Mendoza, Argentina / Frankfurt, Germany / Villa María, Argentina
Medium
Mixed-reality device, interactive hardware, 360 panoramic media interface, exhibition installation
Role
Concept, industrial design, interaction design, software and hardware development
Collaborators
Orlando Durán, Jorge Manzitti, Federico Echevarria, Ricardo Antonelli, Luciano Prata, Salome Vorfas, Leandro Dalmasso, José Jiménez, Ivan Ivanoff, Martín Borini, Industrias Taschín, Estado Lateral Media Lab
Institution
Self-initiated project / INNOVAR 2008 / INPI Argentina patent
V-Dome is a mixed-reality device by Alejandro Rodríguez. Originating as an architectural thesis, it developed into a public interactive platform for panoramic media, spatial navigation and exhibition display. Conceived in response to the limitations of early head-mounted virtual reality in public settings, it replaces the isolating headset with a mechanical interface that moves a screen around the viewer's body through a continuous spherical range. Physical movement, display and virtual space are brought into a shared, observable relation rather than a private one.
Successive prototypes supported 360-degree panoramic navigation, interactive three-dimensional environments, educational simulations and augmented-reality experiments. The project received recognition at INNOVAR in 2008, was patented through INPI Argentina, and appeared at the Frankfurter Buchmesse as part of Argentina's technology delegation as well as at local science and cultural programmes. Surviving documentation frames V-Dome less as a finished object than as a sustained research line into embodied navigation and public mixed reality.
Images
Frankfurt installation wide view
V-Dome final version
Device display interface
Lino Barañao testing the device at Frankfurt Book Fair, Germany
Exhibition installation on purple platform
Frankfurt user demonstration
Device screen close-up
User operating screen
Exhibition installation vertical view
Device in gallery space
Mauricio Macri using the device at Ciudad Emergente, Centro Cultural Recoleta
User facing content screen
Workshop frame construction
Foam base model
Foundation mold detail
Metal casting process
Casting workshop lift
Cast wheel component
Gallery demo with blue interface
Base electronics detail
Machined joint components
Device disassembled on floor
Technical diagram and mobility study
Concept design
Early panoramic navigation demo and second prototype documentation
Presentation reel shown in the national innovation context
Workshop fabrication and mechanical assembly process
