Stage: Controlling space robots from a CAVE on Earth

At the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Mission Operations software places unusual demands on its developers and users that require new solutions. Scientists are often faced with the difficult task of interpreting the sizes and relative positions of objects in an environment when viewing an image of the environment on computer monitors or prints. We have created an immersive visualization environment, known as Stage, to address two critical visualization problems. First, people viewing imagery from surface spacecraft often incorrectly estimate the size of objects in the environment because imagery on a standard computer screen does not occupy the correct portion of their visual field. Second, people viewing panoramic images frequently fail to understand the relative positions of objects in the environment because the panoramic image is rolled out flat and presented in front of them instead of wrapping around them. These fundamental errors have well-documented and dramatic consequences. Viewers frequently believe an object is beside a robot when it is actually behind it, or think that a small rock is actually a large, hazardous obstacle that must be avoided. This misinterpretation can be very costly, especially when the environment is remote and/or only accessible by unmanned vehicles. Stage addresses both of these problems by immersing viewers in an accurate representation of the environment. Interaction in Stage must be natural and intuitive to preserve the immersion effect. We have incorporated the Microsoft Kinect and Wii Remote game controllers, each system rich with unique capabilities. Placing a Kinect sensor in our system allows users to navigate in an environment using gestures. A Wii Remote and Nunchuk provide users with the capabilities of a traditional joystick while having the benefit of being wireless, ergonomical, and versatile due to its mobility. Users have the ability to use these controllers along with a traditional mouse and keyboard, if the application requires more flexibility. In this paper, we will discuss our design decisions for our system and the advantage of a cylindrical display over traditional flat-walled Cave Automatic Virtual Environments (CAVEs). We will explain the challenges of rendering for a 270° display and how we overcome them in our 3D framework. We will explain our interaction layer and describe the types of applications that thrive in an immersive display. Finally, we will discuss our user experience and future directions.