On a trip to the IADT, Clubhouse members could see the VLab, a new 3D system, and learn about its possibilities.
In "four wall technique", a virtual room is built using using abig cube made up of three walls and a floor that act as screens of four projectors. The images flicker at a very fast rate, and the user wears special goggles that toggle between the left and right eye at the same rate. The result is that the users' eyes receive two different images, arranged by a computer to create the illusion of a three-dimensional room. A similar method is used in 3D-cinema.
The main difference to 3D-cinema is that instead of one, there are four screens. The floor and the two additional walls make it possible to look down and around and to look at objects from different angles. The user feels he is within the illusion, not looking at it from the outside. We were in a simulation of an apartment that could be used, for example, by interior designers to try out different settings of apartments or to show them to potential customers.
There are cameras around the cubicle that track the movement of people in the room. That makes it possible to grab things in the virtual room and (pretend to) eat an apple. There was also a TV that could have been programmed to be switched on and off, or to show a real-life channel. Using a big remote control with blue LEDs, we could move around the room and even fly out the window.
The illusion works with more than one person in the room, though it is not perfect because the images are calculated for one specific point of view. It is good enough that two people could sit down on a sofa and they see each other sitting beside them.
Different instances of the cubicle can be linked so that people in different places appear in the same simulation and can see each other.
