Since its founding in 1868, Oregon State University has grown into an academic community with more than 36,000 students and over 272,000 alumni worldwide. Within OSU lies the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), a hub known for its contributions to research and education. To bring virtual environments to life in physical spaces for one of its latest project, associate professor Raffaelede Amicis selected Scalable Display Technologies
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Using advanced geographic datasets and LiDAR scans, de Amicis and his team have created a digital twin of Oregon’s Elliott State Forest, an immersive recreation of one of the Pacific Northwest’s vast wilderness areas. In this virtual landscape, users become participants in the environment. They can easily manipulate time and weather, traverse rugged terrain and teleport to any point in the forest. The simulation allows users to model the effects of selective logging or full-scale clear-cutting, offering new insights into environmental impact and forest management.
Currently, the high-fidelity virtual forest encompasses a detailed rendering of 26,000 trees across a section of the Elliott State Forest. Ultimately, de Amicis aims to scale this digital twin to encompass the entire 2.8 million-tree forest and beyond. Scalable Display Technologies was selected for its innovative projection mapping and edge blending capabilities, ensuring a seamless, immersive display experience. “After doing some research, specifically when I came across technical documentation while working with Unreal Engine, I became curious about Scalable’s technical capabilities,” de Amicis recalled. “That was the first time I encountered their software, and it prompted me to explore it further. A key benefit of Scalable’s technology is the integration with multiple platforms, like Unreal and Unity, which is essential for our use case.”
Scalable, combined with platforms like Unreal and Unity, enhances the realism of the simulation and empowers the research team to engage with the digital forest in the same dynamic way gamers interact with virtual worlds by navigating terrain, triggering environmental changes, and modeling complex ecological scenarios in real-time.
What followed was not only a successful technical integration but also a positive and collaborative experience. “I found Scalable easy to use," de Amicis said, "it is definitely user-friendly. I was especially impressed with its technical performance, particularly in terms of color calibration and geometric calibration. Those aspects worked quite well. What really stood out to me, though, was my interaction with Scalable’s team. The people I was in contact with were responsive and helpful, and that human connection made a big difference. It was one of the main reasons I ultimately decided to go with Scalable.”
From de Amicis’ perspective, the value of Scalable’s technology goes well beyond visuals. “I’m primarily using the product for educational and research purposes, and in that context, strong customer support and human connection were key factors in my decision,” he said. “Support for educational institutions is incredibly important. The more accessible this technology is to us, the more we can leverage it for educational purposes. Our students can become familiar with the technology, gain hands-on experience, and engage with real-world applications.”
By leveraging Scalable’s powerful software, de Amicis’ lab is transformed from an ordinary surface into a dynamic, interactive display enabling immersive visualizations and engaging storytelling. Scalable’s intuitive software simplifies this sophisticated setup for students, faculty, and researchers through a streamlined, one-touch calibration process, which eliminates the need for complex manual adjustments and significantly reduces downtime, making it easy to maintain optimal display performance with minimal effort.
