Concept Liquid Galaxy "cockpit" frame

[Jason Holt]

I've had this idea for a next-generation liquid galaxy frame rattling around in my head for quite a while now, and finally mocked it up in sketchup.

The models are just sketches -- all the geometry is very approximate.

Design goals:

• Put the screens where people are looking.  Currently people spend almost no time looking at the side and back screens, although I'm convinced that getting into our peripheral vision is important for immersivity.
• Use newer, bigger screens.  70" in this case (the little touchscreen you see in the models is actually a 42" screen!)
• Putting the screens in landscape orientation lets us avoid an annoying VSYNC bug in the nvidia driver.  It also matches the content better -- we want to look at the horizon, not the sky.
• Uses fewer screens

There are two variants on screen placement:

• The more conventional "cockpit" arrangement has the main screen mounted vertically, like a normal TV.
• The "saucer" variant angles the main screen upward, along with the left and right screens.  This draws the focus downward, which is where it probably should be, since Earth is about looking at the ground, not the sky.  The left and right screens are in a funky orientation, with their outside edges way up in the air, but if we don't do that, then their edges won't line up with the main screen.

In the "cockpit" model I've also included a "shroud" -- a black background that blocks out visual distractions and creates a sense of being inside a special place, not just standing in a lobby looking at TVs.  The shroud was tricky to draw in sketchup, so don't read too much into how I've drawn it -- all I'm trying to show is that I want to create a little cave-shaped space for people to walk into.

And don't be confused -- I want a shroud regardless of what screen placement we go with.  I'm just too lazy to try to draw one in the "saucer" model.

[Andrew Leahy]

thanks for this Jason. If only they made triangular screens, huh?

I've been fiddling with sketches for something similar too. We're about to get a stack of 4:3 aspect LCD's (ex SunRay thin client screens) that I'm hoping to setup in a similiar fashion with a top and bottom screens. Also toying with a three row design - won't be as wrapped as most rigs but will "slightly curve" horizontally and vertically.

These screens are tiny 17" diagonal, so it's just a proof of concept. As no one will seriously want to use it!


re: VSYNC. I've thought about this as well. One kinda solution - physically rotate the screens, DON'T rotate the display drivers, and then rotate the Google Earth views by 90degrees in drivers.ini
Note: You have to put up with any text/UI elements being sideways.
Interestingly Microsoft Virtual Earth layers work great for this as text elements are rendered as part of the tile imagery and are always aligned to the ground North.

Andrew
eResearch / Uni of Western Sydney