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BREAKTHROUGHS IN TECHNOLOGY
The GVU Center aims to allow multisensory communication between users and data-and between users.
Collaborative Web sites: Allow multiple users to "edit" Web pages and add hyperlinks as desired.
Wearable computers: Virtual reality enables data access on the go.
Technology for therapy? Sounds unusual, but the Georgia Institute of Technology's Graphics Visualization and Usability (GVU) Center is doing just that with virtual reality simulation and futuristic interface technology.
The GVU Center is one of the world's top research institutions for human and computer interfaces. For instance, many armed-forces veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder are now able to turn it off thanks to therapy guided by the GVU Center's virtual reality simulation.
Assembling faculty, students and industry from multiple disciplines-electrical, chemical, biological, psychological and others-the center aims to develop ways to simplify computer use. Such diversity is the crux of the GVU Center's capability, says Dean Jerding, a former student and now part of the technical staff at Atlanta-based ClickFox, a Web site analysis start-up founded by members of the center.