The Allosphere

«The Allosphere Research Facility is a 3-​story high spherical space in which fully immersive, interactive, stereoscopic/​pluriphonic virtual environments can be experienced. Housed in the California Nanosystems Institute at the University of California at Santa Barbara, the Allosphere enables works in which art and science contribute equally and serves as an advanced research instrument in two overlapping senses.»
That was the official sciency bit. Layman description is more like, «WHOA!!» Followed by crapping your pants.
Someone twittered a heads up to me that the Allosphere was having a tour today at 1 pm, and seeing how I was taking my lunch break at 1 pm, I thought, «why not?»
Sucks that a visit here requires enabling the parking monster with $ 3 for an hour’s visit, but the parking structure #10 is connected to the building, so at least you don’t spend 30 minutes of your precious hour hoofing it from some parking lot in a different zip code.
Inside, it’s like your own little I-​max, but you’re immersed in detailed imagery of molecular structures. Static 3-​d renderings can be rotated and enhanced, with additional illustrations of ionic movement. If that’s not mind-​blowing enough, the images are «sonified,» or translated into audio, so you get a surround sound of pure electronica, and these are also projected within 3 planes, so as you move through the molecules, the sound moves with you.
When I visited there were only a few speakers throughout the sphere. In time, there will be some 400 speakers.
The guide did not go into too much detail of the commercial and educational value of this project, it was probably way too highbrow for us. But anyone with a joint and a big bag of doritos can see the vast entertainment value.