Concept House, Inc. is a software development and research company specializing in real-time 3D graphics and scientific visualization on desktop computing platforms. The company is also involved in immersive virtual reality environments, geographic information systems, remote sensing techniques, hand-held computing platforms, human-machine interface, motion capture, database visualization, image manipulation, internet information retrieval systems, ODBC, QuicktimeVR, and image processing techniques.

Terrain Visualization

Geographic terrain visualization and memory management techniques comprise a large portion of research by Concept House. Techniques have been created that allow real-time visualization, storage management, and memory management of very large datasets. In addition to these techniques, Concept House has also performed extensive research and testing of 5D visualizations consisting of meteorological and oceanographic data. Most of this work was prototyped on high-end SGI workstations and then migrated down to a target platform. This allows the company to target specific goals for each application while retaining the powerful framework inherent to the prototype designs.

Archaeology Data Visualization

Concept House has also performed extensive research in the field of archaeological archiving and field methods. Using software provided by Concept House, the Cobb Institute of Archaeology has achieved completely digital dig seasons through the use of Concept House software systems. All work and archiving has been accomplished through a unique combination of relational databases, digital photography, and 3D visualization using OpenGL on the Windows platform. This allows archaeologists to see the dig in the computer as soon as the dig team enters the information. This technology gives dig supervisors the power of immediate and concurrent information. QuicktimeVR has also played an important role in the archiving of archaeological data and Concept House has helped produce over 1,000 QuicktimeVR object movies of artifacts. Most of these can be found online at DigMaster and at the Cobb Institute's Lahav1999 site.

Concept House has vast experience with both Internet and World Wide Web protocols and technologies, including HTTP, FTP, TCP/IP, MIME, Java, VRML, Java EAI, QTVR, and CGI. This expertise has been put to use on projects for Mississippi State University School of Architecture, the United States Forestry Service, the Cobb Institute of Archaeology, and the Smithsonian Institution. These projects have utilized user queries as the basis for information retrieval and visualization of complex datasets for both interactive and non-interactive environments with an emphasis on the limitations of low bandwidth connections. The result of such systems is a presentation to the user of complex data in a form that they can easily understand and use in their day to day operations.

Concept House has implemented a complete SOAP/RPC over HTTP server solution for a popular internet e-commerce site. The live system handles over 1 million seperate product listings, user information, credit card transactions, and customer support duties. Concept House also has complete knowledge of the popular Ariba Marketplace software.

The company has a strong background in human-machine interface design and implementation. Concept House has worked with interface hardware such as motion capture systems, head mounted displays, positional sound, Immersadesks, CAVE environments, and 3D goggle systems. Through the use of these programs, clients have gained greater usability and capabilities by utilizing existing equipment with previously unrecognized potential.

Concept House also has thorough knowledge of interactive gaming. Experience has already been gained in researching and producing a fully networked interactive gaming environment. Concept House is continually researching and testing new networking ideas, graphics engines, interface design, and world creation techniques. Currently the company is in the process of producing a modeling application that can be adapted to each project that employs specialized interactive environments and characters. Development is also underway on rendering software that takes advantage of the RenderMan toolkit for use in instances where quality and detail are important.

To see some of the research that we are currently involved in, check out the Research Projects page.