Virtual Reality Studio
The Virtual Reality Studio was designed and constructed as a partnership between Silicon Graphics and Fakespace.
One of only a few such studios in the UK this Silicon Graphics Onyx 4 super computer-powered facility, housed within Technium Digital, provides a unique facility in Wales that will allow technical and creative professionals and academics to collaboratively engage in interactive, real-time data analysis in a visually immersive environment. It will also enable product prototyping to take place in a fraction of the time required by conventional prototyping.
This flexible, interactive facility can be reconfigured to open or closed configurations depending on a particular project’s requirements:
• In the open (flat wall) configuration the facility becomes a large (30ft x 10ft) screen which allows large, complex models, such as a complete car to be visualised actual size.
• In the closed (CAVE) configuration users are immersed in a 3D virtual world in which visualised objects appear to be both in the middle of the room and to extend beyond the walls.
The SGI-Fakespace virtual reality studio is available, fully supported, for commercial use by both companies located in and external to Technium, as well as for University research projects from the School of Engineering, the Clinical School, School of Biological Sciences and the Computer Science department.
Agilent Laboratory (Housed within the Institute of Advanced Telecommunications)
Representing a significant investment into Technium Digital, the Agilent Laboratory is one the most advanced of its type in Europe. Equipped with sophisticated communication testing equipment traditionally the domain of large companies, the laboratory focuses on the design and testing of high-performance electronic communication systems.
Consultancy can be provided on a range of computer network and communication systems technologies. Please contact the Technium manager for more information.
Examples of potential design and testing includes:
| Wireless network function testing | Simulated signals check the performance of wireless networks |
| Interference analysis | As ever, interference is a key issue for electronic communications |
| Optical fibre testing | Chromatic dispersion is a key issue for optical fibre communications |
| Dense wavelength division multiplexing | Modifying optical signals by colouring them means that their capacity can be increased and higher data rates can be achieved |
