Welcome to Eye Vapor

The Studio

Eye Vapor is an immersive technology and creative studio founded in 2009 by Jeff Smith. We specialize in experiences that combine custom hardware, proprietary software, and real-time content to create something audiences haven't seen before.

Over 15 years, we've delivered more than 75 projects spanning concert tours, Super Bowl activations, military simulations, interactive game systems, dome theaters, and large-scale augmented reality installations. Our work has taken us to five Super Bowl cities, Saudi Arabia, India, the Philippines, New Zealand, China, and across the Americas.

We are not a production company that rents equipment. We build the equipment. We write the software. We create the content. And then we perform it live.

What We’re Building Now

We're currently in active development on a new venture in location-based entertainment — a physical gaming platform that combines custom hardware, real-time spatial computing, and adaptive game design. The project draws on everything we've built over the past 15 years: interactive systems, immersive audio, real-time engines, and experiences designed for groups, not headsets.

A provisional patent has been filed. The proof of concept is functional. We're not ready to say more publicly, but the work represents the most ambitious application of our technology to date.

If you'd like to learn more, reach out directly.

Jeff Smith — Founder

Jeff Smith has spent 40 years at the intersection of games, film, and live entertainment technology.

He began his career in video games, spending a decade at Electronic Arts as Senior Art Director and Director of Graphics. At EA, he art directed and shipped titles in the Madden Football, Tiger Woods Golf, Road Rash, and James Bond franchises, managing teams of up to 15 artists across multiple console generations. He then served as Director of External Development at THQ, where he provided creative direction for UFC Undisputed and oversaw the WWE franchise art across international development teams.

In 2009, he founded Eye Vapor. Since then, he has designed and directed more than 75 immersive projects worldwide — including touring with Deadmau5 as video director, building interactive installations for Google, Nike, Microsoft, and Red Bull, engineering a next-generation command simulation for the US Air Force, delivering multi-year dome theater projects in Saudi Arabia, and most recently leading the Chrono Craft AR bus fleet in Beijing from concept through a 20-vehicle launch.

He holds patents in projection mapping and foveated viewing technology, and continues IP development and research work with DOD/DARPA.

Education: BFA in Illustration, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA Contact:jeff@eyevapor.com · LinkedIn

The Team

Eye Vapor's core collaborators have worked together for over a decade — across AAA games, Super Bowl installations, international dome theaters, touring shows, and the Chrono Craft AR fleet. Combined credits include 20+ AAA titles, 6 Super Bowls, 2 Emmys, 3 patents, and 75+ live events across 15 countries.

Russ Haines — Technical Director & Co-Founder

Co-founder of Eye Vapor and founder, CEO, and CTO of Stratus Systems. Russ holds US Patent US10659759B2, cited by 26 subsequent patents, and his systems powered the technology behind Eye Vapor's Super Bowl installations for Microsoft, Sprint, Nike, Pepsi, and Google across Super Bowls XLVI through LI. He authored Digital Audio, a globally adopted audio standard, and in 1993 pioneered one of the first internet concerts with Severe Tire Damage at Xerox PARC.

John Sullivan — VFX Director

Emmy Award-winning visual effects supervisor and producer. John's film credits include Collateral, Die Hard with a Vengeance, Last Action Hero, and The Thomas Crown Affair, and he received his Emmy for The Pacific. He holds patents in theme park immersive technology. John worked alongside Jeff for four years on Eye Vapor's multi-year dome theater project in Saudi Arabia, bridging cinematic-quality VFX with real-time interactive environments.

Steve Petersen — Creative Director

Emmy Award-winning director and creative director with 25+ years blending live-action, visual effects, and emerging technology. Steve has led projects for Nike, Disney, Netflix, Toyota, and Xbox, and co-founded Big Machine, an LA-based creative studio. Notable work includes the Alien: Rogue Incursion launch event, a four-story anamorphic screen for Creed 3, and Nike All-Star Weekend. He served as creative director on the Chrono Craft, leading story, visuals, and audio for the AR mobile theater. He and Jeff have collaborated since 2008.