EVE - Practical Info for Visitors

In this page we summarize a few of the questions most frequently asked from our staff. We hope you will find this information helpful when planning your visit.

What do I do if I want to visit the EVE?

General demos (traditionally the first monday of each month) are currently not organized due to problems with the equipment. In some special cases, demos can still be arranged - please email eve-demos(ät)tml.hut.fi for details. If you have specific technical questions, refer to the contact information in the main page.

Can I rent EVE for commercial demos or presentations?

Yes - please email eve-demostml.hut.fi for details. The current prices are (excluding VAT):

How to get here?

The EVE is located in the HUT Computer Science building (Tietotalo or T-talo) in Otaniemi, Espoo, Finland. The visiting address is Konemiehentie 2.

The bus number 103 (from Helsinki city to Tapiola, Espoo) has a stop called "Konemies", about 100 meters from our building. The trip from Helsinki city takes about 15-20 minutes, depending on the time of day. You can also take the bus 102 and get off it in front of the HUT library. Then walk straight ahead along the road (Otaniementie) the bus was coming for about 300 meters and you will arrive at the Tietotalo (on the right side).

The Otaniemi area.

In Tietotalo, the EVE is located at the south-west corner in the ground floor. The main entrance is in south-east, so just walk straight ahead, following the left-side wall. You will find the EVE at approximately 5 meters before the glass doors leading to the the west wing. There is a sign in the EVE door with our logo in it.

A map of Tietotalo. Following the blue line should lead you to the EVE.

The EVE - What is it all about?

The EVE is a cube-shaped construction with 3 walls (custom-made canvas attached to an aluminium structure), and a wooden floor. Each side of the cube is 2,8 meters (about 3 feet) long. Similar constructions are currently found all over the world, the nearest one being in Tampere, Finland.

Why do people build such expensive and bulky cubes? Well, it is one of the few ways to present the user with a virtual environment with well over 180 degrees field of view - with a reasonable resolution. This can not yet be done with head-mounted displays of any kind. Wide field of view adds a great deal of immersion and realism to any visualization application, and helps architects, scientists and designers to see things in a new way.

The multichannel audio system with a dedicated computer with our in-house auralization software adds to the realism, making it possible to produce practically any kind of sound from any direction, as well as simulate the acoustics of different buildings - even before they are actually built.

The graphics generated by the EVE graphics computer system are displayed from the back side of canvases using projectors and mirrors. The users are inside the cube, using special 3D shutter glasses to see the environment in stereo. Viewing computer-generated imagery in stereo is based on the fact that the human eyes are approximately 7 cm apart from each other, and therefore they each see a slightly different picture. If you have not seen an artificial stereo image before, it is hard to explain what this is about - You will have to come here and see it for yourself!

One of the users may be motion-tracked (depending on the application), so that he/she can move around in the EVE, while the view and location of the virtual world are changed accordingly. The tracking is done with small magnetic sensors attached to the shutter glasses. Yes, you can peek under the tables or around the corners by moving physically - something you can't do in PC games yet!

For the best possible viewing experience we recommend that you stand as close to the center of the cube as you can. If one of your group is motion tracked, others should follow his/her movements to get a correct view of the virtual world. Unfortunately, due to the nature of surround-screen virtual environments in general, only one user can be tracked at one time. Fortunately, passing the tracked shutter glasses on to your groupmate is easy and recommended.

WARNING: Guests with cardiac pacemakers are not - for their own safety - allowed to enter the EVE because of the strong pulsed DC magnetic field generated by the motion tracker. If a guest with a pacemaker wishes to explore the EVE, it must be done with the motion tracker switched off. Please inform your host in advance, if this is the case. Credit cards are not generally affected by the tracker, but you should not put your wallet on top of the black box on the floor (shown behind the user in the picture below).

A user climbing virtual stairs in the EVE (the floor was not yet in use at the time).

Other Facilities in the EVE

Since only about five people can simultaneously fit into the EVE, the rest of the group can wait for their turn sitting comfortably on the lounge, equipped with sofas and a table. This space can also be used for discussions after or during an EVE session. There are also two coat-racks in the lounge. The door is kept locked at all times, so it is safe to hang your coat in there during your EVE session.

The EVE lounge.

Welcome to the EVE - we hope you enjoy your visit!