The CAVE is a new virtual reality interface that uses a room with walls, ceiling, and floor to surround the viewer with projected images. It overcomes many problems of other virtual reality systems and can be built with current technology. The CAVE is a recursive acronym, also reminiscent of Plato's allegory of the cave. It is a cube with display-screen faces surrounding a viewer, similar to surround systems like OMNIMAX theaters and early flight simulators. The CAVE is a fourth visual paradigm for virtual reality and is coupled with a head-tracking device. As the viewer moves within the CAVE, the correct perspective and stereo projections of the environment appear on the display screens. Virtual reality systems rely on suspension of disbelief and viewer-centered perspective. Suspension of disbelief is the ability to ignore the medium of the simulation. Viewer-centered perspective simulates the view from the viewer's location, using a sensor to track the viewer's position. The CAVE provides a full 360-degree field of view, which is crucial for immersion. The CAVE is a nonintrusive, easy-to-learn, high-resolution virtual reality interface. It is superior to other virtual reality paradigms in field-of-view, visual acuity, and lack of intrusion. It is open to limited use for collaborative visualization. The CAVE is implemented using six Silicon Graphics Inc. VGx workstations, each attached to a rear projection display. A Silicon Graphics "Personal Iris" serves as a master controller for the system. The CAVE requires special perspective projections to simulate viewer-centered perspective. These projections are offset to simulate stereo, and thus require knowledge of the viewer's orientation. The CAVE also uses multiple stereo displays and has issues with green channel lag due to slow phosphor decay times. The effectiveness of virtual reality interfaces, particularly the CAVE, needs to be evaluated more quantitatively. The CAVE has several applications, including regional-scale weather in three dimensions, graphical planning for brain surgery, the visible embryo, the snowstorm, fractal exploratorium, and bio modeling. These applications demonstrate the CAVE's potential in various fields. Further research is needed to address hardware shortcomings, such as tracking delays and multiprojector stereo synchronization.The CAVE is a new virtual reality interface that uses a room with walls, ceiling, and floor to surround the viewer with projected images. It overcomes many problems of other virtual reality systems and can be built with current technology. The CAVE is a recursive acronym, also reminiscent of Plato's allegory of the cave. It is a cube with display-screen faces surrounding a viewer, similar to surround systems like OMNIMAX theaters and early flight simulators. The CAVE is a fourth visual paradigm for virtual reality and is coupled with a head-tracking device. As the viewer moves within the CAVE, the correct perspective and stereo projections of the environment appear on the display screens. Virtual reality systems rely on suspension of disbelief and viewer-centered perspective. Suspension of disbelief is the ability to ignore the medium of the simulation. Viewer-centered perspective simulates the view from the viewer's location, using a sensor to track the viewer's position. The CAVE provides a full 360-degree field of view, which is crucial for immersion. The CAVE is a nonintrusive, easy-to-learn, high-resolution virtual reality interface. It is superior to other virtual reality paradigms in field-of-view, visual acuity, and lack of intrusion. It is open to limited use for collaborative visualization. The CAVE is implemented using six Silicon Graphics Inc. VGx workstations, each attached to a rear projection display. A Silicon Graphics "Personal Iris" serves as a master controller for the system. The CAVE requires special perspective projections to simulate viewer-centered perspective. These projections are offset to simulate stereo, and thus require knowledge of the viewer's orientation. The CAVE also uses multiple stereo displays and has issues with green channel lag due to slow phosphor decay times. The effectiveness of virtual reality interfaces, particularly the CAVE, needs to be evaluated more quantitatively. The CAVE has several applications, including regional-scale weather in three dimensions, graphical planning for brain surgery, the visible embryo, the snowstorm, fractal exploratorium, and bio modeling. These applications demonstrate the CAVE's potential in various fields. Further research is needed to address hardware shortcomings, such as tracking delays and multiprojector stereo synchronization.