Dublin goes virtual

A virtual Dublin on a scale and level of realism never seen before will go on show to the public at the Science Gallery, Trinity College Dublin this week.

With a particular focus on its inhabitants, Metropolis is a novel project bringing together computer graphics, engineering and cognitive neuroscience research at Trinity College.

Simulating crowds of millions, Metropolis aims for a high level of variety in animation, appearance and sound. Visitors to the Metropolis exhibition will be able to view demonstrations, take part in experiments and help researchers find out more about how the appearance, motion, behaviour and sounds of virtual crowds is perceived.

The Metropolis project, led by Prof Carol O’Sullivan of the Graphics, Vision and Visualisation group at the School of Computer Science and Statistics, aims to contribute towards the development of the computer games and film industry, urban planning, pedestrian and traffic modelling, evacuation simulation and the development of technologies for people with disabilities.

Commenting on the exhibition, O’Sullivan said: 'We have been working on the Metropolis project for nearly two years now, and it has been a fantastic collaboration between the disciplines of computer graphics, neuroscience and engineering. We want to encourage visitors to the Science Gallery to help us develop the Metropolis crowd simulations further by taking part in research into our perception of virtual crowds.'

In addition to participating in the Metropolis research, there will be a number of films, talks and debates on the theme of crowds and population including special presentations by animations experts and a debate about population.

Metropolis: Crowd Control opens to the public on Tuesday 24 March and runs until Friday 29 March. Admission is free. For further information please visit www.sciencegallery.com.

Metropolis is a Trinity College Dublin research project that is supported by Science Foundation Ireland.