I am not up-to-speed on the relative characteristics of the different game engines and am open to choosing something other than Unreal. I looked into Unreal and Torque and Torque did not appear far enough along. Unreal is used by the ICT SEE project, so I know it supports a stereoscopic display and a Polhemous headtracker. Also it is used by Mike and by IMSC - so this momentum is pushing me in the Unreal direction.
Two immediate project for the ILab include:
1) simulate the experience of an individual soldier in a special forces team. We have a project funded by the Navy to develop a new Head Mounted Display and I would like to be able to test the display with imagery similar to that of our client.
2) We really want to create the worlds best/most immersive HMD under this grant. To do this we are finding that standard rules do not apply. Toward this end, we would like to study different visual and optical design parameters and thier effect on the strength of immersion. The graphics engine should enable us to quickly mock-up different types of worlds for such study.
If anyone has the time, I would like to pick an engine that some students already know, and that will serve the department well over the next few years, so all comments and emails are welcome.
We are setting up the Immersive Lab this semester and are thinking on basing the Head Mounted Display system on the Unreal engine. If you are interested in working on the project, or just teaching me what you know, please send me an email bolas at well.com or leave a comment here, thanks.
Verizon has deployed high speed cell-tower delivered internet access. 500Kbps or so. It is only currently deployed in San Diego (where Qualcomm is located), Washington D.C. and now Los Angeles.
Am currently playing with a wireless card that makes this work with my laptop. Seems to work o.k. (but not in this basement ballroom at the Hyatt downtown - here I am mooching 802.11).
In addition to PC access ($80 / month), it is going to be available for various applications on mobile phone platforms.