By Sara Noelle On
3-D imagery has just recently made its way to BYU.
A new virtual reality theater, worth more than $1 million, is housed in the basement of the Crabtree building and was funded by donations from Phoenix builder and philanthropist Ira Fulton.
Relying on offset twin high-resolution projectors and polarized eyeglasses to cast 3-D images, the theater allows viewers to observe projected images as if they are floating in the middle of the room, halfway between the viewers and the screen.
To add to the visual effects, the same contractor who installed the audio system in the LDS Church''s new Conference Center in Salt Lake City wired the theater with Dolby Digital Surround Sound.
These capabilities can save companies producing new products millions of dollars in design costs and months in time to market, said Brent Adams, industrial design professor.
'The ability to examine designs in three dimensions, to almost be able to sense how a product will feel, can allow product managers to narrow down the design pool immediately without proceeding with further research and work on impractical designs,' Adams said.
Richard Christiansen, acting dean of the College of Engineering and Technology, said when he first saw the theater''s capabilities, he could not wait to turn the students loose.
The first group to benefit from the new theater will be undergraduate industrial design students who, this semester, have been commissioned by Brunswick Corporation to provide designs for its Mercury Marine boat engine and Baja high-performance boat subsidiaries.
The students screened their designs in virtual 3-D for Brunswick executives as part of the program.
In addition to industrial design undergraduates, the theater will also be used to test and screen animation projects from students in BYU''s computer animation program.
Industrial design and animation students aren''t the only undergraduates looking to benefit from the new theater, however.
Jeffrey L. Campbell, a professor in facilities management in the School of Technology, is looking to use the 3-D imagery for his senior students'' projects as a part of their capstone class.
'They''ll be able to visually create a building before we even build, allowing them to evaluate it,' he said.
Campus planners will also use the theater to allow administrators to 'walk through' proposed building plans before signing off on construction.
'We aren''t restricted by the limitations of the federal research grants that typically fund this type of facility,' Adams said.
'We want to explore every avenue so that students, faculty and staff from the whole campus can benefit from BYU''s new technology,' he said.