As some of you might know, this year’s DAF (Digital Art Festival) Tokyo took place from December 9th till the 13th. I was excited to hear that Toshio Iwai presented some of his latest works. We already reported on TENORI-ON (regine had a hands-on experence with this device back in September.)

But, what is it this? I am very eager to see this one called Morphovision with my naked eyes.

[Morphovision in action.]

Morphovision is a system that distorts/modifies what you see with your naked eyes. It was co-developed by Toshio Iwai and NHK Science & Technical Research and Laboratories.

In front of a physical 3D miniature house (placed in a glass box) is a touch screen that allows a user to select different visual effects. According to the user’s selection, the house may become soft or even break apart. This all happens between your naked eyes and the miniature house – no special goggles or screens needed. I can’t help saying that we are a step closer to “photoshopping the real world.”

[The apparatus.]

Of course, the house doesn’t actually get soft or break apart. It’s the light source that changes. The house is actually spinning very fast and the light source creates certain light patterns that are in sync with the house’s rotation. The light patterns are modified based on what the user selects with the touch screen. The system can create animated visual effects as well.

Such a visual experience would be more surprising to my brain than, for example, viewing a synthetic VR/AR images using an HMD (Head Mount Display).

via DAF 2005, Digital Stadium, and NHK Information