Virtual Spaces

*The dream of sythesizing responsive, life-like video, the essential lure of the holodeck, still finds a home at itp. The convergence of virtual reality, 3D gaming technology and artificial intelligence allows to develop new interactive interfaces for scientific research and entertainment. At ITP Jean-Marc Gauthier has worked in a variety of efforts in this area including, cinematography in 3D worlds, scientific visualization of the human body to aid medical students, the integration of video with 3D graphics and immersive environments using multi-screen displays. As more of the world becomes digitized, we focus on creating applications, for example a universal 3D web browser, where people can upload, visualize their own media and data. For example the Cube of New York, our latest telepresence project will allow people from several cities in Europe to view interactive NYC stories with animated characters inserted inside live video images streamed over the net. The Brain project focuses on creating an interactive to display and map data from MRI imagery. Jean-Marc is currently working on a portable immersive system in order to improve the efficiency and the scope of training low vision people crossing the street.

Publications

  • Gauthier, Jean-Marc, Building Interactive Worlds in 3D : Virtual Sets and Pre-visualization for Games, Film & the Web. 2005, Burlington, MA: Focal Press.
  • Gauthier, Jean-Marc, Creating Interactive 3D Actors and Their Worlds. 2002, San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann Publishers.
  • Gauthier, Jean-Marc, Designing a Room as a Social Unit, in Hospitable Design for Healthcare and Senior Communities, A. Bush-Brown and D. Davis, Editors. 1992, Van Nostrand Reinhold: New York. p. 230-233.
  • Gauthier, Jean-Marc, CONCEPTUAL DESIGN OF VIRTUAL CAMERAS: How to design self-determined virtual cameras. in Design Computing and Cognition’ 04. 2004. MIT, Cambridge, MA.
  • Nachbar, M., et al. ENTERTAINING LESSONS: APPLYING GAMING TECHNOLOGY TO THE VIRTUAL PATIENT. in Slice of Life 2005. 2004. Portland, OR.


    • Research Projects:

  • Virtual Patient Dynamic Virtual Patient Simulator 2004 NYU CDCF grant, joint project with AES School of Medicine This research project explored the convergence and synergy between computer games and medical visualization. The virtual patient was built on top of a behavioral engine that can simulate the complex elements of the human body. Role: PI
  • Virtual Archeology Virtual Archeology at Aphrodisias 2002 NYU CDCF grant, joint project with Institute of Fine Arts, Classics Department The purpose of this research was to design low-cost virtual reality displays for classrooms in order to learn archeology while walking through an ancient virtual city. Role: PI
  • Urban installation: Research Support. “Nighthawks2” 2005 “Nighthawks2” 2005 This project was an innovative interactive urban installation commissioned by Le Cube for the Festival Premier Contact in Issy les Moulineaux, France. The goal of this project was to create a persistent public installation utilizing a 3D interactive environment. Role: Creator/Designer
  • Lighthouse International: Creation, design of an immersive environment for visually impaired people “Jean-Marc’s setup is a hybrid system using a high-end gaming machine to run a pseudo CAVE system. If visual experiences inside a virtual simulator can be transferred to the real world, the affordability, efficiency and the scope of training low vision people can be greatly improved. This ingenious design uses off-the-shelf components at a tenth of the cost of average virtual reality simulators. Role: Creator/Designer


    • Recent installations, Exhibitions, Festivals and Events :     Presenting 3D interactive art in the streets, in the City, in Museums and art galleries is a natural outcome of our research projects. Recent projects include:

    Ars Electronica 2005: presentation of Nicebots [5] 2005 Viaduct of Millau: the highest bridge in the world, Norman Forster, architect, virtual reality installation, Conseil Regional de l’Aveyron, Millau, France 2005 Spada, [6] virtual reality installation, Nice, France 2005 Homage to Sol Lewitt, immersive installation, Chelsea Art Museum, NYC, NY 2005 Oiseaux de Nuit, urban installation, Festival Premier Contact, [7] Issy Les Moulineaux, France 2004 Nighthawks v2, FILE 2004, Electronic Language Festival, San Paolo, Brazil 2004 Nicebots, robotics installation for the MAMAC, [8] Nice, France, with M. Argo, D. Hirschmann and A. Poochareon. 2004 Infinite City, interactive installation, Convergence, Chelsea Art Museum, NYC, NY 2003 Aphrodisias, [9]interactive installation, Institute of Fine Arts/NYU, NYC, NY 2003 Machinima Festival, interactive installation, Museum of Moving Image, Queens, NY 2002 Nighthawks, interactive installation, Festival de la Cite Interactive, Issy Les Moulineaux, France 2002 Bicycle Rider, interactive installation, Villette-Numerique, Paris, France 2001 3D Interactive Actors, Siggraph, Los Angeles, CA 2000 Swimmer, Web3D Conference - VRML Art 2000, Monterey, CA 2000 Eternal Echoes, web installation, Siggraph 2000, New Orleans, LA, with H. Greer 2000