What It Is

CANVAS is a 3-screened, back-projectioned portable virtual-reality open-lab for research and teaching projects by faculty in the fine and applied arts and the University. Informed by the concepts of collaboration, advanced navigation, and virtual art, CANVAS is a space for creating and presenting computer-assisted multi-dimensional projects.

[ CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS ]

CANVAS is based on the University of Illinois' CAVE technology and runs on the SYZYGY grid-operating system designed by by Benjamin Schaeffer and maintained by the ISL Group of the Beckman Institute. SYZYGY is OPEN-SOURCE and is downloadable here. It runs under windows, linux, and macOSX.

SYZYGY applications can be written in C++ or Python, and use OpenGL. There are also some programs which will directly read a 3D model, VRML, .obj format, and others into the CANVAS.

CANVAS is located in the Digital Gallery of the University of Illinois Krannert Art Museum (lower-level), on Peabody Drive in Champaign.

View CANVAS TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS.

Please contact Damon Loren Baker, at dbaker at uiuc.edu for more information.