Woyzeck was developed using a variety of hardware and software components. The video footage of the dancers was filmed using a mini DV camera in a chromakey studio the production team specially constructed for the project at Columbia University Theatre Arts Division in May 2007. Video editing was completed using Apple FinalCut and Adobe AfterEffects CS3. The singers were also recorded at Columbia University using a USB microphone and sound editing was completed using Apple GarageBand and Finale.
Woyzeck was programmed for augmented reality (AR) using The Designers Augmented Reality Toolkit (DART), a set of software tools built on top of Adobe Director, designed by Georgia Institute of Technology GVU Center. This software application handles the communication between the music and video content and the AR hardware. Due to the DART's flexibility, Woyzeck can be adapted to different AR configurations depending on the lab in which it will be installed.
The AR hardware at the September / October 2007 installation at The Future Cinemas Lab at York University, Toronto, Canada consists of an inertial and ultrasonic fusion tracking grid and sensors developed by Intersense and an optical see-through head mounted display (HMD) by NVIS. The Intersense IS-900 system sends ultrasonic and inertial pulses from a grid of rails mounted in the ceiling of the installation space to sensors worn on the head and hands of the audience member. Using the head and hand sensors, referred to as trackers, the grid determines the location of the audience member and communicates this information to DART. In this way, the installation has been designed to such that the scenes of the play, at times music, other times video, and sometimes both, can be located spatially. The NVIS nVisor ST optical see-through HMD is worn on the audience member's head and allows the video scenes to be projected into the audience member's vision. The optical see-through HMD, as opposed to video see-through HMDs, allow the audience member to view the real world, and therefore interact with various tangible interfaces located around the space, as well as view the video of the dance choreography. The HMD also includes Sennheiser headphones, which allow the audience member to experience the music and dance simultaneously.
A particular advantage of AR, and the optical see-through HMD specifically, is that the final product is a combination of the real world and digital materials. This enhances the audience member's feeling of really being in a place, the storyworld of Woyzeck in particular, as opposed to virtual reality (VR), total digital immersion, which can feel like being no place. This combination of the real and digital also creates the conditions for ambiguity and doubt as theorized by early twentieth century German psychologist Ernst Jentsch, which can result in a feeling of the uncanny.
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