Oliver Kreylos' Homepage

Welcome to my home page. I update it sporadically, so check the list of new features below, and otherwise just look around. And to those who have visited before: yes, I've finally gotten rid of that silly Java animation. It was kinda cool in 1996, but not so much anymore.

Breaking News

05/27/2008: As of today, my Wii controller tracking video has 100,000 views on youtube. I'm a celebrity!
04/24/2008: I just returned from a nanoscience and -engineering workshop, FNANO08, held in Snowbird, Utah. I was invited to talk about ProtoShop, which now seems to be used in DNA origami. I used the opportunity to talk about 3D interaction and immersive environments in general, and to plug the Nanotech Construction Kit in particular. People were intrigued.
04/02/2008: Our first KeckCAVES-related NSF proposal just got funded. This is a three-year project titled "CI-TEAM Implementation Project: Enabling Interactive Visual Exploration and Remote Collaboration for the Geosciences and Physical Sciences," funded at a total amount of $920,000.00. This will allow us to extend existing and new KeckCAVES software for education purposes.
03/13/2008: Just returned from IEEE VR 2008 in Reno, NV. We held a tutorial on "Virtual Reality in the Physical Sciences," and I demonstrated several Vrui applications during a field trip to the Desert Research Institute in Reno. This also marked the first time I showed my 6-DOF Wiimote tracker in public; there was a bit of interest.
03/04/2008: Gerald Bawden held a public lecture about using 3D laser scanning and immersive visualization at California State University, Sacramento, today. He integrated stereoscopic displays of LiDAR data into his talk, using KeckCAVES' passive stereo projection system and the LiDAR viewer. As part of this, Gerald and I were interviewed by Jeffrey Callison on his show "Insight" on Capital Public Radio in Sacramento.
09/28/2007: Finished video describing how to use a Nintendo Wii controller as a 6-DOF input device for virtual reality applications. It is uploaded to youtube as Wii Controller for Virtual Reality.
02/19/2007: I started uploading a selection of videos about the KeckCAVES VR environment to youtube. Here is the list so far:
02/13/2007: We just filmed a news segment about KeckCAVES with help from the UC Davis News Service. The segment will probably air soon on KVIE, Sacramento's PBS affiliate.
10/14/2006: Grand opening of the Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences. I helped them install a 3D display and provided applications to run on it (see the KeckCAVES page for details). Funny thing happened: Some wonk from the Desert Research Institute was interviewed for TV news in front of the screen with one of my programs running, pointed at it over his shoulder and said that DRI had helped by donating those visualization applications. My history of not getting proper credit continues.
07/01/2006: I started my new job as an assistant project scientist with the Center for Computational Science and Engineering. I am going to continue essentially the same work as before: providing interactive and immersive visualization applications for the analysis of complex 3D data, especially in the Earth sciences. And I still don't have to clean out my old cubicle!
06/15/2006: Analucia officially graduated with a Ph.D. in agricultural and environmental chemistry today. Is there a doctor in the house? Yes, two!
10/30/2005: Analucia now has her own web page.
04/15/2005: Installation of the KeckCAVES VR environment finally started. I have a KeckCAVES page in the Research and Development section.
09/15/2004: I left Davis to spend three weeks visiting the Virtual Reality and Reality Reconstruction Lab (VR3Lab) at the Politecnico di Bari in Bari, Italy. We are going to work on the innards of the Vrui toolkit, install Vrui on their Virtual Reality environment, and merge Vrui with the Studierstube VR toolkit. I am mostly working with Drs. Michele Fiorentino, Antonio Uva, and Pietro Renzulli, under the supervision of Prof. Guiseppe Monno.
02/23/2004: Several of the images I generated for this web site have been included in the National Science Foundation's Digital Image Library.
02/18/2004: I was interviewed for an article in the Calfornia Aggie titled Virtual Geology about the new collaboration between CIPIC and the Department of Geology to construct a fully-immersive four-sided CAVE VR environment. And yet again, I didn't get proper credit...
11/19/2003: I provided a nice image for an article in the Calfornia Aggie titled Virtual Awesomeness. You can find the picture here as well. Of course, I didn't get proper credit.
09/01/2003 (or somewhere around that time): I will start my new job as a post-doctoral researcher at the Center for Image Processing and Integrated Computing at the University of California, Davis. The best part is that I do not even have to clean out my cubicle.
06/17/2003: I graduated from UC Davis' PhD program in computer science. Photographic proof will appear later somewhere on this site.

Highlights

Find out what I'm doing in my Research and Development Homepage! (Still under construction.)
Take the CIPIC Virtual Lab Tour! (VRML capable browser required)
Have a look at my Ray Tracing Gallery!
Check out my Starglider Pro page!
Take a tour of my Virtual Gallery!

New Features

01/05/2008: Released the source code for the Wii controller tracking package under the GNU General Public License.
10/02/2007: New page about Wiimote Hacking project in the Research and Development section.
02/13/2007: I added a new movie about using virtual reality to the top of the KeckCAVES movie page. It was shot with a hand-held video camera, and shows the immersive nature of the display space much better than the older movies.
08/22/2006: I upgraded the texture-based 3D volume renderer to offer three separate transfer function look-up methods, including one based on ARB fragment programs. That means it now runs on ATI graphics cards, as well.
08/08/2006: I finally released the source code for my texture-based 3D volume renderer under the GNU General Public License.
06/30/2006: I added a page on high-fidelity hardware-accelerated volume rendering using supersampling and good reconstruction filters.
04/13/2006: I recently captured some videos of the KeckCAVES VR environment.
02/11/2003: Added archive of ECS 120 course web page (the "Introduction to the Theory of Computation" class I taught as an Assistant Instructor in spring quarter 2001) to the Teaching Homepage. It features the course syllabus and a course calendar with all lecture notes available for download in PDF format.
01/31/2003: Completely reworked Research and Development Homepage with descriptions of many research projects, and some source code available for download. This section is currently still under heavy construction.
01/10/2003: I have received a lot of email recently about the Point-in-Polygon algorithm I describe in my ECS 175 Spring 2000 Homepage. I added another figure to the description to demonstrate that it really works as claimed in all cases.
12/21/2001: I added a ton of stuff to the Photo Album.
05/21/2001: I have been spending a whopping amount of time in the graphics lab lately. Check out the CubiCam for proof!
03/16/2001: I put up a photo gallery documenting the demise of my old car, the advent of my new car, and its first accident (all in 5 days).
02/04/2000: Glorious launch of the CubiCam.
01/04/2000: I finished my paper about Point-Based Rendering of Arbitrary-Mesh Volumetric Data at Multiple Levels of Resolution.
02/16/2000: Today I gave a lecture about Interactive Volume Rendering Using 3D Texture-Mapping Hardware as a stand-in for Dr. Ma while he was in Japan. Because it fits into the course, I also wrote a little pamphlet entitled Sampling Theory 101 about some pitfalls mathematics has in stock for the uncautious volume visualizer.
12/27/1999: I published Christian Hofsetz' and my joint paper on "Measuring the Performance of 3D Graphics Architectures."
12/10/1999: I have now started to add content to the C++ Corner.
12/05/1999: The CIPIC Virtual Lab Tour is coming along very nicely. I converted the whole thing to VRML 2.0; now I can go ahead and add interactivity and some animations, when I find the time.
12/01/1999: Added some new anecdotes to the "fun" section of my private homepage.
11/09/1999: It has happened - I have gone completely over the edge. I dedicated a web page to "Unfortunate Fortune Cookies."
10/31/1999: My ray tracer is now working on the graphics lab's SGI workstations, so I will add new images to the Ray Tracing Gallery every once in a while.
10/21/1999: I got around to add the PhD Studies Homepage.
10/19/1999: I finally filled in the gaps of my Personal Information page.
10/15/1999: I added a Photo Album.
08/25/1999: Everything is new! Today I completely re-launched my homepage, combining my obsolete Universität Karlsruhe (TH) homepage and my out-of-date University of California, Davis, homepage.

Pages In This Section

Contact Information: If you want to know how to reach me, look there!
Links: A selection of interesting external links.
Private Homepage: Things I do for fun. Java games, ray tracing, C++ classes, Starglider Pro, usenet rantings.
Research and Development Homepage: Past and present research projects, papers, experiments, programs, examples.
PhD Studies Homepage: Things relevant to my studies at UC Davis. Classes, homework, projects.
Teaching Homepage: Everything concerning courses I teach at UC Davis.