INTERACTIVE ENVIRONMENT FOR INTUITIVE UNDERSTANDING OF 4D OBJECT AND SPACE

We present a new virtual reality system to assist intuitive understanding of 4D data. The system is composed of a motion capture device, a large screen, a stereo viewing system and a graphics workstation. In this environment, a user can go around the 4D world freely and interact with 4D data. The system can display four types of 4D data including 4D solid objects, 3D scalar potential fields, the profile of the complex function and 3D time-series data. Two mapping methods are employed to generate corresponding 3D images: They are the projection from 4D space to 3D space and the 3D section of 4D data. The user can observe the 4D object from an arbitrary 4D viewpoint and slice it from an arbitrary 4D direction by matching his 3D position to the point which lies on the surface of the 4D sphere surrounding the object. Moreover, using stereo glasses and position sensors attached to each hand, the user can easily rotate the 3D shape mapped from 4D space. As a result of evaluation, it was proved that the interaction with 4D data is effective for intuitive understanding of 4D. Makoto MURATA Shuji HASHIMOTO