Mechdyne Installing Stereoscopic Theatre at Iowa State University

MARSHALLTOWN, IA--(Marketwire - November 19, 2007) - Mechdyne today announced it has been awarded a contract to install a state-of-the-art, 4096 x 2160 pixel stereoscopic display in Iowa State University's Alliant Energy - Lee Liu Auditorium, where it will be used for regular lecture classes as well as research reviews and public events. The 8 megapixel, PowerWall™ 4KS system is the latest world leading display installed at Iowa State's Virtual Reality Applications Center in Howe Hall, which is home to the 100 megapixel C6 Virtual Reality Room.

The new system uses two Sony SRX-R110 Silicon Crystal Reflective Display (SXRD) projectors with 10,000 lumens of brightness, more than five times the brightness of the original projectors, and has a total resolution of 8.8 million pixels on a 12' x 24' screen. This is nearly quadruple the resolution of the auditorium's existing 10' x 20' display system, which Mechdyne installed in 2001. The original system utilized two stereoscopic sets of edge matched LCD® projectors to create a total image resolution of 2.6 million pixels.

To deliver superb viewing quality and flexibility, Mechdyne will integrate its patented Beacon™ stereo technology, which enables two projectors of any resolution to generate extremely high quality, actively shuttered stereoscopic images. These images do not suffer from the dual projector crosstalk/ghosting that is common with polarized projection techniques. However, for large audience presentations, Beacon allows viewing of stereoscopic images both with low cost, paper or plastic polarized glasses and higher quality shutter-type glasses. Beacon technology is the only stereo projection system that supports this capability with Sony SXRD projectors. Additionally, system controls allow one projector to easily be blanked or turned off so only monoscopic images are projected when needed.

The PowerWall system will be linked using optical fiber to VRAC's 49 node graphics PC cluster. The cluster, one of the most powerful dedicated real-time graphics processing arrays in the world, was installed by Mechdyne earlier this year as the main image generator for the C6. Other image sources will include various video formats and computers. Selection of all sources will be managed from a main control booth that Mechdyne is rebuilding to accommodate the new equipment. A motion tracking system will allow users to intuitively interact with and manipulate images with a virtual wand.

"The Howe Hall lecture theater will be the second showcase visualization facility here at VRAC, giving us two of the highest resolution 3D displays on the planet," said Jim Oliver, Director of VRAC. "Our students and corporate research partners will benefit from the unique insight that such extreme detail can provide."

Installation of the theater will be completed in January, 2008. Both the PowerWall and the 100 megapixel C6 will be tour highlights during VRAC's Emerging Technologies Conference in April, 2008.

About Mechdyne Corporation

Mechdyne Corporation is the world's largest company dedicated to consulting and development of immersive, networked and collaborative visualization systems. The company addresses complex projects where an in-depth understanding of user requirements leads to the development of products and customized solutions involving elements of visual, software and support systems. Mechdyne's subsidiary Fakespace Systems Inc. provides advanced display technology and implementation services. Subsidiary VRCO, Inc. specializes in immersive and interactive software development and support. Headquartered in Marshalltown, Iowa, Mechdyne's customers include leading government laboratories, military research programs, energy companies and a variety of 'edutainment,' manufacturing, and other users of visualization technology. More information is available at www.mechdyne.com, www.fakespace.com and www.vrco.com.

About VRAC

The Virtual Reality Applications Center (VRAC) supports interdisciplinary research in the development and application of emerging computer interface technologies spanning virtual reality, wireless networking, and pervasive and mobile computing to amplify the creativity and productivity of people. VRAC is home to over $20 million in ongoing contract research for industry and government agencies with than 60 faculty and 200 students use its facilities in a wide variety of research applications in science, engineering and the humanities. VRAC also offers M.S. and PhD degrees through its interdisciplinary Human Computer Interaction graduate program. More information is available at www.vrac.iastate.edu, www.hci.iastate.edu, and www.cyberI.iastate.edu.

Contact Information: For more information: Jeff Brum Mechdyne Corporation 519-664-0036, ext. 221 Matt Schmidt FS Communications 650-691-1488