LED Virtual Reality Room Brings Video Game World to Life

Video games have been progressively moving towards fully engaging the player since Playstation 2’s Eyetoy first transformed home television screens into interactive gaming displays that would respond to players’ movements. Soon after, systems like the Wii, Xbox Kinect, and Playstation 3’s Move, were developed where a player’s physical actions could activate power-ups, or even vanquish baddies. Now Large Format LED Displays are taking that one step further.

Creative agency AKQA, in collaboration with the Nike’s Jordan brand, created a virtual reality room, completely comprised of 1200 square feet of tiled Large Format LED Displays on the floor and three walls. This virtual reality room was programmed to allow users to reenact two of Michael Jordan’s most memorable basketball shots. The entire basketball court floor and stands of spectators were digitally rendered creating completely simulated and interactive environment. The Large Format LED Displays for this installation were massive, using around 10 million LEDs in nearly 1000 seamlessly integrated display tiles.

Those who were able to take part in using this simulator compared the experience to playing inside a video game world, with the announcer commenting on your every move, while a path lights up showing you where to go. The display also would give you two scenarios, one as if you were the offensive team trying to make the shot, and the other as if the defensive team was trying to prevent you from making the shot. In each scenario the crowd would react differently if you scored or missed.

This virtual reality space is extremely impressive even with the displays massive power consumption. While current applications for these types of displays are currently limited these Large Format Displays are sure to become more and more common as content developers and popular appeal for these displays continues to grow.