Ten Bulls makes its premiere in the Immersive Room of the Imaging
Research Center. This is the first installation created by students
in the Visual Arts program to be presented in these new facilities.
The Immersive Room is approximately ten feet wide
by ten feet deep with black painted walls. An eight foot wide by six
foot high rear projection screen fills one wall. Behind this wall
another room contains two aligned data projectors and a mirror which
reflects the projection back onto the screen for increased throw for
the large screen size.
Ten Bulls runs in real time generated by a Pentium
IV computer with a high-end Nvidia graphics card. The 3D graphics
are rendered as a page-flipped active stereo signal from the computer
and sent to a Cyvis XPO.1 active-to-passive signal converter which
translates the signal to two discreet left- and right-eye images.
Each image is then projected by one of two data projectors using polarized
filters in the light path. The viewer wears polarized stereo glasses
to view the 3D effect.
Spatialized audio is used in Ten Bulls. The Immersive
Room is outfitted with four audio speakers, one in each corner of
the room, and a subwoofer mounted on the floor. Using a Creative Soundblaster
audio card with four channel audio capability, the viewer hears the
sound of the flowing river in front of them or behind as they move
through the environment. Other ambient sounds move around the room
as the viewer explores the virtual world. The bull can be located
by hearing its call off in the distance.
Navigation of the virtual world is achieved by the
use of a flashlight to lead the viewer's way through the nighttime
scenery. The viewer holds a flashlight, swinging it side to side to
turn, or pressing the buttons on top to move forward or back. A cone
of light in the virtual world illuminates objects in its path as the
cones movement synchronizes with the movement of the viewer's handheld
flashlight. Input with the flashlight is achieved by using a wireless
gyroscopic mouse device embedded in the flashlight.
