Lockheed Martin

To be able to look out of the windows then have them turn into 4K screens, our technology partners designed combination of technology which comprised of switchable security film glass and a 4K display panel. The windows are transparent to start then the switchable film went opaque which blocked the outside image and helped reflect added light elements. The 4K panel dissolves from transparent white to the experience.

Using the Unreal Game Engine as the platform for the experience, the game devs at Framestore New York created a 200-square-mile “worldspace” based on the real street map of D.C. The team programmatically covered the area with geological features and painted objects along the bus’s route, and created a system that would allow real bus speed, GPS and accelerometer to be translated into Unreal, creating a real school bus that would exist inside the realm of a video game.

The bus itself became the headset: transparent 4K screens enabled passengers to look outside to D.C., before being transported to the rocky terrain of Mars. We created a control system that used the movement of the bus and translated it into the game engine. The controls combined off-the-shelf Maker community components including an Arduino kit with an industrial laser surface velocimeter. The rider feels the real motion of the bus and the content on the screens is synced. There are no 4D theater tricks created to simulate movements.

The Innovation

Custom built 80″ 4K transparent LCDs with switchable electric glass
Bus movement turned into real-time game controller
200 square-miles of real-world roads turned into a video game
One 12kw, 100 amp, 3 cylinder, 27 HP, liquid cooled, diesel generator
Four 1000w audio amplifiers
18 speakers
5100 watts of computer usage
30000 gigaflops of graphics processing power
One 12mW Class B laser