vConnect: Connect the real world to the virtual world

The Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE) is a fully immersive Virtual Reality (VR) system. CAVE systems have been widely used in many applications, such as architectural and industrial design, medical training and surgical planning, museums and education. However, one limitation for most of the current CAVE systems is that they are separated from the real world. The user in the CAVE is not able to sense the real world around him or her. In this paper, we propose a vConnect architecture, which aims to establish real-time bidirectional information exchange between the virtual world and the real world. Furthermore, we propose finger interactions which enable the user in the CAVE to manipulate the information in a natural and intuitive way. We implemented a vHealth prototype, a CAVE-based real-time health monitoring system, through which we demonstrated that the user in the CAVE can visualize and manipulate the real-time physiological data of the patient who is being monitored, and interact with the patient.