AlloSphere - 360-degree Virtual Reality Chamber
The AlloSphere is a one-of-a-kind scientific instrument that bridges the worlds of engineering, science and art. Created by Professor JoAnn Kuchera-Morin and architect Robert Venturi in 2007, the AlloSphere allows researchers to come face-to-face with their scientific data, thus providing an entirely new way to see, hear and interpret information.
Located in the 62,000 square-foot "California Nanosystems Institute" building at the University of California Santa Barbara, the AlloSphere is essentially a giant digital microscope hooked up to a supercomputer. Here, researchers can walk onto a bridge in the center of a "virtual reality chamber" and watch their scientific data come to life.
For instance, an MRI scan of a brain can turn into an otherworldly experience. Scientists are "shrunken" down to the size of their data, as 360-degree 3-D projections of the brain are displayed and musical notes are affixed to certain blood density levels. As the scientists "move" throughout the brain, the projected images correspond in real-time, and the musical notes (and therefore blood density levels) change accordingly.