1. winter 2012
Integration
Quarterly
The quarterly publication of the
Design-Build Institute of America
annual
awards issue
INSIDE:
The best integrated projects of
the year
Making progress with model
legislation
NASA’s new high-powered
launch pad

2. 24 winter//2012 the quarterly publication of the design-build institute of america
/LOOK//
LOOK/
PhotocourtesyofLosAlamosNationalLaboratory
By Ian P. Murphy
IN PLATO’S ALLEGORY OF the cave, subjects on the
first step to enlightenment see only the shadows of
what’s real, projected on a wall before experiencing
the actual objects outside. Now, a visualization cham-
ber known as the CAVE at Los Alamos National
Laboratory (LANL) helps scientists visualize what’s
real but often beyond their scope of vision by build-
ing geometric representations and images from the
“shadows” presented by huge data sets. Inside the
immersive environment at the Metropolis Center for
Modeling and Simulation, supercomputers crunch
the numbers to project more than 43 million pixels
of virtual reality onto CAVE’s five Plexiglas walls to
create a 3D simulation.
In addition to big-picture astrophysics projects
and studies with national security implications
such as climate-change modeling, CAVE assists in
open research on fluid dynamics, impact analysis,
shock physics, thermal exchange and more, help-
ing to visualize anything from packing peanuts
to planetary orbits from every angle. Inside, users
can validate design options, verify safety and pro-
vide training by manipulating virtual objects with
a hand-held wand to test prototypes, adjust con-
structions and achieve the best possible results in
real-world applications. Plato would be proud.
Researchers inside the CAVE wear virtual-reality goggles to manipulate objects as part of an astronomical simulation.