Esper
Can Virtual Reality (VR) be used to not only visit digital worlds, but explore the physical world as well?
The installation is made up out of two connected spaces. The first space, the physical one, was in the cafe next to Art Center Nabi. 60 cameras were placed in this space, all in a different location and pointing in different directions.
The second space, the virtual one, is in the main exhibition space of Nabi and took the form of a VR headset and projection. In the VR space the layout of the cameras is recreated using floating images.
By putting on the headset and looking around in VR you get to see what the cameras in the other space are filming at that very moment. By walking around in the VR space you get access to the space from different angles and positions.
The installation uses 60 ESP32-CAM wireless IP cameras with a custom mounting and power system, router, PC and a HTC Vive.
The name Esper was taken from the movie Blade Runner, in which a computer by the same name allows the protagonist to scan a regular photograph but move pan and zoom around the scene as if it was a 3D space.
