Heilig’s invention was also a useful means to train people in, for example, military or flight simulations. Offering what he called “a completely new approach to the overall problem of realism,” the Sensorama created a highly immersive view that would go beyond what was then available. Since even 3D movies at the time only used “one-twelfth of a viewer’s field of vision,” it meant that “objects floating in space [were] disagreeably truncated by the picture’s frame,” preventing the most “life-like” experience Heilig sought to create.
Creating more immersive virtual reality
A little more than 200 years after Barker’s panoramas opened to the public, virtual reality arcade games would create a similar stir in London.
Less than a mile away from where Barker built his panoramas in Leicester Square, visitors to the Trocadero in London lined up to experience interactive virtual reality via arcade headsets. Today, immersing viewers in a 360-degree view no longer requires a custom-built rotunda or even an arcade.
As detailed as those early panoramas often were, it is now almost trivially easy to add layers of highly realistic detail with the aid of 3D computer software, inviting viewers to examine even the smallest details while also featuring accurate shadows, immersive sound effects, and day-to-night transformations.
In fact, designers who wish to create the most immersive experiences for clients do not even need to learn a new software program—now that 3D design software is able to support virtual reality, designers can create a fully interactive 3D design, and then task the software with the work of preparing it to be explored in fully interactive virtual reality.
A growing industry
The comparative ease and affordability of virtual reality today is reflected in the growth of the industry. According to one report, more than one million people used the most common consumer virtual reality headset in April 2016.
Another study suggests the virtual reality industry will grow to see “$38 billion in annual revenues by 2026,” with new platforms, accessories, and content creating and bolstering consumer demand for virtual reality experiences.
Of course, many have speculated before that virtual reality was right on the cusp of taking off. For example, the 1992 issue of Computer Gaming World, discussing some of those virtual reality arcade games in London, suggested this technology would become affordable within two years. The games “took cyberspace out of the NASA labs and put it into the arcades,” creating “an entirely new gaming medium rather than just a new game.”
That experience, however, came with a significant price tag ($60,000) which put it out of reach for most people. While it took closer to two decades, rather than just two years, for virtual reality headsets to come within range of the $500 price which was suggested in the 1992 article, today virtual reality is an affordable option, even with the best hardware, and the fastest processing power.
Layering instead of immersing: Augmented reality
Had Barker been able to look forward to a time when his immersive panoramas could go beyond just giving what he called a glimpse of nature, he might have been amazed by the prospect of inviting viewers to not just see his panoramas, but actively add to and transform them.
Unlike virtual reality, which places the viewer into an entirely new ‘virtual’ world, augmented reality adds a new layer atop the real world. In fact, the latter is already in use, most notably in industries that require extraordinary care and attention to detail.
For example, vein imaging devices help medical professionals place IVs quickly and, “as early as 1990, assembly workers at Boeing were wearing see-through head displays that superimposed computerized images of where to place the wires on the 777 aircraft, which saved them from looking back and forth at their manuals.”
Soon after, NASA’s Ames Research Center worked to create an “immersive virtual reality work bench” that would help doctors, with the aid of 3D glasses, “predict what the result will be in a real operation.”
For pool and landscape designers, augmented reality will soon offer similarly compelling new ways to communicate with clients as well as subcontractors. Because it is overlaid on top of what is already visible, it is a powerful way to enhance what clients can already see instead of immersing them in an alternate, virtual reality. Augmented reality can feel completely seamless—the pool will really seem like it is directly in front of the client, right in their backyard.
Homeowners will be able to see every detail, at scale, right around them. Designers will soon be able to use augmented reality applications to place, move, and change elements of a design immediately, not with clicks of the mouse on a screen, but by using simple, intuitive hand gestures and a tablet.
Much like the aircraft workers and medical professionals who came to rely on superimposed images to achieve the most accurate results, designers will be able to use augmented reality to superimpose the details of their pool and landscape design directly on their client’s lawn, sharing the view not just with homeowners before finalizing a project, but also with the entire team to make sure the project is built exactly as planned.
That ability to seamlessly shape and transform elements instantly, without the intermediary of, for example, a computer and mouse, might also benefit designers by enhancing creativity and sparking even more innovative solutions. Researchers studying the benefits of doodling suggest that, when “struggling to concentrate” or otherwise feeling “stuck,” doodling can “more creatively and tirelessly solve a problem at hand.”
With augmented reality apps soon to be on the market, sketching—or doodling—pools or meandering garden walks might offer designers a new creative path.
