David Borland's Molecular Viewer running in the Showcase Dome. Click for larger image.

The Showcase Dome at the UNC RENCI Engagement Center offers an immersive experience for users. The dome supports a  very wide Field of View (FOV), and promotes a strong sense of immersion, meaning that the viewer feels “immersed” in the data flow. This effect can be quite useful in analyzing spatial relationships between objects. The dome is already in use as a molecular viewer, as a showcase for art projects, and as a way to view immersive medical data. Upcoming users include UNC faculty in chemistry and gene therapy, as well as more arts and humanities users.

Morehead Staff using the Showcase Com. Click for larger image.

The image at the right shows staff from the Morehead Planetarium reviewing content for an upcoming show using the Showcase Dome at RENCI. RENCI staff have collaborated with the content creation team from the Morehead since early 2008 to provide feedback and to help guide the development of their new Planetarium show. RENCI’s Showcase Dome has been a key factor in this process, allowing the Morehead staff to review their work on a large immersive dome system that closely resembles their as-yet-unfinished new dome system.

Vis researchers examine an atomic sim. Click for larger image.

The Showcase Dome can be used to allow immersive viewing of both “canned” pre-rendered animated content and interactive real-time applications as well. The dome’s immersive qualities allow for a very good sense of 3D, and fully engages the normal visual sensorium. That is, the dome duplicates the natural 180°x180° field of view that we normally perceive. This close duplication of the natural human field of view also makes the dome a comfortable, accessible space. The Showcase Dome supports passive  anaglyph stereo for pre-rendered content.