Panamorphosis Table: Non-immersive, bodily interaction with panoramas Aldo Hoeben fieldOfView aldo@fieldofview.com
Ianus Keller For Inspiration Only ianus@forinspirationonly.com
Abstract Panoramic imagery has a rich history of techniques and technologies to achieve full immersion in the subject matter. The boundaries of immersion have been pushed so far as to achieve motion sickness and disorientation. The Panamorphosis Table is a simple alternative approach to experiencing panoramic media, that allows multiple viewers to experience a virtual environment simultaneously, using their whole bodies in interacting with the environment, while providing a lighter, less intrusively immersive experience of panoramic imagery.
1. Introduction In the traditional painted panorama the illusion of experiencing another environment is achieved by putting the viewer in an all surrounding 360 degrees painting from a central viewpoint, providing an immersive experience. Looking around is done by moving oneself around the viewpost. In the mid 1990s, Apple introduced QuicktimeVR as a way to experience photorealistic panoramas on a desktop computer by interactively unwrapping a panoramic image[1]. Though the bodily interaction was lost, the immersive aspects remain, sometimes even at the cost of VR sickness. First introduced in the Baroque, the catoptric anamorphosis uses a cylindrical or conical shaped mirror to restore an anamorphic picture to its undistorted form. The distorted images were mostly those of intricate geometric shapes or animals. Specially distorted panoramic images, in a stereographic projection, can be similarly undistorted with a cylindrical mirror, resulting in a tiny depiction of the original scene. The mirror warps radial lines into vertical lines and concentric lines into horizontal lines, making the perspective illusion.
Fig. 1: Examples of stereographic projections of 360° panoramic photos. Stereographic projections of panoramas, or “small planets” (see fig. 1), have recently been made popular on photo sharing sites. Panorama optics, such as the Kaidan 360 One VR, enable shooting video in stereographic projection. The donut-shaped video stream can be warped back into a more traditional cylindrical projection using special software. The distorted results however have their own interesting aesthetics, and can also be used in catoptric anamorphosis.
2. Panamorphosis Table The Panamorphosis Table is a setup that allows viewers to experience full 360° panoramic videos and still images in an accessible, non-intrusive manner. It consists of a round table with a rear projection surface and a cylindrical mirror in the center (see fig. 2).
Fig. 2: Schematics of the Panamorphosis Table with projector, mirror and cylindrical mirror and the camera setup for recording video. Full 360° panoramic videos and still images
are projected onto the surface in stereographic perspectives. A cylindrical mirror creates the perspective illusion. The surface of the table can be physically rotated, which is measured using an optical mouse mounted upside-down below the surface on the inside of the table. The rotation data allows simple interaction with the projection, such as rotating the view or seeking in the panoramic video. The curved mirror makes the reflected image highly dependent on the viewing angle. The authors attribute the magical transformation of the flat stereographic projection to ‘something that looks a lot more spatial than it should be’ to the fact that both eyes have a differing view, resulting in slightly mismatching perspectives and fooling our perception into seeing something spatial. The scale of the depiction is much smaller than lifesize and the horizon is below eye-level, making the experience more observational then immersive. Both the projected video on the surface and the perspective illusion in the mirror are visible. The view in the mirror is such a compelling experience that it becomes the dominant view. Even so, the view of the table surface remains useful as a peripheral view, extending the limited field of view shown in the mirror. Especially in applications with high optical flux, the distorted scene shows additional context that can be regarded as “corner of the eye” information. This peripheral view elicits moving around the table, or reaching out in a physical manner. The dimensions of the table were chosen in such a way that multiple observers can gather around the table (see fig. 3). The round shape of the table makes it direction agnostic; there is no dominant position around the table. Each observer sees a unique part of perspective illusion, though at the same time all observers share an experience of the same 360 degrees scene.
3. Possible applications In its current, bar-table sized incarnation the Panamorphosis Table is suitable as an ambient display. In a bar or the lobby of a restaurant, where people naturally gather, the display could work as a conversation starter, showing information about local events and attraction in an interesting, yet non-intrusive way. It could also be used to provide context and serendipitous inspiration during design and creative sessions. An additional class of applications is envisioned involving two Panamorphosis Tables in different locations with video capture optics added to each table. The view of one table is then transmitted to the other table, creating an ambient telepresence between the two locations. Panamorphosis Tables at two coffee corners in a company could facilitate serendipitous encounters of employees at different locations.
5. Conclusion The Panamorphosis Table works well as a low threshold and natural interface to panoramic media in a social setting. The goal of having a calm, nonintrusive way of experiencing panoramas that can be experienced by multiple people simultaneously in a familiar environment led to a device optimized to human capabilities on the physical, cognitive and social level [3]. The values of the Panamorphosis Table follow what Weiser describes as "calm technology" [4], which informs but doesn't demand focus or attention. However, because of its calmness, communicating the values of the Panamorphosis Table in a short demonstration is hard. As is typical with calm technology, it's living with a working prototype for a longer period that the concept reveals its value.
6. References
Fig. 3: People experiencing the Panamorphosis Table from the viewer’s and the table’s view.
[1] S.E. Chen, "Quicktime VR - an image based approach to virtual environment navigation," in Computer Graphics, Annual Conference Series, 1995, pp 29-38. [2] Buxton, W. (1991). “The three mirrors of interaction: a holistic aproach to user interfaces.” Proceedings of '91 International Symposium on Next Generation Human Interface, Tokyo, Japan, Nov. 25-27, 1991. [3] M. Weiser and J. S. Brown, "The Coming Age of Calm Technology," in Beyond Calculation: The Next Fifty Years of Computing, vol. 1, P. J. Denning and R. M. Metcalfe, Eds. New York: Copernicus Books, 1996, pp. 75-86.