Software Virtually Doing Business
virtual reality software package, developed
to support NASA's work on the International Space Station, is opening
new worlds of opportunity for businesses on Earth. DRAW Computing of Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, developed the software under a NASA Small Business Innovative
Research (SBIR) contract managed by Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville,
Alabama.
NASA asked for software that would allow it to create virtual reality simulations to facilitate training future crews for the International Space Station. The software's scripting, hardware and graphical user interface (GUI) front-end permitted NASA researchers at Marshall to create complex virtual reality simulations while designing the station's various elements.
The software package is an open platform for Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) 2.0 integration, which allows businesses the ability to have realistic, interactive, moving worlds. It provides the advanced features of VRML 2.0 without all the effort. The software's C++ library brings VRML 2.0 support for any applications and any graphics server. Sample source code is also included; it demonstrates implementations of VRML 2.0 browsers on various graphics layers, including OpenGL. Sample code showing the implementation of the built-in nodes is also provided, as well as a GUI-based Scene Graph Viewer.
With this software, applications can be made to support Java scripting and virtual reality hardware devices. It can also be used as a stand-alone program or as a web browser plug-in. Open Worlds is a fully open system—a set of C++ libraries that can add any level of VRML 2.0 to a client's system. Parsing, scene-graph transversal, routing, scripting, prototyping and external interfaces are provided. Customers can sample built-in nodes, user interfaces and applications or build their own.
Flexible design lets users implement the graphical core of VRML 2.0 with the graphics Application Program Interface (API)/platform of their choice. The software can support such low-level graphical API as OpenGL and high-level scene libraries, such as Optimizer, or interface with the user's own proprietary layer. Because different applications require different levels of VRML 2.0 support, this software provides separate modules so that the user only needs to purchase the support needed. The option of extending capabilities in the future is provided.
For more information, contact Bob Lessels at Marshall Space Flight Center.
Call (256) 544-6539, Fax: (256) 544-3278, E-mail: robert.lessels@msfc.nasa.gov
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