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 Types of Applications
- Cultural institutions, such as museums, science centers and art galleries, wanting to be more accessible and relevant to the public
- Tourist attractions, wanting extra attractions and revenue streams, and requiring a contingency for bad weather
- Historical and archeological sites, needing to preserve what remains and bring the past to life
- Zoos and aquariums, where births, feedings and appearances etc that only happen occasionally can be viewed at all times
Example Applications
The Digital Binocular Station can be uniquely applied to the following applications:
- Time shifting - if you turn up at a location and it is raining, or you missed a performance, or it is the wrong time of year - the DBS can still offer an experience of it.
- Physically impossible, due to safety, budgetary or physical constraints. Imagine looking at a real volcano and seeing it explode, seeing a bare hillside become a modern city, or looking down on the deck of a decommissioned aircraft carrier and seeing it in full battle action.
- Contextual education - get a better understanding of technical subjects like statistics, economics, ethnography, by seeing it visualised over a city or impacting the city directly.
- Digital and 3D art - the DBS can let these artforms break out of the confines of the computer and static 2D prints, and into the real world alongside traditional sculpture and performance.
Types of Usable Content
Content can come from the following sources:
- Photography and video of the real world.
- Hand painted/drawn objects and backdrops.
- 2D and 3D computer generated imagery.
- Text and visualisation of datasets.
- Combinations of all of the above.
Example Content
Content can include the following topics:
- Historical recreations of Auckland geology or society. The viewer could turn back time themselves.
- Future projections or ‘alternative realities’ of San Diego.
- Different views of London (e.g. the city lights at night, the constellations in the stars, visualisations of: wind flow, population density, real estate values).
- A view into entirely different locations, worlds or environments. Can be at human-scale, microscopic (e.g. within a bacteria) or macroscopic (e.g. seeing the solar system).
- Zoom in to see individual objects or people. Zoom out to see the whole city. Fly the viewer from place to place.
- Artistic environments, or sculptures that can be impossibly large or complex. Events can be triggered by simply looking in certain places.
- Tie-ins to cinema properties (e.g. King Kong, Spiderman).
Example Scenario
You and your family enter the Maori Village and see an elegant binocular station with an overhead screen. The screen shows you that this is no ordinary binocular station – it will in fact make the surrounding village come to life. You decide to insert a two dollar coin in the slot, and then take a look through the eyepiece. You immediately notice that in addition to the real village you can see a number of extra things – people, objects, and a pulsing glow around some items. The village and everything in it appears to have depth – like the real world, and unlike watching a TV screen.
You move the binocular station to look at a glowing warrior and after a moment the warrior looks straight at you and shouts a war cry! Wow, the realism is impressive – your family exclaims behind you and you take a glance around the eyepiece to make sure he is not really there. The warrior then takes a fighting stance with a staff and begins to approach you, in a fearsome performance. A narration informs you that the staff is a taiaha, and that he is performing a whero – challenging you to ensure it is safe to let you into his village. The warrior gets closer, until it feels like he is only a metre or two away, then he removes a feather from his belt and places it on the ground, inviting you to pick it up. Satisfied that you are not an enemy he signals by slapping his thigh for you to follow him safely into his village, and he disappears behind some buildings.
You are quite taken and want a moment to digest this, so you gesture to your daughter to take your place at the station. She stands on the raised rail so that she is tall enough to use the eyepiece. Your daughter notices a waka (Maori canoe) on the bank of the river. After looking at it for a moment, it transforms into a stylised, digital waka, and the background becomes the open ocean. You join the rest of your family looking at the screen above the eyepiece and watch as the waka encounters a storm, capsizes and becomes the South Island of New Zealand.
The rest of the family takes turns at the station, watching as villagers prepare food and weapons, children play games, and various objects reveal fascinating legends. When you are finished, your family then wanders around the village, exploring various details and more deeply understanding their meaning and relevance to the Maori culture thanks to the visuals and narration you have just seen.
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