AlloSphere
Research laboratory at the University of California, Santa Barbara
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The AlloSphere Research Facility (branded as AlloSphere) is a research laboratory at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Housed in a theater-like pavilion with a spherical structure made of opaque material, it is designed to project computer-generated imagery and sound. The facility is used for a wide range of applications, including geographic information systems (GIS), scientific research, artistic exploration, and other forms of data visualization.[1] The AlloSphere grew out from the university's departments of electrical engineering and computer science and the media arts and technology program.[2]
Elings Hall which houses The AlloSphere, August 2013 | |
| Established | 2007 |
|---|---|
Field of research | Technology, multimedia, sciences, art, design |
| Director | JoAnn Kuchera-Morin |
| Location | Santa Barbara, California, United States |
| Campus | University of California, Santa Barbara |
| Website | allosphere |
The AlloSphere is housed at UCSB California NanoSystems Institute[3] building, "CNSI," or Elings Hall, a 62,000-square-foot (5,800 m2) facility that opened in 2007.[4] The AlloSphere is intended to integrate technology and media.[5]
The AlloSphere includes a three-story cube that has been insulated extensively with sound-absorbing material, making it one of the largest echo-less chambers in the world. Within the chamber are two hemispheres of 5 meter radii, made of perforated aluminum. These are opaque and acoustically transparent.[6]
There are 26 video projectors, to create as much of a field of vision as possible.[6]
The loudspeaker real-time sound synthesis cluster (140 individual speaker elements plus sub-woofers) is suspended behind the aluminum screen resulting in 3-D audio. Computation clusters include simulation, sensor-array processing, real-time video processing for motion-capture and visual computing, render-farm/real-time ray-tracing and radiosity cluster, and content and prototyping environments.[6]
The AlloSphere was developed by a team of scientists, led primarily by Professor JoAnn Kuchera-Morin, a professor in the field of Composition, of the Media Arts & Technology Program of UCSB.[6]
Selected publications
- The AlloSphere Offers an Interactive Experience of Nano-sized Worlds https://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=121535&WT.mc_id=USNSF_1
- Research at the AlloSphere Facility https://www.nsf.gov/news/mmg/mmg_disp.jsp?med_id=73444
- Equipping the AlloSphere, an Environment for Immersive Data Exploration https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0855279
- Big Data's People-Changing Machine https://www.forbes.com/sites/quentinhardy/2011/07/11/big-datas-people-changing-machine/
- Marriage of Science & Art https://web.archive.org/web/20160302151948/http://www.ucsbalum.com/Coastlines/2011/Summer/feature_allosphere.html
- Living Data: The Three-Story-High AlloSphere Creates Unique Visualizations http://www.technologyreview.com/photoessay/420413/living-data/
- Sensory Overloader: 3-D Tower Lets Researchers Climb Inside Their Data https://www.wired.com/2010/05/st_allosphere/?pid=2039
- A 360-Degree Virtual Reality Chamber Brings Researchers Face to Face with Their Data https://www.wired.com/2010/05/st_allosphere/?pid=2039
- Enter the AlloSphere: Inside UCSB's Three-Dimensional Immersive Theater, the 21st Century Face of Our Discipline-Bending University http://www.independent.com/news/2008/nov/06/enter-allosphere/