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Immersive visualisation is a process where viewers perceive they are participants in a form of virtual reality. The most basic form of immersive visualisation exists when the audience can only see the film or sequence being played out, without any vision of their existing physical surroundings (Heilig, 2005, p.21 and p.25). Immersive visualisation systems are the technology used to allow the viewer this perceived participation.
As technology has advanced, these systems have been adapted to allow immersion in a variety of applications, including computer games and gaming devices, military training and defense systems and the film industry. An early inventor of immersive visualisation systems for film was American Morton Heilig. Heilig’s technology, considered revolutionary (Media Art Net, 2005), remains the elemental form of immersive visualisation systems. Over time, inventors and researchers, such as Jeffrey Shaw, have attempted to perfect the immersive visualisation system and add elements of interactivity.
For the film industry, this type of technology, used on a mass scale, could revolutionise cinema patronage and the narrative form of film, most commonly used in major studio productions.
Morton Heilig (born in 1926-1997) was a noted American filmmaker and inventor, who is often touted as the “father of virtual reality�? (Utterson, 2005, p.vii). Heilig was interested in the creation of technology for experience theatre throughout his career as an award winning filmmaker (Morton Heilig, 2005). Later in his career, Heilig became interested in the cinema of the future, teaching courses on the possibility of future versions of Immersive Visualisation Systems at the University of Southern California in 1978 (Morton Heilig, 2005).
Heilig patented some of the earliest technologies for immersive visualisation systems, including the Sensorama, Telesphere Mask and Experience Theatre.
The Sensorama is a syn-aesthetic immersive arcade machine invented by Heilig in 1957 and patented in 1962. This small cinema system was made possible by two of Heilig’s other inventions, the Sensorama Motion Picture Projector and the Sensorama 3-D Motion Picture Camera (Morton Heilig, 2005).
This technology was considered revolutionary for the period, and utilized stereophonic sound and music, stereoscopic film, artificial breezes, vibrations, tactile-feedback handlebars and olfactory stimulation to create the immersive experience (Silverman, 1995).
This device allows immersion for the viewer and a basic form of interactivity through the stimulation of involuntary senses. This is the most famous of Heilig's inventions but was not considered commercially viable (Media Art Net, 2005).
The Telesphere mask is the first head mounted film viewing system and was patented by Heilig in 1960. The device provided the viewer with stereoscopic TV, wide vision and stereo sound through ear phones (Morton Heilig, 2005). The design of the mask was used as a base for the virtual reality vision goggles still used today, most common in the computer gaming industry. This type of device allows the viewer total immersion in the film through 3D technology and by blocking out any peripheral vision.
Experience Theatre is a larger cinema style version of the Sensorama, invented and patented by Heilig in 1969. The cinema is fitted with a semi-spherical screen, with peripheral imagery to enhance the audience’s perceptions of immersion. The technology also uses directional sound, aromas, generated wind, temperature variations and body tilting of the seat (Morton Heilig, 2005). This technology is similar to motion simulators that are still used today for amusement park rides, flight and space simulators. This was an attempt to further the field of immersive film techniques and to create a more commercially suitable product. This format is still used in some cinemas worldwide, and can be linked to some technologies still used by IMAX.
Jeffrey Shaw (born in Melbourne, Australia 1994) is a prolific media artist who has worked with both art installations and film, pioneering interactivity and virtuality techniques since the 1960s (Shaw, 2005). In 1991, Shaw was the founding director of the Institute for Visual Media at the ZKM or Centre for Art and Media in Karlsruhe, Germany. In 2003, Shaw received the Commonwealth Governments Federation Fellowship for Scientific Research and moved to the UNSW, Sydney, to establish the Centre for Interactive Cinema Research (iCinema).
Established in 1993, E.V.E is an installation and research and development project headed by Shaw at the ZKM, Germany. The immersive visualisation system exists inside a nine meter high inflatable hemisphere. Viewers wear a helmet, including a spatial tracking device (Shaw 1996). This device analyses the angle of the viewers vision which then moves a robotic arm holding the projector positioned in the middle of the sphere. The projected film sequence can then appear anywhere in the sphere that the viewer is looking, creating the illusion of total immersion.
A.V.I.E is an upgraded and advanced version of E.V.E., which allows greater interactive devices. The infra-red multi person tracking devices, and the use of real time software incorporated into the design of the 360° environment, generates exact models of the people inside (Shaw and Del Favero, 2004). These models are then projected onto the screen and incorporated into the film sequence. This allows greater interaction between the screen characters and viewers, as well as greater audience participation. This type of immersive system and interactive environment is thought to be the ultimate form of existing and interacting in virtual reality (Murray, 2001, p.60).
Heilig, M. (2005) “The Cinema of the Future�?, in A. Utterson, (ed.) Technology and Culture: The Film Reader, USA: Routledge, In Focus, pp. 17-25 ISBN 0415319854.
Media Art Net (2005) Morton Heilig - Sensorama retrieved October, 7, 2005, from http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/sensorama/
Morton Heilig. (2005) The Father of Virtual Reality retrieved July 28, 2005, from http://www.mortonheilig.com/index.html
Murray, J.H. (2001) Hamlet on the Holodeck: The future of Narrative in Cyberspace, New York: MIT Press ISBN 0262631873
Shaw, J, and Del Favero, D. (2004) AVIE- Advanced Visualisation and Interaction Environment retrieved October, 7, 2005, from http://icinema.cofa.unsw.edu.au/projects/prj_avie.html
Shaw, J. (1996) Extended Virtual Environment retrieved October, 7, 2005, from http://www.medienkunstnetz.de/works/eve/
Shaw, J. (2005) Jeffrey Shaw Online retrieved October, 7, 2005 from http://www.jeffrey-shaw.net/
Silverman, M.L. (1995) The History of Virtual Reality March 5, retrieved October 5, 2005, from http://www.sexuality.org/1/incoming/vrsex.html
Utterson, A. (ed.) (2005) Technology and Culture: The Film Reader, USA: Routledge, In Focus. ISBN 0415319854.
Courtney Ayre 13:00, 24 Oct 2005 (EST)
