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Technology
Movies in the Round?
Research Effort Studies the Impact of 360-degree 3D Projection
 The iCinema Research Centre of Australia's University of New South Wales is currently involved with the development of new panoramic screen experiences that are having a major impact on the way we use and perceive audio-visual media.
Norwegian projector manufacturer projectiondesign plays a role in the effort. The relationship between projectiondesign and iCinema began in 2003, when Professor Jeffrey Shaw, the director, contacted the company's Thierry Ollivier to examine the suitability of the manufacturer's projectors for his 360-degree applications. Shaw, who is a renowned media art pioneer, had begun researching the potential of panoramic projection in 1995, when he was founding director of the ZKM Institute for Visual Media in Karlsruhe, Germany.
 Shaw's initial use of projectiondesign products was for iCinema's AVIE (Advanced Visualization and Interaction Environment) system – the world's first 360-degree stereoscopic panoramic projection environment, which was launched in 2004 using 12 F1+ projectors.
AVIE consists of a cylindrical, silvered screen measuring four meters high by 10 meters in diameter, on the internal surface of which 360-degree 3D panoramic multimedia content can be projected. The setup uses a cluster of seven PCs and 12 projectors, arranged in stereoscopic pairs fitted with polarization filters. The total resolution is approximately 8,000 by 1,000 pixels. The iCinema team has also developed custom warping and edge-blending software for a seamless fully immersive experience.
 Infrared cameras and real-time position and gesture analysis software can track visitors to the AVIE environment. This enables audience participation in the direction of the cinematic experience, interplay between real people and projected characters or avatars and, in a training application, precise analysis of audience reactions and behavior.
Subsequent to AVIE, the iCinema team has also developed the hemispherical iDome, using projectiondesign's F30 1080 projectors. The iDome utilizes a three-meter or four-meter diameter fiberglass dome for 360 x 180-degree projection utilizing one projector and a spherical mirror as a reflection surface. The size and shape of this vertically mounted hemispherical projection setup covers the entire peripheral vision of the user standing directly in front of it, resulting in a truly immersive, interactive experience.
iCinema's panoramic production resources include a custom built 24 Mega pixel digital video camera called the Spherecam. With this ultra-high resolution system the cameraperson does not have to frame the shot; instead they capture the whole world and then let the viewer choose what to look at when it's all projected in the round.
While the original AVIE and iDome systems are installed at iCinema's Scientia facility at UNSW in Sydney, they have since been the basis for a number of installations all over the world, in a mixture of scientific and artistic visualization and training applications.
"As a consequence of our experiences and my recommendations, projectiondesign was chosen by the ZKM Centre for Art and Media in Karlsruhe to equip their recently built PanoramaScreens with F20 sx+ projectors," Professor Shaw says. "This was also the case for the Experimental Media and Performing Arts Centre at Rensselaer Polytechnic University in New York - another iCinema partner that has recently purchased our AVIE system equipped with projectiondesign F3+ projectors."
One of the latest applications for AVIE, T_Visionarium, premiered in January 2008 at the International Sydney Festival, and will be shown in Shanghai later in the year. Offering an all surrounding 3D spectacle of hundreds of video clips that the viewers can interactively sort and edit, T_Visionarium is an unprecedented interactive cinema experience that let the user remix more than 20,000 video clips derived from Australian broadcast television.
Meanwhile, the Australian mining industry recently signed contracts for multiple AVIE and iDome systems for safety training purposes with New South Innovations, the technology commercialization division of UNSW. The agreement will see iCinema supply four AVIE theatres and 12 iDomes to four purpose-built virtual reality training sites across New South Wales. Between them, the systems will use more than 80 of projectiondesign's F20 sx+ and F30 1080 projectors.
"Our ground breaking research in cooperation with projectiondesign has brought about unique advances in panoramic visualisation and simulation," says Shaw. "Interactive digital media systems offer extraordinary new opportunities and our research is focused on the way these can be used to create new ways of living in the contemporary world, redefining how we seek recreation and learning, and how we work and do business.
Anders Løkke, marketing and communications manager at projectiondesign, says, "Our relationship with institutions like iCinema is part of what makes us different as a manufacturer. We are happy to support academic and artistic research into the use of AV and cinema technology because we know it will bring about specialist commercial benefits for us, for our end customers and for the industry as a whole."
iCinema Research Centre of Australia's University of New South Wales www.icinema.unsw.edu.au
Projectiondesign www.projectiondesign.com |
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