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Media artist Daniel Sandin and engineer Thomas
DeFanti joined the Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the
University of Illinois, Chicago during the 1970s, where their
research in electronic visualization culminated in 1991 with
the design and construction of the CAVE (Cave Automatic Virtual
Environment).
The suspension of disbelief, so critical to the
overall effect of virtual reality, is enhanced by the specific
qualities of the CAVE's interface, which is, in fact, a small
room of about three cubic meters. After entering the room, the
user finds himself surrounded by projected images that are seamlessly
synchronized on three walls, as well as on the floor. It is
like stepping onto the stage of a virtual theater. The immersive
experience of the CAVE was intended as an allusion to Plato's
cave; its multiple screens and surround-sound audio evoke the
metaphor of a shadowy representation of reality, suggesting
how perception is always filtered through the mind's veil of
illusion.
Unlike other systems of virtual reality such as
Scott Fisher's VIEW, the properties
of the CAVE are enhanced by the interplay between the real and
the virtual. The CAVE immersant does not experience disembodiment,
but rather is viscerally aware of his or her physical presence
"on stage" amidst the animated imagery and orchestrated sound.
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