721 Broadway
at Waverly Place
4th Floor
South Elevators
New York, NY 10003
For additional
information email
itp.inquiries@nyu.edu
or call 212.998.1880
| Found Connections | ||
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| Author(s): | Michael Ang David Bamford Joshua Dickens Karl Channell |
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| Instructor: | Gauthier, Jean-Marc Rozin, Daniel |
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| Class: | Spatial Design The World-Pixel by Pixel |
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| URL: | http://4lostguys.com | |
| Documents: |
Jack barcode(GIF)
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| Documents: |
Dharma Logo(GIF)
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| Documents: |
Jack_shannon_barcode test(JPEG)
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| Documents: |
TestingInLounge(JPEG)
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| Documents: |
TestingInLounge2(JPEG)
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| Documents: | View From Show(JPEG) | |
| Keywords: | augmented reality, social interaction, hidden connections, virtual identities, shared connections, video, storytelling, narrative | |
| Found Connections allows you to re-experience the narrative of 'Lost' by interacting with other individuals in the physical space and discover your hidden connections through augmented reality. | ||
| Found Connections allows you to re-experience the narrative of 'Lost' by interacting with other individuals in the physical space and discover your hidden connections through augmented reality. Hold up your fan (with a 4x4" tracker marker printed on it) in front of our installation. Live video is augmented with graphics which reveal a virtual character from the TV show 'Lost'. When more than one character is on the screen, the connections between those characters are visualized between them on the screen. Reverse the fan to find out more details about your connections. | ||
| Background: | 'Found Connections’ is an interactive exploration of social interaction and connections between people using the characters and storylines of the television show Lost as the content. The show Lost is rich with mystery, and hidden meanings; everything from the multiple sides of different characters to the paranormal activity on the island. We want to create the same type of mystery within the Winter Show by giving visitors a simple fan that has hidden content within it that's revealed in front of our installation. Through augmented reality software these connections are made visible on a plasma screen (or possibly projection) display. The tag on the user's fan turns into a graphic of a character from the TV show and once other users stand in front of the same screen, lines are drawn connecting them as audio, text bubbles and video content from the show are triggered based on which characters are interacting. This interest viewers based on the interesting content of Lost by really allowing them to take on the role of their character form the show. On another level it also spurs real life interactions with whoever the viewer happens to have a connections with. It reveals hidden connections through augmented reality using lost and also connections that person may happen to have with someone around them. | |
| Audience: | Our installation is targeted to any user willing to put themselves in a socially engaging situation. We want to examine the idea of connections and endulge viewers to take on another persona in the augmented space related to someone else in the room, thus prompting real life interactions between individuals. These interactions can be from any range of people willing to communicate with one another. The goal is to have unexpected people mingling. | |
| User Scenario: | A visitor starts by walking onto the 4th floor and obtain a fan handed to them with a barcode on it. This is different depending on which character they are. Upon entering the lounge area, they will see a kiosk with similar encodings printed on it. Looking above on the ceiling, they will see a projection of an augmented view of themselves; their encoded signs have been replaced with images of the characters from the show. They can then explore the connections between multiple characters in this altered view that is being projected above them. Flipping their sign over will reveal more detail about the particular connection they are currently a part of -- a text box will appear in the image with a synopsis of the connection (i.e., "Coincidental connection: Sawyer drank with Jack's dad in Australia"). The user can then trade their fan for another character, or leave with the satisfaction playing in this augmented space, seeing the narrative elements of Lost in a new light. | |
| Technical System Description: | The installation will take place, preferably, in the back corner of room 441. Unless a short range projector can be located we will be using a plasma screen to display all of the content. A small camera will be constructed into the front screen slightly above the center. The computer running the installation will be just to the right of the screen. Next to the computer will be a box 2×2’ in size where viewers can either drop off or pick up their fans. A railing made out of rope will help guide viewers and prevent them from getting too close to the screen, which would distort the ability to view other people’s tags. As people approach the installation the camera senses the barcode on the fans they are holding and draws virtual ribbons between them. When the viewers move closer to each other audio and accompanying subtitle text will appear. At least one other text will exist in the environment around them, creating a virtual setting more related to the show. This object will be a virtual suitcase or other object tagged on a box in front of them. Depending on what characters are interacting with each other, different video clips will be triggered from a screen to the side along with the audio and text. The type of video, audio and text all depends on which characters are interacting and what type of connection they have. Some may be romantic in nature while others are more coincidental, blood related, etc… Software implementation: * custom C++ code * OpenGL, ARToolkit * USB webcam | |
| Project References, Research and Literature: | The ARToolKit was vital in enabling the AR technology required for this - http://www.hitl.washington.edu/artoolkit/ ABC's television show "Lost" - http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/ Lost-TV fansite - http://www.lost-tv.com/ Lost episode guide on Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Episodes_of_Lost_(Season_1)#Special Our team, Michael Ang, Karl Channell, Josh Dickens and David Bamford would like to thank Jean-Marc for helping out with the project. | |
| Conclusions: | The goal of this project is to examine hidden connections, both virtual and real, by allowing the user the ability to take on the role of a fictional character from a television series. We discovered a lot about the potential of AR technology in telling a linear story in a non-linear way. It allows the user the ability to discover their own plotline between characters in a non-linear fashion. This experience allowed us to rethink how a story can be told and how to blur the lines between fiction vs. non-ficiton, real vs. virtual and overall make an experience more immersive. We look forward to implementing our idea and finding a strong way for visitors of the show to interact with one another. | |