The University of Bern's Institute of Sport Science deployed Scalable Display Manager in its Sensorimotor Lab — a multi-projector immersive research environment used to study elite motor behavior in sports — enabling precise, automatically maintained projection across a curved display surface.
The University of Bern is a comprehensive research university founded in 1834, offering over 150 bachelor's, master's, and doctoral degrees across eight faculties. Home to more than 19,000 students and situated in the Swiss capital, it is the third-largest university in Switzerland. Within its Faculty of Human Sciences, the Institute of Sport Science approaches sport as an interdisciplinary subject — combining perspectives from behavioral science, physiology, education, and applied research.
Since 2015, the Institute has been developing the Sensorimotor Lab, a specialized virtual reality infrastructure designed to study human motor behavior in complex, naturalistic environments. The lab allows researchers to place elite athletes in fully immersive projection environments and capture detailed data on perceptual and motor responses — information that would be impossible to gather in a conventional research setting.
"Since 2015, we have been developing a virtual reality infrastructure specifically targeting the study of human motor behavior in sports and exercise," said Dr. Ralf Kredel, senior lecturer at the University of Bern's Institute of Sport Science. "The University of Bern has many students who are highly proficient in sports, which allows us to closely monitor and study elite motor behavior while playing sports or exercising in our Sensorimotor Lab."
The Sensorimotor Lab uses a curved multi-projector display to surround participants with immersive visual environments — replicating sports scenarios with sufficient fidelity to trigger the perceptual and motor responses the researchers are studying. Achieving seamless, geometrically accurate projection across a curved surface with multiple overlapping projectors required robust calibration software that could handle the complexity without constant manual intervention.
The Institute integrated Scalable Display Manager to handle warp, edge blending, and color calibration across the projection system. Scalable's camera-based calibration delivers the geometric accuracy the research environment demands, and automated recalibration maintains display fidelity across research sessions without requiring dedicated AV staff.
Dr. Kredel added: "The Institute of Sport Science utilizes the Sensorimotor Lab to research human motor behavior from a basic scientific perspective and explain phenomena manifesting in applied sports. We have used it to investigate sport-specific gaze behavior, anticipatory behavior in team sports, and visual-motor control in a range of athletic contexts. The quality and consistency of the visual environment is fundamental to the validity of our research."
Scalable Display Technologies' software has enabled the University of Bern to operate a research-grade immersive environment without the operational complexity typically associated with multi-projector systems — keeping the lab focused on science rather than AV maintenance.
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