It's a pretty obvious concept, really: take a semi-transparent dome and project an image on it. Then, stand in the middle and surround yourself with 180-degrees of gaming action. John Nilsson went and patented the concept and is now developing the jDome with an estimated cost of around $125-200. We have some serious reservations about this system, though. That $125-200 pre-order price tag doesn't come with a projector and you'll have to tweak your games' field of view setting to work with the round shape of the dome. What's more, the product assumes you're going to spend your game time standing in front of a dome. Criticisms aside, you can buy a prototype for a bit more -- $6,000 to be exact. Video of the jDome in action after the break.
posted May 12th 2008 11:53AM
This idea, only more professionally implemented and 100x less shitty, could be really cool.
Like.... ceiling mounted over my bed? totally!
Got to give them the thumbs up for using google sketchup tho
I agree. This is essentially where we're heading. Monitors/TVs are getting bigger and bigger, we moved to widescreen to get a more panoramic viewport, there's now even curved LCDs made for more immersive gaming. Eventually we'll just hop into a half-sphere (or maybe full-sphere), like Disneyland's panorama theater (or whatever the heck that thing was called).
the "pixels" toward the edges would be all stretched because of the curvature of the hemisphere. i fail to see how this is any better than a bigger monitor.
Like this perhaps.
The "iDome" provides a full, correct 180 field of view, no stretching.
http://local.wasp.uwa.edu.au/~pbourke/projection/UnityiDome/
The downside is that a game needs to be modified to create the fisheye projections
A good thing to buy if you want to ensure never getting a girlfriend....
http://www.engadget.com/2006/10/16/caption-contest-hmd-of-the-future/
You could probably still get a date with her!
Maybe you didn't pay attention to the inventor, but he was never in any danger of having a girlfriend.
That guy is genuinely creepy. I don't like looking at him.
I disagree I think the gaydome will prove your manliness to women!
a dorky logo and tag line arent helping matters either
all the i-______ products been invented. we've moved onto j-_____ now...
And words like what he said at 3:02 will further ensure it's demise.
"You are taking your first stepsss, into a larger world... Don't stand still..."
(There was extra stressss on nthe esses at the end of "stepsssss".)
at 1:01 it sounds like he is saying gay-dome. lol
I heard the same.
it seems like a good idea for Internet gaming cafe but the cost and having to stand and the room needed and the quality of the video and having to change the setting for every game....
ok its no longer a good idea, its simply an idea.
J-dome? I thought this had something to do with getting in on with a jewish girl. Man was I disappointed to see guy...
hahahaha another power glove.....just useless
I'd totally forgotten about the Power Glove! Surely the technology is here today to make a new one more awesome than ever before?
This is CRAP-tastic, I don't see how it would work very well unless games are programmed as such, the views become horribly distorted once you start leaving the center of the screen.
What game is that? It looks like half life 2.
Crysis. Ugh, this "dome", really skewed the edges of the screen.
Part of it is Half-Life 2, when he's talking about the peripheral vision and you see the image of the crane, that's half-life 2
Props to the guy for thinking this up and spending time meoney and effort on his dream and creation.
Having said that I think he's going for the wrong target market. The average consumer, even the hardcore simply will not buy this, for obvious reasons really i.e. size, cost (projector) e.t.c.
However there is a potential for him to sell it to places such as game conferences for booths and tournaments big LANs e.t.c.
I forgot to mention that as well as spending meony, he must have also spent a lot of money on it as well.
apologies.
Its crysis
Done well, this is pretty cool. Kinda like the hang glider ride in the California Adventure theme park at Disneyland. I don't know it this one could include the smell of oranges, though...
I'm going to sue this guy. I went to "gay dome dot com", like he said, and what I saw there was... well, lets just say that I'm now scarred for life. I have no idea what the contents of the site had to do with computer games...
I can't believe that you actually typed a URL with "gay" in and visited it.
What are Engadget readers all gay or something? Perhaps I should go somewhere else then.
jDome.... is that brought to you by the same people who do jDate?
Where the hell would you put that ugly ass thing? Re-tar-ded.
Um, yeah, you can stand "surround yourself" with action but it doesn't give you any more field of vision. You're seeing the same thing that you would on a flat screen... but I don't know anything about anything.
That's why you increase the fov setting in games.
good for pron now that i see it, surround yourself with 180 degrees of pron LMAO
Not sure what pron is but im sure I don't want to be surrounded by it!!!!!!!!!!!
LMAO PRON!!!11!!11!ONEONE.
Seriously, what's wrong with saying porn?
Epic fail presented by: Matt.
its funny when you say pron
porn is old now
porn = pron lol for the ones that are old school
So I epic fail because I can spell?
He meant 'pr0n'.
the prospect of said idea is quite risibile, indeed
This is a great idea. However, I suspect the cost of projectors will have to come down first in order to make this system more marketable to the average gamer. Perhaps an inexpensive Laser Video Projector would do the trick.
Not a bad idea but agree, needs refinement.
I'm pretty sure my university had a setup similar to this that used a old-skool-satellite-tv- dish sized dome and a DLP projector with a fish eye lens. Oh yeah, and that was back in 2003. With the image refreshing at 60hz the flickr was visible in your periphery vision which gave you one hell of a headache.
it looks like it makes the whole game into tunnel vision
So they finally stopped using the i-prefix, only to move onto j?
This is really easy to make. Just make a dome shaped wire frame and attach diffuser material or even cotton sheets to it. Im sure some places you could already buy cotton sheets in a dome shape so it would be seamless. And who said you have to remain standing? You can easily sit.
I think that if you combined this with binaural sound through headphones it would be very immersive. Like the mentioned ride at Disney World, called Soarin'.
We projected Space Invaders 360 on a hemispherical display at the ZKM Visitors’ Day in 2007 and the game is actually designed to run on it: http://www.toblux.de/blog/2007/10/25/space-invaders-360/
@ Prime,
Thank you for clarifying. I was outta the loop on that one!
Isn't it better if the dome was over the head? cockpit style total immersion
Its amazing what you can get a patent for these days!
Importantly the details of the patent are nowhere to be seen.
Projecting onto the back side of a dome screen is nothing new at all.
For a bit of prior art look at this commercial flight sim display system:
http://www.seos.com/RearProjected.shtml
So badly presented too, I mean your supposed to be immersed in 180degrees of dome (but he's only using a 120degree FOV), the light fall off is appallingly bad round the edge, so why make it a 180degree dome in the first place?
Lastly in the video his head is not even close to the center of the dome, which basically makes all the rest of the distortions even worse!
He may be keen, but knows very little about projection and dome environments...
Anyone interested in doing this today, go buy a clear acrylic dome from here:
http://www.ukplasticfabrication.co.uk/acatalog/Acrylic_Domes.html
Buy some glass frosting spray paint, do one nice even coat over the outside surface of the dome and hey presto! Works like a dream...
Blimey I might set up OpenDome.org opensource solutions to ridiculous patent applications...
May be worth doing. I'm all for screwing over the people trying to milk ridiculous patents.
And really as long as the individual does the work, it's legal, so you just have to empower them.
Try to make the DIY segway documentation more user friendly and get it on there. That's one that can cut total cost by 2/3.
How is this even remotely patentable? People have been projecting onto domes for decades. I recall a fun disney ride when I was a child that was projected onto a dome. Then of course there was the "back to the future" from the 90's that was projected onto a dome. This reeks. You fail, JDome guy.
i think one of the biggest obstacles here is that I would have to get used to moving my head. right now i move my mouse. i'd need some serious 7.1sound /mouse/head/eye/hand co-ordination......done right it sounds like a LOT of fun.
I saw one of these about oh, 8 years ago. They were used in CAD/CAM and virtual walk throughs.
After hours, we used it to play Sin.
I can't remember the manufacturer though.
so... this is like a mini Imax Dome.... not exactly revolutionary, though it has promise. Some things are missing here, though.
A) Where and for what price are you going to get a projector that has enough resolution that a "screen" of this size right in front of your face doesn't look like total crap?
B) Wouldn't said projector most likely be in a widescreen (16:9 or 16:10) aspect-ratio, so by projecting it onto a circular screen (kinda a 1:1 aspect ratio with the corners cut off) wouldn't you lose an incredible amount of sideways real-estate?
C) I, for one, would not enjoy standing for three hours while I try to beat COD4 in one shot. What is keeping this thing from being set on a desk? I am not exactly a couch potato (I am actually a competitive athlete), but I'd rather be moving if I have to be on my feet.
D) This thing is unbelievably fugly.
Anyone agree?
I totally agree!
Suggestions:
A) A projector with enough pixels? Full-HD or similar resolution projector (4:3 ratio recommended) should do the trick but you'll need a very good (read expensive) PC to be able to run games in high res.
B) Eclipse-like screen with 16:9 or 16:10 ratio would be MUCH better! Because we humans have 2 eyes, not one (well, at least most of us).
C) Nobody makes you stand in front of it, its just a concept, remember?
D) Picture quality will be way different compared to LCD. Much worse, to be exact, so you won't need a good projector. Anything with high resolution will do.
The idea is really nice but we've seen lots of similar ideas already. This one has a competitive price but you'll need additional hardware (good for people with a projector, bad for the rest).
That thing takes up alot of space and besides how would you split screen? You just would not.
and if I am going to purchase a projection setup I want to beable to watch movies with friends and family.
so not for me and I could build one for cheaper and cleaner looking.
Ok I checked the site and I was wondering, why would anybody donate to support a commercial product?
john should print that gay-dome logo couple inches lower on his t - there's some dome that probably gave him this brilliant idea
This is cool. And think about having two domes, one on the front and one on the back. Then you got 360 degrees view!!!
Plus add in a chair with rumble and a 7.2 speaker set. That would be awesome!!
Anyway, it's a too simple construction to patent, it's more like a community project like Johnny Lee's Wii stuff.
meh.... I guess i would play Doom on it
You can tell the engadget writers are mac users by how they title their articles. It's quite funny actually :)
'Oh, this is great, but you'll /look/ rediculous.'
'This is awesome if you don't mind looking like a retard.'
'Looks handy, but fugly at the same time.'
'What self conscious technophile would buy this? Not us.'
I don't associate with mac users, so where I come from, it's function over form.
And yes, you can attain user friendliness from a utilitarian background.
~your friendly neighborhood Human Being.
I saw this exact thing demonstrated at AMS (a BAE subsidiary) in 2003. Their version displayed a 3D representation of the battlefield so you could see where all the units were on the land and in the air and underwater. Having it in a dome didn't help at all and just meant you had to look all around you, so things would have been much clearer on a regular monitor.
There seems to be prior art for this patent but I don't think anyone will be contesting it because 1) AMS has been dissolved and 2) the display system is worthless anyway and very unpleasant to use.
Well, I guess if you have a projector than it could be fun for a moment, but if you haven't then you can better spend your money on a HMD, ok, the resolution may be a bit low (800x600 for between $500-$999) but at least you get real 3D with headtracking, and believe me, 800x600 with real 3D and headtracking is soooooooo much more fun than 1600x1200 on a flatscreen.... It's sad the innovation/technology on HMD's isn't progressing that much the last 13 years (since the Forte VFX1), a lot of hardware has progressed so much (and reduced so much in price).. It would be great to be able to play in real 3D with headtracking with 1280x720 or something per eye (at the moment those goggles are still very VERY pricey)..
So it's basically a gigantic diaphram which you stand in front of and geek over. This is what 40 year old virgins are made of. Oh, and I agree it's great for pr0n :)
Why don't they just turn the dome to where the bottom rim faces the floor. Put your head in the middle... and viola... 360 degree view. Screw this 180 degree crap. AND I could sit down.
Guess Bandia / Namco never patented the pod for Gundam Arcade Pods Senjou no Kizuna? Namco developed the 180 degree gaming pod back in 2001.
Cool concept although wouldn't it be better to create lightweight goggles that encompass peripheral vision and then use an accelerometer to determine the position and direction of the head. If they could get that light enough to wear without issues then theoretically you could play a game with your entire field of vision.
Oh dear. I was thinking this was something really cool like a peice of hardware or software that remapped the image for projectong onto a curved surface. Nothing of the sort: it is just a dome screen. All he does is run Crysis with a custom field of view. There is no perspective correction, which mean that straight objects like trees and cranes are bowed on the screen. On top of that, his idea increases the viewable area, but not the pixel count. Indeed the pixel count would be less unless you could afford a projector with the same resoultion as a decent LCD monitor.
You either need a fisheye lens to snap on to the projector, or some kind of computational remapping. One of the only games I know of that remap the image in this way is Fisheye Quake (http://strlen.com/gfxengine/fisheyequake/index.html), and it is much more computationally intensive than regular Quake. I'd imagine Fisheye Crysis would be a nightmare to get running at a decent framerate.
This product is limited to games only, and games that allow you to modify the fov at that (changing the fov doesn't make the image fisheyed). I'd quite happily pay for something similar that I could use every day for CAD/CAM work. I think if he could find/make a fisheye lens that snaps onto the front of a projector, and market it for a bit more, he'd be onto a winner.
Retaahred! if you're going to design a solo-180 viewing experience, you should go portable (e.g. lightweight glasses/monitor) not huge, visually wrong projector fiasco.
The video driver would actually have to be modified to cram more details on the edges of the dome to compensate for the stretch in the edges from the light.
This guy is an amateur who just wanted to get a patent so that other people could develop it and then collect the royalties. I don't know if he's stupid or actually smart...
Good luck trying to see important things on the corners of the screens, i.e. how much ammo you have left, radar, etc. Games are built for rectangular screens, not domed ones.
I think this would be a neat idea, if it were implemented differently.
With games such as FPS, and with a console such as the Wii, plus this dome, that would make one hell of a party.
Just the idea of point and shoot, not just clicking, and having a 180 field of view would be so much fun, hell, 360, which in my mind doesn't seem technologically practical, would be even better.
Just the practicality of this doesn't exist, and I feel bad about the huge masses of money this guy has sunk into this project.
It's the yayyy-dome!
Err, these have been around for a while now. Like Tom Boucher said, the place I work at has been using them for gaming for a loooong time.
sounds like bruno from da-ali g
The irony of his tagline at the end, "Don't stand still," is that the whole idea of this thing is... well, to stand still.
Also, I'm pretty sure he referred to it a few times as the "gaydome." I believe that would be a totally different, and more radical, way to ensure you never get a girlfriend, but the two ideas are probably equally effective.
Maximum girlfriend loss.
I guess we can all agree on that this dome projection thing is far from new. I remember seeing something similar as a boy when I visited the ASEA 100 year exhibition in 1983. But then it was something as simple as a spinning earth projected on a domed surface so that the earth was percieved as a 3D object. The funny thing was that the domed surface actually was domed inwards like the "gay dome", not outwards, which would have been the more logical choice maybe. But it worked.
Projecting images on domes has been widely used in fighter aircraft simulators since atleast the nineties.
So I guess the newness of this system is that it is combined with a stand for the keyboard. Herr Nilsson is not yet in league with swedish inventors like Alfred Nobel, John Ericsson or Johan Petter Johansson, but who knows what happends in the future?
I do. I've been there.
My concern would be with the projectors themselves. To have the image projected on a smallish dome, the distance would have to be close. I've got a lovely Lumenlabs evo 1.1 (about 1600 lumens) and in my small room the 60" image is freakin' bright, which limits the time I can spend xbox geeking.
There would have to be some kind of recomendation as far as lumens to distance goes. Would it be more appropriate for a lower end projector such as the "Torpedo" or the horid "Zoombox".
Either that or this is really intended as a "this is so cool" type of thing as opposed to a serious gaming device.
A video of the "real thing" without distortion
http://local.wasp.uwa.edu.au/~pbourke/miscellaneous/domemirror/iDome_544x306.mov