ImproVision gave a visual artist simple means to create a video stream in real time — essentially “improvising” an image sequence by envisioning it. This was achieved with an exceedingly simple user interface (consisting of mouse gestures and keyboard strokes) to control the parameters of a dynamic “paint gun” and a full-screen dynamic image processing engine. (Some training was necessary, a little similar to learning to drive a race car in a video game).

This software has been used for public performances, in which the improvised video is projected on a large screen while music is played - typically improvised by a jazz band. The musicians and visual artist can respond to each other intuitively, as would happen a jazz band, but they are not electrically connected.

Most of the time, ImproVision was used privately by the visual artist, most likely listening to music, to generate the video sequence. Screenshots were captured on demand by a single keystroke.