VIDEOPLACE is a responsive video projection environment mapping users movements and actions in a real-time build etween 1975 and 1984. The system is Krueger's first implementation of an Artifical Reality enivronment, an interactive immersive environment where the user get in contact with the virtual without any use of googles or other interface devices.
The works GLOW FLOW, META PLAY, and PSYCHIC SPACE were the precursors to the VIDEOPLACE environment, which now of comes with 25 different programs.
"Two people in different rooms, each containing a projection screen and a video camera, were able to communicate through their projected images in a «shared space» on the screen. No computer was involved in the first Environment in 1975. In order to realize his ideas of an «artificial reality» he [Krueger] started to develop his own computer system in the years up to 1984, mastering the technical problems of image recognition, image analysis and response in real time. This system meant that he could now combine live video images of visitors with graphic images, using various programs to modify them. When «Videoplace» is shown today, visitors can interact with 25 different programs or interaction patterns. A switch from one program to another usually takes place when a new person steps in front of the camera. But the «Videoplace» team has still not achieved its ultimate aim of developing a program capable of learning independently."
(Source: Media Art Net work record)