Brave new virtual world

Charles Fisher stepped onto the white treadmill and strapped on the harness, attaching himself to an advanced motor and pulling device.

He gave the thumbs-up sign to fellow research assistants in the mechanical engineering department at the University of Utah and immediately was immersed in an alternate world. The U. graduate student began running on the treadmill with the wind blowing in his face while a three-screen projection showed his movements in a virtual reality world.

"Instead of sitting on the couch, I can walk through Little Cottonwood Canyon, feel the wind blow, even smell the roses," Fisher said.

Fisher and several graduate students are part of a team of researchers developing a virtual reality world, complete with gravity effects, wind, olfactory senses and environmental fluid dynamics that calculate wind movement.

The million-dollar project, funded by the National Science Foundation, has taken years of work but can now account for gravity by using a device attached to the harness that pulls against users while they're climbing up a hill or push them while heading down.

Although several investors have approached researchers about possible applications, Mark Minor, a co-investigator for the project, said they can't release names just yet.

"One of the driving factors is to understand atmospheric display in virtual reality, but we're also investigating ways to use this for training," said Minor, a mechanical engineering professor at the U. "This could be used by first responders who have to figure out where a chemical source is being released in the city, or for training people to walk and live on Mars."

Neuroworx, a physical therapy clinic out of South Jordan, has already started collaborating with researchers about ways to use the technology to rehabilitate spinal-cord injury patients.

"Some people can learn how to walk again, but they do it in really sterile, clean environments," Minor said. "This gives you visual clues, gives you pressure from gravity and a gust of wind — a more realistic rehabilitation scenario."

The wind streams travel along the sides of the three-part screen until they collide and aim at the viewer so it appears to come from different parts of the virtual world on the screen.

The program still has some glitches, and researchers are trying to integrate other components, including wind rustling on the screen and olfactory senses.

"In the next little while, when you see the graphic world in front of you, you'll see the leaves blowing on the trees," Minor said.