Whether at home, in the office, hotel, spa or gym, in a hospital or a doctor’s surgery – with one click illumotion opens up magnificent natural scenes, underwater worlds, works of art or real surroundings. Imagination knows no limits. Everything counts that appeals to the senses.
by Nikolai Schnarz, Product Sales Manager, Rutronik
Isn’t that something that everybody experiences at some time or other? One is physically exhausted, but the mind is preoccupied with a thousand things and one’s soul just wants to find some peace. High time to allow oneself a little relaxation – in beautiful surroundings, pleasantly warm and in comfort. But there’s no time to take that sort of break? Welcome to the wellness-world of illumotion! This innovative multi-sense system, with animated images, high-definition displays and a brilliant multi-channel audio experience simply opens up the senses. Without having to invest a lot of effort, it is possible to transform rooms in an astounding way – one feels as if one has been spirited away into another world. In combination with individually adjustable sound, light and other sensory effects, it creates perfect audiovisual illusions.
Amazingly realistic ‘surroundings’
The more hectic our world becomes, the more important it is to have somewhere to ‘take refuge’, relax, take time to listen to one’s inner voice, and just to be. The illumotion system carries one off into a relaxing environment, and at the same time stimulates one’s sensory perceptions. This produces a selective reduction in stress levels. That makes it the ideal choice for so-called deceleration rooms. These are becoming more and more common in large companies seeking to combat or even prevent the burn-out syndrome. With an illumotion system such a room could be completely windowless, and yet the users would have the impression of having a wonderful view, for instance of lush, green woods with mighty trees swaying in the wind and birds twittering all around. Or a long sandy beach, with the sound of the sea and the rustling of palm leaves. According to the main motif, the atmosphere is enhanced by changing colour and light moods as desired.
The fact that specific colour schemes have certain effects on people’s moods is now an established factor in light and colour therapies. Colours can be soothing or stimulating as the case may be, and this can be used to divert attention away from illness so as to promote healing processes. illumotion is equipped with a simple control system so that themes and colours can be changed easily. The therapist uses a touchpad to make the required settings for the next patient, and in no time the room’s ambience is tailored to the next patient’s needs.
Healing processes often have to cope with patients’ experience of medical treatment, hospital atmospheres and clinical, frightening rooms. But this need not happen – being at the reception desk or in a waiting room can appear literally ‘in a different light’. The sun can be seen rising through the window; it floods the landscape in orange hues, morning mists rise gently from the meadows, and birdsong can be heard in the background.
This sort of scene could also be very helpful in a recuperation room following an operation
with full or local anaesthetics. Today, more and more attention is being paid to the psychological condition of patients in intensive care, including measures to promote a patient-friendly atmosphere. This is where the innovative multi-media system can play a major role. For instance, ceiling panels can extend the panorama upwards. The patient can see the open sky, e.g. with slowly moving clouds appropriate to the time of day. Or views through a ‘window’ show a peaceful landscape. Welcome diversions that not only activate the senses and perhaps help to allay patients’ fears, but also encourage the body’s own healing capacities.
To ensure that the visual experience is completely authentic, the effects must take all the senses into account. In visual terms, this means achieving perfect simulation of a real view, using maximum definition on each individual display of the illumotion installation. The whole scope of the scenery in question can be enhanced using subtle lighting moods. For the acoustic effects, the illumotion multi-channel sound system gives one the feeling of being right there in the middle. Other sensory experiences involving scents, climatic effects and the movement of the wind can easily be synchronised via the integrated control system.
Perfect harmonisation
The basic components of the multi-sense illumotion system are a theme package, multi-channel audio technology, hardware for the base and control units as well as high-resolution displays. This is where the cooperation with the component distributor Rutronik and its subsidiary Rusol (system distributor for PV and LEDs) is of paramount importance. Rusol is a specialist for the marketing of trend-setting products, and that is exactly right for illumotion. Rutronik supplies the hardware components, such as displays, and engineering services to illumotion, and Rusol the ready-made lighting products.
Then, Rusol markets the illumotion system in the form of a system solution.
The themes can be selected from the preconfigured ‘multi-sense areas’ panorama, ambience, aquaria or art gallery. On request, customised themes can be created using state-of-the-art multi-HD techniques. Following ultra-high resolution filming with special cameras, the themes are produced using 4K technology, which has twice the familar full-HD resolution of 1080p.
All the programmed elements for lighting, sound and audio are stored on the base unit. This ‘player’ for the themes stored on flashcard controls coordinates up to four displays. Additional displays can easily be added via extension units. Theme selection is via an RFID reader. The solid state media players in the base unit function without a conventional operating system, making them resistant to viruses, hacking, other manipulation or faulty operation. The technology can be started and stopped by simply switching the power supply on and off without suffering any data loss. In doing so, the power consumption is a maximum of 50 watts e.g. with a base unit for four displays. As an option, control via WLAN and iPad or iPhone is possible.
To display the themes, illumotion relies on robust full-HD industrial screens. Without them, it would not be possible to exploit the brilliant 4K technology to the full. Also, operation on a 24/7 basis requires high-performance displays instead of simple TV screens, which would not be able to cope with such a constant strain. illumotion advises dimensions of between 47‘‘ and 60‘‘ for panorama installations. What size is actually best depends on the distance between the
display and the observer. If this is just one or two metres, the display should not be larger than 47‘‘ because the pixels are then smaller and the image therefore appears sharper. At greater distances, 60‘‘ displays can be used which very closely approximate the size of real windows.
The displays used can be operated in both landscape and portrait format.
For each display configuration, the original themes are time-consumingly separated into individual full HD videos with 4K native resolution. These are then recomposed as a single theme by means of synchronous playback by the base unit on the appropriately configured displays. Due to the high resolution of the displays, interpolation of the 4K theme even makes it possible to create a setup out of a total of 9 displays (3×3) in landscape format or 5 displays in portrait format (5×1). Then the theme is ‘only’ represented with 1280×720 pixel image definition, but this is still an HD format.
In addition to the multiple, multi-synchronous playback of the HD videos, the system can enhance the current theme with the aid of realistic multi-channel surround audio, and also control other devices such as lighting, scent, wind and climate generators. The system is modular and individually customisable. This moves illumotion system into the affordable price range.
The right frame for every picture
Any picture needs the right frame – and that applies to the illumotion views as well. As well as the themes themselves, the customers choose how the illusory world is to be framed. There are standard frames available in black, white or silver. The corners can be round or square. There may be one or two cut-out sections, which in turn can be rounded or square. Front screens can be put in place in seconds by simply snapping them onto the permanently mounted installation frame. It goes without saying that the surface finish of the frames can be adapted individually to fit a given room ambience. And in order to enhance the realistic effect of the virtual aquarium still further, illumotion has come up with a very special feature: In addition to the porthole effect via a front cover with two round cut-outs, there is an illuminated tank of real, aerated water. It has double-glazed walls that are filled with water, and a controllable system causes air bubbles to rise up as well – the illusion is practically indistinguishable from nature. Pure relaxation thanks to ‘all-round illusion’.
Optional box
Full-HD means ‘full high-definition’ and usually refers to the property of an HDTV compliant device to be able to display the highest HD resolution currently available in the consumer sector: 1920 × 1080 pixels. 4K technology (4096 × 2160 pixels) is four times sharper and more brilliant, and thanks to the digital rendering the sharpness remains constant. The high data transfer rates involved in the display of digital video or film material make its storage and transmission more complex and expensive. Data compression reduces both the image and sound data quantities. This is performed with the aid of a so-called codec (compressor/decompressor).
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