Eco Factor: Technology to transform the aesthetics of a spherical house to any desired shape.
Eco-conscious architect and designer Michael Jantzen believes that a lot of resources are consumed just to make things look a certain way. The use of scarce resources can be reduced and homes can be made energy-efficient if they only offer what is necessary. Michael states that if houses are built in the shape of a dome or sphere, which are then outfitted with the most efficient alternative energy gathering and storage system, then their impact on the ecosystem can be reduced.
The designer is proposing a unique system dubbed Virtual Reality Veneer, or VRV, that can help you see your house in any shape you want, without obviously constructing it that way. With the VRV system, the aesthetics of the exterior and interior of a basic white sphere are selected by the owner, generated by a computer and interpreted as real by all of those equipped with the appropriate digital image receiving and displaying hardware.
The prototype for the VRV project will include the construction of a large white spherical shaped house made from the most environmentally friendly materials possible. This structure will be outfitted with the most efficient alternative energy gathering and storage systems available. A computer located inside of the sphere will form the aesthetics of the house.
This computer will be able to create any kind of an image selected by the owner of the house and broadcast that image out into the surrounding landscape. Special eyeglasses worn by anyone in the vicinity of the sphere interpret the broadcast image and project it onto the inside surface of the glasses. Anyone wearing these glasses (or eventually specially designed retina implants) will see the selected image projected on the glasses instead of the sphere only when they look in the direction of the sphere.
If anyone wearing the special glasses physically enters the sphere, other images generated by the computer and selected by the owner of the sphere, are sent to the glasses in order to supplement and or replace the look of the interior of the sphere.
Thanks: [Michael Jantzen]
