Organization:AlloSphere

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The AlloSphere Research Facility
Elings Hall.jpg
Elings Hall which houses The AlloSphere, August 2013
Established2007; 17 years ago (2007)
Field of research
Technology, multimedia, sciences, art, design
DirectorJoAnn Kuchera-Morin
LocationSanta Barbara, California, United States
CampusUniversity of California, Santa Barbara
Websitehttp://www.allosphere.ucsb.edu/

The AlloSphere is a research facility in a theatre-like pavilion in a spherical shape, of opaque material, used to project computer-generated imagery and sounds. Included are GIS, scientific, artistic, and other information.[1] Located at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) the AlloSphere grew out of the schools of electrical engineering and computer science, and the Media Arts & Technology program at UCSB.[2]

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

References

External links


[ ⚑ ] 34°24′57″N 119°50′23″W / 34.41578°N 119.8398°W / 34.41578; -119.8398