Yesterday, Dreamscape Immersive opened it’s first location-based immersive experience, “Alien Zoo”. It is open now through March 2. This project has been hidden up until now so no real information is available at this moment in time. Until I have an opportunity to experience it for myself, we’ll need to depend on the reports from fellow explorers.
What I do know can be found on their website, http://www.dreamscapeimmersive.com/index.html. The participants can share their experience with up to six others and should take about 40 minutes. I don’t know if the layout will be an open sand box or if you will be confined to a specific platform. The concept art suggest the group will be bound to a motion controlled vehicle which will tilt and swivel in place as the platform guides the participants through the experience. Participants will be equipped with backpack computer and head mounted display, gloves and shoe coverings. These components tell me that Dreamscape Immersive is utilizing Vicon tracking technology to not only track HMDs but also hands and feet and most probably waist movement as well. This means participants will be able to see and observe their own avatars as well as observe and potentially interact with the avatars of other participants. Because of the Vicon tracking participants will be able to interact with props and sets and, potentially, interactors within the experience. The interactors are teased as Megaraffes, giant brontosaurus-like giraffes, Frogcats, which should drive merchandising wild and the spider-like Sicari which will add a bit of interactive danger to the experience.
As mentioned, this experience will be using Vicon tracking technology. This should deliver a truer one to one physical experience than the Void’s “Secrets of the Empire”. Instead of tracking head and gun position and partially tracking hands, Dreamscape Immersive should be able to lock on to a physically accurate interactive experience with everything in the environment. This sounds really interesting! Also of note, Dreamscape Immersive provides specially tracked wheel chairs for physically impaired participants. This sounds like a great way to include handicapped folks and have them integrate naturally with the experience. This is a very interesting approach to the throughput puzzle.
I am very excited to test this new experience out! It will only be around for a few weeks and no doubt be replaced by another groovy interactive experience. Way to go gang!
