Advanced Building Simulation

Chapter 9
Immersive building simulation
Ali M. Malkawi
9.1 Introduction
Advancements in visualization led to new developments in simulation. Different
technologies made it possible to create environments that are virtual or augmented.
Immersive simulation is the representation of the behavior or characteristics of the
physical environment through the use of computer-generated environment with and
within which people can interact. These environments support variety of applications
including building simulation. The advantage of this simulation is that it can immerse
people in an environment that would normally be unavailable due to cost, safety, or
perception restrictions. It offers users immersion, navigation, and manipulation.
Sensors attached to the participant (e.g. gloves, bodysuit, footwear) pass on his or her
movements to the computer, which changes the graphics accordingly to give the
participant the feeling of movement through the scene.
This chapter introduces a newly defined area of research we termed “immersive
building simulation” and discusses the different techniques available and their applications.
It illustrates how this emerging area is benefiting from the more established
immersive simulation field. It begins by describing its background, which is rooted in
virtual and augmented reality, and describes the application of these techniques used
in different fields. It defines the essential components of immersive building simulation
with a focus on data representation and interaction regarding building performance.
Two example cases and recent work in this area will be discussed.
In this chapter, the term immersive building simulation is used to illustrate a specific
type of simulation that uses immersive virtual or augmented reality environments.
Although the term virtual reality (VR) was originally coined by Jaron Lanier, the
founder of VPL Research in 1985, the concept of virtual reality can be linked to the
development of calculating machines and mechanical devices (Schroeder 1993). Its
modern roots can be associated with Edwin Link who developed the flight simulator
in order to reduce pilot training time and cost in the early 1940s. The early 1960s
show milestone developments in the field of virtual and augmented environments. In
1965, Ivan Sutherland published a paper “The Ultimate Display” (Sutherland 1965)
in which he provided an argument to utilize the computer screen as a window through
which one beholds a virtual world. The same year, Sutherland built the first seethrough
head mounted display and used it to show a wire frame cube overlaid on the
real world, thereby creating the first Augmented Reality Interface. In addition, video
mapping was introduced around the same time in a publication written by Myron
Krueger in the early 1960s (Krueger 1985).