Interface[s] Montréal

Immersion and Virtual Reality

Luc Courchesne

Université de Montréal, École de Design Industriel and Ideaction

Panoscope 360°

View the presentation [In French]

The 360 Panoscope is an immersive system consisting of a projector with hemispheric lens placed above the spectator, and a hemispherically-shaped projection screen placed immediately below the projector. Thus the center of the space corresponds to the positioning of the projector. The panoramic anamorphic image that is projected makes the original visual field in which the deformation(s) have been repaired/corrected apparent to the observer (who is situated at the centre of the upside down dome).

The advantage of this system is that it considerably simplifies the production and presentation of panoramic and immersive content. It offers a viable and advantageous alternative to the Cave type of systems, which are very expensive, and also to the video headsets (head-mounted displays) which do not permit several persons to share the same physical space. The mono-channel panoramic imagery should enable the accelerated development of video-game applications, and of the simulation, telepresence and teleimmersion of artistic creation, as well as other still-unknown applications which will emerge from the simplicity of this system.

*Where are you? An immersive existence simulator and telepresence apparatus for the Panoscope 360° (single channel
immersive display for real-time 3D)*

Based in Montreal, Luc Courchesne is professor of design at Université de Montréal and president of the Society for Art and Technology.

His work has been shown extensively in galleries and museums worldwide: Sydney’s Art Gallery of New South Wales, New York’s Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo’s InterCommunication Center (ICC), Paris' La Villette, Karlsruhe’s ZKM/Medienmuseum, Montréal’s Musée d’art contemporain… His instalaltions are part of the collections of the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), the ZKM/Medienmuseum (Karlsruhe), the NTT Intercommuncation Center (Tokyo) and of the Museum of Communication (Bern). Luc Courchesne was awarded the Grand Prix of the ICC Biennale ’97 in Tokyo and an Award of Distinction at Pris Ars Electronica 1999 in Linz, Austria.