The making of Kyongju VR Theatre

Recently we have built the largest Virtual Reality (VR) theatre in the world for the Kyongju World Culture EXPO 2000. Unlike single user VR systems, the VR theatre is characterized by a single shared screen and controlled by a kind of tightly coupled user inputs from several hundreds of people in the audience. The large computer-generated stereo images by the huge cylindrical screen provide the immersive feeling augmenting the physical audience space with of 3D virtual space. In addition to the visual immersion, the theatre provides 3D audio, vibration and olfactory display as well as keypads for the audience in their seats interactively controlling the virtual environment. This paper introduces the issues raised and addressed during the design of making such a versatile VR theatre, production and presentation of the virtual heritage at Kyongju, one thousand years ago.