The future Cyber-Commons will support continuous interaction,
respond to human gesture, and encourage mobility among team members and
information.
autostereoscopic 3D display technologies, table displays, high-definition teleconferencing systems, laptops, and ubiquitous handheld devices, as well as
support both collocated and distance knowledge discovery. The future Cyber-Commons (see Figure 2)
will be a digital assistant of sorts, anticipating and
enabling those who work within it, benefiting global
scientific collaboratories and providing an opportunity for new computer science research.
The future Cyber-Commons will support continuous interaction, respond to human gesture, and
encourage mobility among team members and information. It will connect distributed teams over high-speed networks and support persistent digital artifacts,
so when the power is turned off, the information on
the display walls will not be lost. It will enable the
seamless viewing of ultra-high-resolution 2D images
and 3D stereoscopic images without special glasses. It
will also support ubiquitous and intuitive interaction
devices, creating a powerful and easy-to-use informa-tion-rich environment for scientific discovery and
education. c
REFERENCES
1. Bainbridge, W. The scientific research potential of virtual worlds. Science
317 (July 27, 2007), 472–476.
2. Cruz-Neira, C., Sandin, D., DeFanti, T., Kenyon, R., and Hart, J. The
CAVE: Audio-visual experience automatic virtual environment.
Commun. ACM 35, 6 (June 1992), 65– 72.
3. Gelernter, D. Mirror Worlds. Oxford University Press, 1992.
4. Leigh, J. and Johnson, A. Supporting transcontinental collaborative work
in persistent virtual environments. IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications 16, 4 (July 1996), 47– 51.
5. Smarr, L., Chien, A., DeFanti, T., Leigh, J., and Papadopoulos, P. The
OptIPuter. Commun. ACM 46, 11 (Nov. 2003), 58– 67.
JASON LEIGH ( spiff@evl.uic.edu) is Director of the Electronic Visualization Laboratory and an associate professor of computer science at the
University of Illinois at Chicago.
MAXINE D. BROWN ( maxine@uic.edu) is Associate Director of the
Electronic Visualization Laboratory at the University of Illinois at
Chicago.
This material is based on work supported by the National Science Foundation awards
CNS-0420477, OCI-0441094, and OCI-0225642. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the authors and
do not necessarily reflect the views of the funding agencies and companies.
© 2008 ACM 0001-0782/08/0100 $5.00
Take Advantage of
ACM’s Lifetime Membership Plan!
ACM Professional Members can enjoy the convenience of making a single payment for their entire
tenure as an ACM Member, and also be protected from future price increases by taking advantage of
ACM's Lifetime Membership option.
ACM Lifetime Membership dues may be tax deductible under certain circumstances, so becoming a
Lifetime Member can have additional advantages if you act before the end of 2007. (Please consult
with your tax advisor.)
Lifetime Members receive a certificate of recognition suitable for framing, and enjoy all of the
benefits of ACM Professional Membership.
Learn more and apply at:
http://www.acm.org/life
