Experiencing Audio and Music in a Fully Immersive Environment

Abstract

Abstract. The UCSB Allosphere is a 3-story-high spherical instrument in which virtual environments and performances can be experienced in full immersion. The space is now being equipped with high-resolution active stereo projectors, a 3D sound system with several hundred speakers, and with tracking and interaction mechanisms.The Allosphere is at the same time multimodal, multimedia, multi-user, immersive, and interactive. This novel and unique instrument will be used for research into scientific visualization/auralization and data exploration, and as a research environment for behavioral and cognitive scientists. It will also serve as a research and performance space for artists exploring new forms of art. In particular, the Allosphere has been carefully designed to allow for immersive music and aural applications.In this paper, we give an overview of the instrument, focusing on the audio subsystem. We give the rationale behind some of the design decisions and explain the different techniques employed in making the Allosphere a truly generalpurpose immersive audiovisual lab and stage. Finally, we present first results and our experiences in developing and using the Allosphere in several prototype projects.

A bibliometric analysis of the Journal of Molecular Graphics and Modelling: An update

“…History & Philosophy of Science) [20]; and the design of a system for experiencing virtual environments and performances (Behavioral Sciences, Computer Science Information Systems, Computer Science Theory & Methods, Music, Neurosciences, and Psychology Experimental) [21]. It must be emphasised that this behaviour is not specific to JMGM in any way since other such examples are described in analyses of citations to articles in the Journal of Mathematical Chemistry [6] and to articles about the Cambridge Crystallographic Database [7]; instead, it simply demonstrates the widespread impact of the research published in the journal.…”

Fusion confusion

“…Ambisonics is a method that reproduces a real soundfield previously recorded with microphones or synthesised. It virtually creates a 3D sound sphere around the listener [3] giving the impression of a real acoustic scene. Ambisonics consists in two stages.…”

Immersive full-surround multi-user system design

“…We have designed a series of loudspeaker layouts to support multiple sound spatialization techniques including Wavefield Synthesis (WFS), Ambisonics, Vector Based Array Panning (VBAP) and Distance Based Array Panning (DBAP) [30,31].…”