research assistants have also contributed to the project over time, including Andrew C. Lee (now a full-time ARSC staff member) Doug Knight, Don Bahls, Chris Crewdson and Jesse Niles.

Hartman has programmed BLUI to recognize the movements of the user’s body and translate those movements into computer input. With the absence of mouse and keyboard, the ability to input computer commands is significantly reduced. Users of BLUI currently operate the program with a wand or joystick that has only three buttons. The buttons are programmed to draw, erase and move the virtual world. The current thrust of the project is to create more command options through gesture recognition and menuing. For instance, if a user puts their right hand down to their side, they are indicating that they would like to quit the program. The computer then prompts for confirmation, and the user shakes their head up and down or side to side to indicate “yes” or “no.” If the user would like to save an object using gesture recognition they simply reach back over their shoulder and the computer calls a menu with the save option.

The team places a lot of emphasis on the usability of the gesture recognition aspect of BLUI. The focus is to make using BLUI as natural and intuitive as possible. For example, if a user wants to turn an object around to look at the other side, they simply grab the object and move their hand around until the opposite side is facing them, just as one would with a real object in the physical world.

Uses of BLUI

There are two immediate uses of the BLUI project—science and art. When virtual reality first appeared on the high-tech scene, it promised a whole new way of interacting with machines and data. This promise never fully came to fruition due to a lack of user-friendly virtual reality interfaces. BLUI is research into new types of user interfaces, and opens up the possibility of interfacing with data in an entirely new way, as well as expanding the possibilities for virtual reality.

“Interfacing with computers has certainly come a long way, from DOS commands, to mouse and user interfaces,” says ARSC joint appointee Hartman. “A lot of people had to do a lot of work to come up with all of these tools.”
Hartman and Brody hope to create an interface that will expand the possible ways in which scientists can look at, interact with and share their data. In addition, BLUI can be used as a new medium in which to create art.

“Drawing is one of the fundamental ways that people describe, deal with and understand the world, and always has been,” explains Visualization Specialist Brody. “By using BLUI, artists can create and draw in a three-dimensional space.”

Hardware

BLUI employs two Hitachi HV-D25 3-CCD color cameras equivalent to electronic newsgathering cameras. These are wide-angle cameras with a 768-by-494 pixel resolution, which allow the entire body of the BLUI user to be viewed.

The Pyramid System ImmersaDesk consists of a four-by-six-foot screen display angled vertically at 52 degrees. The ImmersaDesk is run by an Onyx Video2 Graphic Supercomputer. An Electrohome 3D, three-beam, high-intensity, rear-projection system combined with Logitech motion-tracking subsystem allows the user to view and navigate through 3D images. The user “drives” the ImmersaDesk with a wand that works like a 3D mouse, while an electromagnetic sensor reads the user’s movement using the position of the driver’s Crystal Eyes stereoscopic glasses.

BLUI is programmed in OpenGL and uses the virtual reality CAVELib by VRco. Looking ahead, the team will implement MachineVision to replace the wand; they will also add immersive audio to the experience.

More Information

BLUI web site

A State and National Resource…

The Arctic Region Supercomputing Center supports high performance computational research in science and engineering with an emphasis on high latitudes and the Arctic.

The center provides high performance computational, visualization, networking and data storage resources for researchers within the University of Alaska, other academic institutions, the Department of Defense and other government agencies. ARSC is located on the UAF main campus in Fairbanks, Alaska.

Arctic Region Supercomputing Center
PO Box 756020, Fairbanks, AK 99775 | voice: 907-450-8600 | email: