The biggest problem with the project is, as always, people. Ideally, the user would stick their head under the dome and relax under the glow of the lights. In reality, people would likely feel rather vulnerable with the rest of their body being exposed. Bluntly, things didn't go too well for Shia LaBeouf when he put a paper bag over his head and let people spend time in a room with him. These concerns were realized in the very first session with the brief, but I'm still struggling to see a way around it short of people locking themselves in a large immersive cubicle, which is a far cry from a small escape pod hood in a train carriage. The primary sense for the experience is the user's eyes, and secondly their ears, but those senses are also the main defense against any ne'er-do-well. Seated? Too vulnerable. Standing? Too vulnerable. One early idea of mine was to have the user pull the helmet part down over their head, then pull down a collapsible fabric tube and stand on a strap at the bottom to secure it. Still too vulnerable.
From tents to lampshades, they're either not feasible to construct, or leave the user exposed. A stylish and somewhat arty form factor would be a traditional living room armchair with a matching lamp directly behind and over it, so the user sits in the chair and has the immersive lampshade over their head. An ideal location for the machine would be somewhere private where the user knows they're secure, such as in their house, but the potentially stressful locations it's intended to provide a brief escape from are public spaces such as offices and shopping centers.