Dr. JoAnn Kuchera-Morin, chief designer of the facility, composer, and media artist with over thirty filve years of experience in media systems engineering, outlines the vision for our research.
Etherial: A Quantum Composition & Installation featured at ISEA, Gwangju, Republic of Korea. Also can be viewed at the California NanoSystems Institute's AlloPortal and AlloSphere.
Our Team is led by Dr. Kuchera-Morin (Director, Inventor, & Lead Researcher) of the Allosphere Research Group. Dr. Andres Cabrera as Media Systems Engineer, Dennis Adderton as Technical Director. And the AlloSphere Team.
Dr. JoAnn Kuchera-Morin Group is available to discuss future collaborations.
Our Facility
The AlloSphere is a one-of-a-kind immersive instrument that is the culmination of 30 years of Professor JoAnn Kuchera-Morin’s creativity and research efforts in media systems and studio design. It is differentiated from conventional virtual reality environments by its seamless surround-view capabilities, ability to accommodate 30 or more people simultaneously in a shared virtual world with no loss of self, and its focus on multiple sensory modalities and interaction.
Professor Kuchera-Morin worked with renowned architect Robert Venturi from 2001-2003 to plan the AlloSphere within the 62,000 square foot California NanoSystems Institute building (Elings Hall) at the University of California, Santa Barbara. McKay Conant Hoover, Inc. served as the acoustical consultant firm, while Auerbach and Associates were involved in the visual consulting process. During the extensive meetings with the architects and design consultants the construction plans for the instrument underwent many changes as nothing like this facility had ever been built before.
The AlloSphere instrument consists of a 3-story cube that is treated with extensive sound absorption material making it one of the largest near-to-anechoic chambers in the world. Standing inside this chamber is a 5-meter-radius sphere constructed of perforated aluminum that is designed to be optically opaque and acoustically transparent. High-resolution stereoscopic projectors are mounted unobtrusively below the bridge and above the walkway entrances, approaching eye-limited resolution and covering almost the entire screen surface. A multichannel loudspeaker system is suspended behind the aluminum screen to provide full-surround 3-D audio driven by real-time sound synthesis and spatialization. Computation clusters include simulation, sensor-array processing, real-time videoprocessing for motion-capture and visual computing, render-farm/real-time ray-tracing and radiosity cluster, and content and prototyping environments.
The AlloSphere can accommodate dozens of researchers concurrently. As you and your colleagues stand on the bridge of the AlloSphere, you will be immersed in scientific simulations, data visualizations, and artistic content.
Directions to the AlloSphere Research Facility 2621 @ Elings Hall
Take Ward Memorial Boulevard (Highway #217) to the main entrance of UCSB.
The building immediately in front of you with the Kandinsky graphic is the California NanoSystems Institute (Elings Hall). Bear right before the traffic circle. Quickly get into the left lane and turn left at signal into Parking Structure 10.
Find a visitor parking space (marked Coastal Access on the lower levels) and follow the instructions to obtain a parking permit from the vending machine, marked in red on the map below. Enter the California NanoSystems Institute, at the entrance adjacent to the parking garage.
Take the stairs or elevator to the second floor and enter the AlloSphere in room 2621.
