The HIVE

The HIVE (huge immersive virtual environment) is a state-of-the-art virtual environment facility on the Oxford, Ohio campus of Miami University. Construction of the HIVE was funded by grants from the U.S. Army Research Office (ARO) and the National Science Foundation (NSF).

The HIVE offers completely untethered tracking of multiple users in a physical space of 1,100 square meters. Immersed users of the HIVE wear a "backpack" with a computer and a Head Mounted Display (HMD), such as the Oculus Rift™. Everything the user sees and hears is computer generated. It is a unique facility due to the size of the incorporated tracking area: 25 x 44 meters.

Immersed users of the HIVE are able to navigate naturally through virtual worlds by simply walking. Unlike treadmill or walk-in-place systems, there is no need for users to learn artificial movement metaphors or go through a training period during which they learn to walk in an unnatural manner. Instead, once the wearable rendering unit has been donned, users can begin virtual navigation immediately. While navigating, they will receive the same kinesthetic and vestibular information that they would in everyday life. The natural navigation experienced in the HIVE has been shown to be increase user feelings that the world through which they are moving is actually real.

The large physical size and wearable rendering unit of the HIVE allows an increased feeling of presence. Through the use of Redirected Walking (RDW) algorithms, the HIVE can seamlessly simulate virtual worlds of unlimited size. HIVE research focuses on answering questions related to RDW and making the capabilities of the HIVE completely portable so that immersive virtual environments can be setup anywhere and available to a much wider audience at a reasonable cost.