»VIRTUAL BALANCE - LOOK WITH YOUR FEET« 
Light Box
Light Box
© M. Fleischmann/W. Strauss
Keywords
Information
(collective) Fleischmann / Strauss >
»VIRTUAL BALANCE - LOOK WITH YOUR FEET«, 1994 - 1994
Co-Workers & Funding:
Concept and Management: Monika Fleischmann, Wolfgang StraussTechnical Team: Wolfgang Heiden, Karsten Sikora, Thomas Sikora, Josef Speier. Realized at: VISWIZ Group at GMD - German National Research Center for Informationtechnology, Germany.
Software: Softimage, 3DK Virtual Studio, Inhouse Sensor Control State Engine.
https://web.archive.org/web/19970624214611fw_/http://viswiz.gmd.de/projects/art/Sub/skywriter2.html
https://web.archive.org/web/19970624214634fw_/http://viswiz.gmd.de/projects/art/Sub/xanten2.html
http://www.eculturefactory.de/CMS/index.php?id=368
Technology
Method
The Virtual Balance platform is equipped with weight sensors and connected to the 3DK graphics system for a Virtual Studio. The incoming data from the weight sensors is evaluated as position data and forwarded to the computer that performs the real-time calculation of the spatial view.
Descriptions & Essays
input device for a responsive virtual environment
Monika and Wolfgang Fleischmann-Strauss 21-08-2025
VIRTUAL BALANCE: LOOKING WITH THE FEET 1994
Understanding interactivity in cyberspace as a seamless experience rather than a clickable one, Virtual Balance borrows from the myth of the magic carpet to move through data. The magic carpet, popularized in One Thousand and One Nights, has long been an iconic way to travel the world. According to Persian mythology, King Solomon had a magic carpet on which his entire palace could stand.
The Virtual Balance interface is based on human-machine interaction through the movement of the human body on a weight sensor platform. The performer stands on the a floor plate and navigates a virtual 3D environment with simple weight shifts and movements. The platform's weight sensors detect each weight shift and convert it into positional data of movement and speed for navigation through a virtual 3D landscape.
Sensors detect changes in weight and transmit them to an analyzer, which passes on the position and orientation of the navigator in the virtual environment to the graphics system in real time. A minimal shift of weight on the platform allows for navigation. Stepping forward is to go down and walk. Leaning back is to go up and fly. This dynamic perspective allows the viewer to experience a virtual environment from a bird's-eye or walker's perspective. It requires just body balance to move through virtual spaces with the Virtual Balance.The result was such an intense sensory experience that the visitors were fully immersed in their emergent interactive behavior, even without the use of VR glasses.
Navigation with this body-centric interface is like looking with your feet. It is the body itself that becomes the interface. Without excluding the real world, the visitor is immersed in a virtual reality. Virtual Balance also serves as a platform for observing the effects that tangible navigation can have on the human body. During a presentation at CeBit '96 in Hanover, Germany, neurologist Hinderk Emrich found himself dancing on the Virtual Balance platform. He discovered an "electrifying" way of looking at how the interface affects the human body. On display was a reconstruction of the ancient Roman village of Colonia Ulpia Traiana (100 AD) based on archaeological data.
Tactile perception includes not only touch perception, but also exploratory perception. Sensing one's own body in the virtual environment - here with the help of the Virtual Balance floor plate - observably expanded body awareness. The floor under their feet becomes an interactive surface and the body's perceptual sensitivity coupled with body balance becomes the control tool. Sensing one's own body establishes bodily self-awareness. The sense of touch is our basic sense. Ultimately, it is only through the experience of touch that we learn to perceive and classify visual impressions. According to Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio’s statement “I feel, therefore I am” we could observe that visitors felt more motivated to navigate in the virtual environment through tangible exploration of a virtual world.
Obviously, Virtual Balance is a performative interface because it evokes something in our behavior that is not part of the purpose of a navigation system: It evokes a sense of movement and stimulates a physical performance. It is as if we dance as we walk, something we rarely do. Virtual Balance (1994) was a body-centered navigation platform. It anticipated the Nintendo Wii Board (2006), a commercial device for gymnastic exercises. It is an example of the fact that it is media art that provides the blueprints for industrial development without being paid for it.
Monika and Wolfgang Fleischmann-Strauss: VIRTUAL BALANCE - LOOK WITH YOUR FEET, 21-08-2025, in: Archive of Digital Art VIRTUAL BALANCE: LOOKING WITH THE FEET 1994
Understanding interactivity in cyberspace as a seamless experience rather than a clickable one, Virtual Balance borrows from the myth of the magic carpet to move through data. The magic carpet, popularized in One Thousand and One Nights, has long been an iconic way to travel the world. According to Persian mythology, King Solomon had a magic carpet on which his entire palace could stand.
The Virtual Balance interface is based on human-machine interaction through the movement of the human body on a weight sensor platform. The performer stands on the a floor plate and navigates a virtual 3D environment with simple weight shifts and movements. The platform's weight sensors detect each weight shift and convert it into positional data of movement and speed for navigation through a virtual 3D landscape.
Sensors detect changes in weight and transmit them to an analyzer, which passes on the position and orientation of the navigator in the virtual environment to the graphics system in real time. A minimal shift of weight on the platform allows for navigation. Stepping forward is to go down and walk. Leaning back is to go up and fly. This dynamic perspective allows the viewer to experience a virtual environment from a bird's-eye or walker's perspective. It requires just body balance to move through virtual spaces with the Virtual Balance.The result was such an intense sensory experience that the visitors were fully immersed in their emergent interactive behavior, even without the use of VR glasses.
Navigation with this body-centric interface is like looking with your feet. It is the body itself that becomes the interface. Without excluding the real world, the visitor is immersed in a virtual reality. Virtual Balance also serves as a platform for observing the effects that tangible navigation can have on the human body. During a presentation at CeBit '96 in Hanover, Germany, neurologist Hinderk Emrich found himself dancing on the Virtual Balance platform. He discovered an "electrifying" way of looking at how the interface affects the human body. On display was a reconstruction of the ancient Roman village of Colonia Ulpia Traiana (100 AD) based on archaeological data.
Tactile perception includes not only touch perception, but also exploratory perception. Sensing one's own body in the virtual environment - here with the help of the Virtual Balance floor plate - observably expanded body awareness. The floor under their feet becomes an interactive surface and the body's perceptual sensitivity coupled with body balance becomes the control tool. Sensing one's own body establishes bodily self-awareness. The sense of touch is our basic sense. Ultimately, it is only through the experience of touch that we learn to perceive and classify visual impressions. According to Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio’s statement “I feel, therefore I am” we could observe that visitors felt more motivated to navigate in the virtual environment through tangible exploration of a virtual world.
Obviously, Virtual Balance is a performative interface because it evokes something in our behavior that is not part of the purpose of a navigation system: It evokes a sense of movement and stimulates a physical performance. It is as if we dance as we walk, something we rarely do. Virtual Balance (1994) was a body-centered navigation platform. It anticipated the Nintendo Wii Board (2006), a commercial device for gymnastic exercises. It is an example of the fact that it is media art that provides the blueprints for industrial development without being paid for it.
Literature
Fleischmann, Monika and Wolfgang Strauss. »Images of the Body in the House of Illusion.« In Art@Science, edited by Christa Sommerer and Laurent Mignonnau. New York, Vienna: Springer, 1998.
Fleischmann, Monika and Wolfgang Strauss. »The Body as an Interface.« DOMUS: Magazin for Architecture Design Art Communication 779 (Februar 1996 1997).
Fleischmann, Monika et. al.. »The Virtual Balance: An Input Device for Virtual Reality Environments.« In Proceedings of the 6th Interfaces, Man-machine interaction, edited by La Lettre de I´IA Nr. 123, , 20-23. Montpellier: 1997.
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