The YURT (Yurt Ultimate Reality Theatre)
is a virtual reality lab has created and maintained by Brown University's Center for Computation and Visualization (CCV). Located at 180 George Street, just two blocks from Brown's Main Green, the YURT consists of 69 full-HD projectors that display onto 145 mirrors covering a 360-degree surface, including overhead and underfoot. The front wall is 25 feet long and 8 feet high. This enormous, fully immersive display allows faculty and student researchers (and interested visitors!) to step into and interact with a wide range of virtual environments, from Mars to plankton to chambers of the heart.
CCV has worked with archaeologists on campus on several occasions to recreate ancient artifacts or even entire archaeological sites, allowing researchers to continue to work with and analyze objects, buildings, and landscapes outside the context of fieldwork.
The YURT's predecessor, The CAVE, was used to build a three-dimensional representation of the Great Temple at Petra, Jordan, which allowed students of Professor Martha Joukowsky to experience her primary research site. And CCV is currently working with Professor Laurel Bestock to build a digital recreation of the ancient fortress at Uronarti, in Sudan, where she focuses her research.
CCV encourages Brown's faculty and students to approach them with proposals for new research projects, to further extend the ways in which the YURT can be used to advance and enhance research at Brown.
To read more about the YURT, see The Providence Journal's 2016 article by Channing Gray, "Inside Brown's Virtual Reality 'Cave' Where 3D Images Help Researchers See World in a New Way," or The Boston Globe's 2015 article, "Brown University Unveils 3D Virtual-Reality Room," by Amanda Katz.
For further information contact the CCV at [email protected].