Collaboration At Its Finest

Located in the inner depths of the basement of the library lies a treasure many may have never heard of until now. The CollaboRITorium, originally created by the Fall 2008 class on Innovation and Invention at RIT, boasts an open environment of self-creation that challenges a person’s ideas and innovation through cross disciplinary collaborative efforts. As stated by the man behind the idea, Jon Schull, the CollaboRITorium is a demilitarized zone that allows any individual to enter and participate in any project that is going on. The room contains a videoconference system that allows for in coming and out going communication with individuals while the room itself has a cornucopia of odds and ends such as a chunks of metal bin, a v-shaped immersive projection system, and a “toy chest.”

The CollaboRITorium has created four projects for the Image RIT festival. Sensational4D is an immersive display of a three dimensional RIT campus that allows an individual to experience all there senses based on a sensory input stimulation of campus locations. ReRIT creates an interactive display that allows an individual to in a sense “play God” as they move physical models of buildings on the RIT campus and watch as there movements are instantly reflected by a camera based system following the mark of their building in a 3D software model. RIT Layer in Google Earth is a group run server that collects daily updated RIT Calendar Events information while also creating optional heat overlays and live camera video feeds of RIT campus. Finally, Walk-O-Vision, give an individual a belt pack that allows an them to navigate a 3D world by integrating a digital compass and pedometer to communicate, through a Bluetooth wireless protocol to Director and Flash readings, any direction of movement a person is making and thus change their view of a three dimensional RIT campus.

At the Imagine RIT festival the CollaboRITorium will feature eight total exhibits throughout the WOW Center, its space in the basement of the library, and on the second floor of the Golisano building. The WOW Center will feature an “Immersietorium,” a cube shaped development from the Frontiers of Science, where individuals may have their picture taken in front of a blank screen and then visit the CollaboRITorium to receive an Immersion Souvenir of their picture placed over a Google Earth Image of a composite of maps of RIT campus.

For more information on the CollaboRITorium, their projects, and their future plans you can visit their website at http://immerseyourself.rit.edu/.