AlloSphere

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| name = The AlloSphere Research Facility

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| image = Elings Hall.jpg

| caption = Elings Hall which houses The AlloSphere, August 2013

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| established = {{Start date and age|2007}}

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| research_field = Technology, multimedia, sciences, art, design

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| director = JoAnn Kuchera-Morin

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| city = Santa Barbara

| state = California

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| country = United States

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| campus = University of California, Santa Barbara

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| website = http://www.allosphere.ucsb.edu/

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The AlloSphere is a research facility in a theatre-like pavilion in a spherical shape, of opaque material, used to project computer-generated imagery and sounds. Included are GIS, scientific, artistic, and other information.{{Cite web|title = The AlloSphere Offers an Interactive Experience of Nano-sized Worlds {{!}} NSF - National Science Foundation|url = https://www.nsf.gov/discoveries/disc_summ.jsp?cntn_id=121535|website = www.nsf.gov|accessdate = 2015-09-02}} Located at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB) the AlloSphere grew out of the schools of electrical engineering and computer science, and the Media Arts & Technology program at UCSB.{{Cite web|title = JoAnn Kuchera-Morin: Stunning Data Visualization in the AlloSphere - Blog|url = http://datascience.berkeley.edu/joann-kuchera-morin-stunning-data-visualization-allosphere/|accessdate = 2015-09-02}}

The AlloSphere is housed at UCSB California NanoSystems Institute{{Cite web|title = California NanoSystems Institute {{!}} UC Santa Barbara|url = http://www.cnsi.ucsb.edu/|website = www.cnsi.ucsb.edu|accessdate = 2015-09-02}} building, "CNSI," or Elings Hall, a {{convert|62000|sqft|m2|adj=on}} facility that opened in 2007.{{Cite web|url=http://engineering.ucsb.edu/pdf/facts_august2007_final.pdf |title=UC Santa Barbara Engineering Facts Brochure |date=August 2007 |accessdate=September 2, 2015 |website=UCSB College of Engineering |publisher=UCSB College of Engineering |last=Van De Werfhorst |first=Melissa |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304045938/http://engineering.ucsb.edu/pdf/facts_august2007_final.pdf |archivedate=March 4, 2016 }} The AlloSphere is intended to integrate technology and media.{{Cite web|title = Marriage of Science and Art|url = http://www.ucsbalum.com/Coastlines/2011/Summer/feature_allosphere.html|website = www.ucsbalum.com|accessdate = 2015-09-02|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160302151948/http://www.ucsbalum.com/Coastlines/2011/Summer/feature_allosphere.html|archive-date = 2016-03-02|url-status = dead}}

The AlloSphere includes a three-story cube that has been insulated extensively with sound-absorbing material, making it one of the largest echo-less chambers in the world. Within the chamber are two hemispheres of 5 meter radii, made of perforated aluminum. These are opaque and acoustically transparent.{{Cite web|title = The AlloSphere at the California NanoSystems Institute, UC Santa Barbara|url = http://www.allosphere.ucsb.edu/|website = www.allosphere.ucsb.edu|accessdate = 2015-09-02}}

There are 26 video projectors, to create as much of a field of vision as possible.

The loudspeaker real-time sound synthesis cluster (140 individual speaker elements plus sub-woofers) is suspended behind the aluminum screen resulting in 3-D audio. Computation clusters include simulation, sensor-array processing, real-time video processing for motion-capture and visual computing, render-farm/real-time ray-tracing and radiosity cluster, and content and prototyping environments.

The AlloSphere was developed by a team of scientists, led primarily by Professor JoAnn Kuchera-Morin, a professor in the field of Composition, of the Media Arts & Technology Program of UCSB.