Interactions in a Human-Scale Immersive Environment: the CRAIVE- Lab

We describe interfaces and visualizations in the CRAIVE (Collaborative Research Augmented Immersive Virtual Environment) Lab, an interactive human scale immersive environment at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. We describe the physical infrastructure and software architecture of the CRAIVE-Lab, and present two immersive scenarios within it. The first is “person following”, which allows a person walking inside the immersive space to be tracked by simple objects on the screen. This was implemented as a proof of concept of the overall system, which includes visual tracking from an overhead array of cameras, communication of the tracking results, and large-scale projection and visualization. The second “smart presentation” scenario features multimedia on the screen that reacts to the position of a person walking around the environment by playing or pausing automatically, and additionally supports real-time speech-to-text transcription. Our goal is to continue research in natural human interactions in this large environment, without requiring user-worn devices for tracking or speech recording. Author