AMES, Iowa -- Apple computer users can use VR Juggler software to develop virtual reality projects.
Recent tests on Apple computers confirmed the virtual reality software tools developed at Iowa State University are compatible with Apple's OS X operating system. The tools also work with Windows, Linux and UNIX platforms.
VR Juggler is a flexible software system that works with different platforms, devices and virtual reality systems. It's designed to make it easier for users to build virtual reality applications, said Carolina Cruz-Neira, a professor of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering, the Stanley chair in interdisciplinary engineering and associate director of Iowa State's Virtual Reality Applications Center. Cruz-Neira and her team of students have been working on VR Juggler as an active research project since 1999.
VR Juggler is the foundation of the work being done at the Virtual Reality Applications Center, Cruz-Neira said. Researchers, for example, are using VR Juggler to help create a virtual Beijing to evaluate urban planning decisions, develop virtual engineering tools to design and evaluate housing for swine and create a virtual fire to teach children about fire safety.
"It's a very crucial piece of software," Cruz-Neira said. "It's the heart of everything we do, as well as for more than 100 virtual reality sites around the world."
Infiscape Corp. of Ames, Iowa, collaborated with Cruz-Neira's team to test VR Juggler on the Apple operating system. Allen Bierbaum, the company's president, said engineers made a few small modifications that allow VR Juggler software to recognize the OS X system. He said the modifications are now integrated into the standard VR Juggler open source software available over the Internet.
VR Juggler is used in more than 50 countries around the world. Information and software are available at www.vrjuggler.org.