 The Active Chair by Brian Duffy (the interface for TRUST)
is controlled by a MatLab developed stand-alone program that can either be manually controlled, or takes text-based input data files, or use direct control from the Symphony games engine. A proprietary hardware interface allows a simple USB connection to any computer system. The pneumatic cylinders required to move the chair are driven by an array of solenoid valves that control the air supply, which is provided using a portable air compressor. The engineering design and construction of the chair allows for its ease of replication.
This operates alongside:
3D Interactive Media Lounge by Marc Price (the game world for TRUST)
This prototype is designed to provide a broadband-enabled home network, with an interconnection between a TV set-top box, a PC, a games console, and on a wider scale, home networks of other households. The application run on PC at present, and the next iteration (in development) will runs on a a game console as well. The concept: the user connects to the broadcaster-hosted `lounge-server' with their (freely available) client application. The client application is based on a 3D game engine (currently using the `Crystal Space' open source game SDK). The user downloads a virtual 3D world from the server, which consists of buildings - perhaps a city - and natural features. Each of the rooms in each of the buildings is a virtual TV lounge. Each lounge contains: a moderator (an AI agent); a virtual TV; and avatar representations of other remote clients that are occupying that room.
The user chooses a room based on the TV channel assigned to the room and its occupants. When the user connects with the lounge-server, it also connects with a DVB-server process that is hosted on the local set-top box - at its simplest, a DVB card installed in the user's PC. The DVB server provides all broadcast audio and video content requested by the client. Hence, each virtual TV within the downloaded 3D world is an appropriately shaped polygon with a tag to identify it as an A/V source, with a channel ident. The client is responsible for detecting each virtual TV tag, and then mapping the appropriate streamed video and audio content into the virtual environment. The broadband connection allows the user to interact with other room occupants, thus creating a shared TV viewing experience beyond the boundaries of the user's real room.
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