First Steps with a Rideable Computer

Although technologies such as head mounted displays and CAVEs can be used to provide large immersive visual displays within small physical spaces, it is difficult to provide virtual environments which are as large physically as they are visually. A fundamental problem is that tracking technologies which work well in a small enclosed environment do not function well over longer distances. Here we describe Trike – a ‘rideable’ computer system which can be used to generate and explore large virtual spaces both visually and physically. This paper describes the hardware and software components of the system and a set of experiments which have been performed to investigate how the different perceptual cues that can be provided with the Trike interact within an immersive environment.