State Library of NSW
FIELD OF VIEW
Interactive 3D and VR Experience
Field of View is the result of a research fellowship undertaken at the DX Lab, the State Library of NSW’s digital innovation lab. The experimental interactive work sets historic photography within a LiDAR scan of the environment where the photographs were originally taken. Central to the idea was that the user could then view the different photographs from the photographer’s perspective.
LiDAR scanning isn’t separate to photography, but a younger sibling of it - photography with depth. With this in mind, the project explores not just the content of the photography, but the development of the medium itself.
There are two variations of the experience - a traditional screen version and a VR version, allowing different means of perceiving space to influence the UX design. In both experiences the user is able to explore the point cloud and move freely throughout it.
In the screen version the user is able to fly, controlling their gliding movement with arcade game controllers, while in the VR version the user teleports themselves using a VR controller to cast a line to their destination.
Entering a pink orb places the user in front of a historic photograph in the exact position the photographer stood decades earlier, bridging the past and present.
To read more about the project, see this post on the DX Lab blog.
Artist & Programmer: Mike Daly
Special thanks to Paula Bray, Kaho Cheung, Luke Dearnley, Kate Curr, Geoffrey Barker, Robin Phua and Dr John Vallance, as well as the DX Lab and the State Library of NSW.