Portable Scubascape
Scubascape turns your iPaq into a virtual diving mask. Explore the ocean’s hidden depths in any part on the world – without getting wet.
- Portable
Description
Our aim in designing Scubascape was to create a Mediascape experience that would be instinctively recognisable by many people, and would require little explanation on how to use it. With no written instructions or buttons to press, the piece is enjoyed by walking inside the boundary of the mediascape with your GPS enabled device and a pair of headphones. The piece is not meant to be a ‘realistic’ diving simulator, but through the use of sound and image provide the participant with a taster of what the actual experience might bring. We have responded to the brief by using still images and sound. Simple animated slideshows suggest movement, while the sound complements and suggests potential diving scenarios. Scubascape is not competitive and contains no gaming element; it’s about immersing yourself in the audio/visual experience, exploring the four different dives and having fun. Although this initial version of Scubascape is designed,built and tested in central Bristol, the intention is that by changing the underlying map the piece can be experienced anywhere.
Setup instructions
This Portable version of Scubascape requires you to place the sea before you can start diving, this is automatically saved for you so next time you go diving you can either use the same sea or place it somewhere else. Just follow the instructions given at the start of the Mediascape to place the sea. This Mediascape is best viewed in landscape mode.
Credits
Design and build: Paul Matson and Dave Morgan-Davies. Thanks to Gill Haworth at Watershed and Jo Reid / HP Labs for their support. Image credits All images are Creative Commons licensed from www.flickr.com: Blue Lotus, cfleizach, Copleys, tiswango, Mr Aaron, cinz, star5112, Jeff Kubina, avlxyz, permanently scatterbrained, Big Blue. Sound effect credits All sounds are Creative Commons licensed from: www.findsounds.com, www.fws.gov/video/sound.htm, www.grsites.com/sounds, www.whaleacoustics.com, www.partnersinrhyme.com/pir/PIRsfx.shtml
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