The concept of the VRLab Framework was developed to gain modularization and transparency for the common functionalities which are used by all projects in the VRLab. The most of these projects enable the user to interact with virtual reality applications through special hardware. The multi-touch table, the Cube and an iPad allow the input of several (x,y) coordinates at the same time. The tracking systems additionally are capable to capture information about the spatial position of a tracked object.
One possibility of the future framework will be to separate the capturing of the users inputs and the presentation of the virtual reality application. E.g. on a fair presentation the VRLab members could realize the input of a multi-touch table via an iPad which communicates via a wireless network with the application on the multi-touch table. This could allow the concurrent interaction of interested visitors and easy support by the VRLab team without interrupting the flow of the application.
Synergy effects resulting of such a framework would be:
- Transparency of the inputs towards the application layer.
- Transparency and modularization of the future software related to the OOP development and architecture as well as the reusability of the source code.
- Relieve of the development of new applications in which existing source code can be reused.
- Provide an abstraction of the used programming languages and technologies by providing and accessing the input data via a network.
- Improved degrees of freedom.
- The students of the VRLab learn to use an integrated solution and how to develop their projects on the base of a common and accepted standard.