View-Master Stereoscopic Viewer
When I was a young boy growing up in rural Vermont my only knowledge of America’s National Parks came through the View-Master, a stereoscopic viewing device that came with “reels” of images (round cardboard disks with two small color transparency images allowing for seven views), which would come to life in 3-D when viewed through the View-Master. My parents had collected a whole series of reels featuring National Parks like Yellowstone, Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Redwood Highway and others. These were my imagination gateway to places I either wouldn’t set foot in for many years to come, or have yet had the pleasure to visit. I would spend hours gazing through this very analog device dreaming up adventures, and wondering what the air smelled like, what animals I would encounter there, and what sounds would come calling to me as I wandered through the landscape.
1970s View-Master Reel Sleeve for Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Park
It’s interesting to think that the Listen(n) project’s EcoRift experience might locate its technological and experiential history with the View-Master and its series of reels of these same parks. What Listen(n) adds to the immersive experience of the earlier View-Master, however, is not only higher quality 360-degree visual images, but ambisonic audio recordings as well. These allow for a heightened/deepened sense of immersion into the visual space accessible through the Oculus Rift VR headset by incorporating a truer POV into the audio image recorded in the same parks depicted in the visual image.
Oculus Rift Headset
Lots of exciting opportunities getting linked here, and we’re looking forward to where it takes our team next, and how the combination spherical image and ambisonic surround sound will influence discussions of immersive experiences down the road.