The "Tholos" Virtual Reality Dome Theater

Designed / Implemented for:
the Foundation of the Hellenic World

Tholos is the virtual reality theater of the Foundation of the Hellenic World (FHW) at Hellenic Cosmos exhibition center. It is a dome-shaped auditorium with a tilted hemispherical screen capable of displaying real-time stereoscopic virtual reality content. Tholos is fully interactive but can also display pre-rendered content either as an alternative signal source or as part of the immersive experience. The real-time VR dome theater of FHW utilizes a fully digital projection system, configurable in a monoscopic, stereoscopic or a mixed mode of operation (see section Graphics). 6 pairs of seamlessly blended SXGA+ projectors are projecting the synthesized imagery on a tilted hemispherical reflective surface of 13m in diameter. The auditorium is designed to host up to 132 visitors at the same time.

The VR system is mainly operated by a single user (guide) via a tracked joystick, but at selected points during ther show, the action can be controlled by the audience via an integrated voting and averaging user I/O system. The visitors can be grouped in teams or addressed as a unified audience or individually and interact with the joysticks attached to their seats. The VR software is designed to allow the biasing of the navigation from the seat joystick input and the rerouting of the physical seat controls to virtual joysticks. Multiplayer games are possible through run-time reconfigureable auditorium groups. Voting triggers are also available to let the visitors select among a number of choices at decision points. For more details regarding the interaction options, see section Interaction.