Christie Sponsors Global Assembly of IEEE Virtual Reality/3D Experts

Online, March 8, 2012 (Newswire.com) - Christie® is proud to be the platinum sponsor for IEEE Virtual Reality (VR) 2012, the world's premier international technical conference and exhibition on all aspects of virtual, augmented, and mixed reality. The event has been held annually since 1993 and this year's program of workshops, tutorials, conference and exhibits at the Westin South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, California is co-located with the IEEE Symposium on 3D User Interfaces (3DUI).

As well as its platinum sponsorship, Christie will be supporting the four days of conference keynote addresses in the Westin's Plaza Ballroom with four projectors: two Christie Mirage WU7K-M (3-chip WUXGA 3D DLP® 6,300 lumen) and two Christie DHD800 digital projector (1-chip, 1080 HD DLP 8000 lumen) units. Key displays for three Christie partners - Advanced RealTime Tracking (ART - www.ar-tracking.de), TechViz (www.techviz.net) and WorldViz (www.worldviz.com) - will also feature Christie projectors and related technologies.

"Christie, with its well-earned reputation for accelerating innovation in advanced visualization/3D and simulation, has a significant presence at this world-leading event, as we continue to partner with other VR experts to bring integrated solutions to market," said Zoran Veselic, vice president of Christie's Visual Environments. "Many Christie customers are among the 700 decision makers that have assembled for IEEE Virtual Reality 2012 and the IEEE Symposium on 3D User Interfaces, and on behalf of the company, I thank them for their loyalty and continuing use of Christie solutions."

WorldViz (Booths #6 and #7)
Christie Personal Immersive Environment (PIE)
Comprised of Christie FHD551-X HD LCD flat panels, the Christie PIE concept features a five-panel arrangement in portrait mode for an innovative, way to create an immersive environment with a roughly 180 degree Field of View (FOV). WorldViz will provide 3D content that enables participants using a Kinect for Xbox 360 controller to virtually "fly" through a piazza for full body gaming. It uses groundbreaking technology to deliver smooth, continuous graphics that respond to an intuitive 3D hand control. WorldViz will also showcase a driving simulator with a virtual steering wheel using PIE. Additional flat panels can be added to increase the FOV to as much as 270 degrees. Easily flipped into landscape to suit the user's needs, it is a low-cost faceted visualization display system that creates an immersive visual experience with high performance and flexibility.

Advanced RealTime Tracking (Booths #10 and #11)
ART will demonstrate a TRACKPACK4 system. Utilizing this system, this optical-tracking system pioneer will show Virtual Reality interaction (Flystick, Fingertracking) with software ported into immersive VR through TechViz middleware. Users will be immersed with ARTs tracking solution and a Sensics HMD display for visual stimulus. Visuals provided will be mirrored onto a Christie Mirage-WU L LED-based 1-chip WUXGA DLP® 600 lumen 3D projector in a 72" rear projection enclosure for high fidelity stereoscopic display.

TechViz (Booth #3)
TechViz will be demonstrating at IEEE VR real time maintenance operations with full body tracking directly in a CAD application (CATIA Siemens-PLM Jack), using a Christie Mirage WU-L LED-based 1-chip WUXGA DLP® 600 lumen 3D projector in a 72" rear projection enclosure for high fidelity stereoscopic display.

About WorldViz
WorldViz is an industry leader in interactive virtual reality solutions. The company's flagship products are VIZARD, the VR community's favored interactive 3D content creation software, and PPT X4, the most cost effective wide-area tracking system currently available. WorldViz provides high quality, low-cost immersive 3D products to researchers, educators, designers, manufacturers, and other professionals, integrating all common VR products on the market and delivering complete turnkey solutions.

About Advanced RealTime Tracking (ART)
ART is a leading manufacturer of high-end optical tracking systems for Virtual and Augmented Reality. In addition, ART provides solutions for industrial measurement, medical applications and Motion Capture for ergonomics. The company is located near Munich, Germany. Founded in 1999, ART became one of the most important suppliers of infrared optical tracking solutions for the automotive and aerospace industries, and for research institutes and universities. ART offers a variety of tracked input devices, such as Flysticks and Fingertracking, particularly designed for Virtual Reality applications. Moreover ART provides the only solution for optical tracking inside multi-sided projection systems.

About TechViz
TechViz is expanding still and confirms a leading position as provider in advanced visualization solutions for 3D applications. With TechViz, display your 3D virtual prototypes in real time in high resolution directly from your desktop 3D application into your 3D virtual environment, improve production cycles, reduce costs and time to market of your products by having a better understanding of your 3D data. www.techviz.net.

About Christie®
Christie Digital Systems USA, Inc. a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ushio Inc., Japan, (JP:6925), designs, sophisticated virtual reality, simulation systems and control room environments including high-resolution power walls, multi-sided immersive environments, curved screen displays, domed simulation and multi-projector arrays. Industries and organizations that rely on Christie range from government agencies to oil and gas, aerospace to entertainment, and manufacturing and design to pharmaceuticals. Christie is listed among Military Training Technology magazine's Top 100 simulation companies and has been awarded the Red Ribbon for Best Program for the Christie Matrix StIM™. The award recognizes companies around the world that have made a significant impact on the military training industry across the spectrum of technologies - serious gaming, live training, constructive simulation, modeling, virtual simulation and others. For more information, visit www.christiedigital.com.