Il giardino di Armida

Mixed reality is used to provide a modern interpretation of a scene of a 17-century opera as a fully immersive experience.

The scene is the “Passacaille” from the opera “Armide” by J. B. Lully (1686). In the original plot, magician Armide enchants Renaud by creating around him a fairy world which distracts him from his duties. In this app, the player is a modern Renaud, and the play enchants him by gently and progressively substituting the ordinary surrounding world with one of fantasy.

After starting the app, the player just sees his room through the passthrough cameras. An overlay panel prompts him to look around himself. Once having looked around a complete tour, the app starts building a mixed reality scenery synchronized to the music. The virtual world starts growing around him, progressively hiding the real world. No special action is requested to the user, other than just enjoying watching. After the play is over, the user is brought back to the start scenario, where he can decide to restart the play.

The virtual objects and scenes are created out of photographic details abstracted from the urban landscape ( torn placards, scraped walls, … ) and extruded into half-transparent 3D shapes.

The music is played on the harpsichord in the transcription by J. H. D’Anglebert