"Jung held the view that human beings are most harmonious when in circular rooms, because the psyche is spherical. Such rooms are rare, however, and are mostly associated with meditation or pleasure - rooms for extremes." from the book, Stockholm Globe Arena.
Traveling around the world these days can become expensive and time consuming, especially if you want to experience a huge portion of the world. The Sphericlome allows its user to experience any part of the world thanks to futristic-breakthrough technology. Based on Fluidic Self Assembly, Flat-Panel display, and the Hayden Planetarium spherical projection programming, the future might bear a device similar to the Sphericlome. The user puts the retractable plastic-plexiglass sphere over their head so it rests comfortably on their shoulders. You would then proceed to state a destination to the voice recognition computer system, which then loads a first-person, 360 degree video that projects on the innerwalls of the sphere. When the program begins, the user will feel as if they are experiencing a foreign destination without ever leaving their seat. If someone wants to ski, a ski video is loaded. If a user wants to go to a coffee shop in Amsterdam, then they go to a coffee shop in Amsterdam. The Sphericlome doesn't have to be used soley for entertainment, however. It can be used as a learning tour for people who want to learn about foreign countries or people who want to learn a different language by being around people who are speaking that language. The Sphericlome allows for endless possibilities of destinations. Once the user is satisfied with their trip/trips, they remove the sphere and retract it so that it can be hauled around like a backpack.
Take a virtual tour of the Hayden Planetarium: http://www.waycoollearning.com/space/hayden-planetarium/ - The Sphericlome is almost a miniature Hayden Planetarium.
Research
The sphere is the basic archetype and primal building block of all creation. A perfect sphere is the primal archetype of all life and universal existence. It is the architectural model for the simplest cell and the most immense star. It naturally embodies exacting mathematical harmony and visual symmetry. At its core exists a point of infinite density and mass occupying the smallest possible space. This transcendent point is known as the absolute singularity. The perfectly round shell surrounding this point reveals the ideal balance of all aspects of its nature. Most importantly, the perfect sphere reflects and embodies the most accurate natural symbol of the human spirit. - http://www.personalgenesis.com/main/manifestsphere.htm
Alien
Technology™ has developed a manufacturing technology that will dramatically reduce
the manufacturing cost of electronic displays. The technology, called Fluidic Self
Assembly (FSA™), decouples the fabrication of transistors from the processing of
display materials and permits the efficient assembly of drive electronics into all types
of Flat Panel Displays (FPDs).
FSA makes the fabrication of transistors on large sheets of glass unnecessary, by allowing tiny chips called NanoBlockTM ICs to be spread over a surface by liquid transport. The glass itself becomes unnecessary, and may be replaced by thin, light, flexible, low-cost, easy-to-handle plastic film. Replacing the glass with flexible film makes it possible to convert the entire display manufacturing process from inefficient batch production to continuous-flow roll-to-roll (web) processing. - http://www.alientechnology.com/library/pr/010400pr_a.html
The basic
principles behind FSA are very simple. In the FSA process, specifically shaped
semiconductor devices ranging in size from 10 microns to several hundred microns are
suspended in liquid and flowed over a surface, which has correspondingly shaped
"holes" or receptors on it and into which the devices settle. The shape of the
devices and of the holes is designed so that the devices fall easily into place and
self-align. Alien has demonstrated the assembly of tens of thousands of devices in a
single process step.
FSA
substrates can be made from any number of materials, including glass, plastic, silicon,
etc. When manufacturing displays using the FSA process, the choice of substrate materials
is not limited to rigid materials compatible with high temperature semiconductor
fabrication processes. This opens up the possibility of producing displays that can be
flexed or bent while in use, and are light in weight. Reel to reel web processing on
flexible substrates also allows Alien to efficiently fabricate active matrix displays of
varying shapes and contours. Automotive dashboards provide one example where such a
capability is desirable. With traditional display technologies, every car will need to be
equipped with me-too flat, rigid active matrix displays. With Alien as a supplier,
automakers like Porsche and Mercedes will have the option of maintaining their signature
contoured dashboard designs.
The breathtaking Passport to the Universe reveals the wonders of our universe in a way never before possible in a planetarium. No longer dependent on a single, multi-lens projector, the presentation is driven by computers and processors that treat the audiences to realistic close-up views of star fields and planets, taking them on an exhilarating flight through a virtual re-creation of our universe, into the Orion Nebula, out of our galaxy, and deep into intergalactic space. After reaching the edges of our known universe, the tour takes a "virtual shortcut" back to Earth — in a free fall, headlong through a black hole. - http://www.amnh.org/rose/passport.html
Everything in Passport to the Universe is based on our latest knowledge of the universe. The Space Show offers an opportunity for Museum-goers to gain a better understanding of the cosmos through visualization and experience. The virtual universe contains data on our solar system from NASA and the European Space Agency, and a statistical database of more than two billion stars developed by the Museum. - http://www.amnh.org/rose/passport.html
The level of technology and scientific content presented here has never been so readily available to the general public. With its high-definition system — capable of combining real-time visual simulations with pre-rendered graphics — the new Hayden Planetarium is the largest and most powerful virtual reality simulator in the world, matched only by the supercomputers used by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), or the largest of military research facilities. - http://www.amnh.org/rose/passport.html