SCENE LAB

About SCENE Lab

Housed within the College of Arts and Letters, the Sensory Computation, Experimental Narrative Environments (SCENE) Lab creates hybrid software and hardware systems for the development and presentation of immersive virtual spaces. This immersive virtual space encompasses both headset and CAVE/screen-based virtual reality and augmented reality, as well as high-density loudspeaker arrays and novel systems for immersive spatial audio and musical instrument software and hardware user interface design.

In addition to common uses such as cinema, gaming, and social media, these systems hold untapped potential for sonification and visualization of big data, simulation for training and architectural acoustics. Stevens students utilize the lab in courses like Software Instrument Design and Spatial Music.

Recent Events Jan. 01/07/16

Beginning in the spring of 2016, SCENE Lab faculty have presented the Virtual Experience, Sonic Projection, Extended Reality System (VESPERS) exhibition at Apexart in New York City and at the Stevens “Power of Us” fundraising events, Propeller Fest 2016, and the Moving Image Festival Salon.

The exhibition seeks to highlight current research at Stevens in both engineering and the arts, addressing scalable systems for 3D audiovisual data capture as well as the generation and real-time manipulation of simulation, virtual reality, and multi-channel audio environments. It draws on existing research in spatial audio from the Music & Technology program, immersive virtual and augmented reality from the Visual Arts & Technology program, and remote 3D mapping from the Design and Manufacturing Institute, proposing the creation of a pavilion that would house a multimedia program allowing participants to navigate an immersive virtual world demonstrating this research.

The lab was also selected as a venue for the Pure Data open source music programming convention in the fall of 2016, a six-day event co-hosted with New York University, packed with workshops, concerts, exhibitions, and peer-reviewed paper and poster presentations.