May 3-7, 2005
Thesis Presentations
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| Whispering Objects | ||
|---|---|---|
| Author(s): | Katalin Banlaki | |
| Instructor: | Hechinger, Nancy | |
| Class: | Final Project Seminar (Wed.) | |
| URL: | http://stage.itp.nyu.edu/~kb667/thesis | |
| Keywords: | Visual dictionaries: • world in pictures • associated information • tactile dictionary • physical representation Object Based Learning (OBL): • Generative Learning Strategies • Constructivism • Scaffolding • Experiential Learning • Multiple Intelligences Tangible user interface • Ambient media • Graspable user interface • Center and periphery • Foreground and background • Object interface Tagging: • RFID • Automation ID • Smart objects Personal Touch Display: • Virtual signage • Visualizing Information | |
| A narrative and tactile installation of everyday
personal and historic objects which speak to us, allowing access to their inner self. | ||
| 1.1 Whispering Objects Concept explained I.2 Information Association/Annotation I.3 INFORMATION LAYERS /targeted/AND AUDIENCE SEGMENTATION 1.4 Tactile, sense of touch and learning I.5 Display – Projection | ||
| Personal Statement: | Personal Note
I am interested in stories, in objects that have a hidden history and stories that are capsulated in them. Providing a key and enable them to be opened if the viewer wishes to explore them, as in the case of a book that you can‘t judge based on its invisible cover. Stories of the inner realm are at times not obvious at first and you might have to spend a little time with the object in front of you before it starts to form an understandable picture. The objects thus become graspable keys that allow access to the story layer by layer. Object stories that in public spaces translate history and in our private surroundings form our personal myths. Stories have always been a part of our lives and of our ancestors, but new technologies give new narrative possibilities and continue to provide the birth of new interactive story telling channels. New channels in which the audience can go beyond the visual and auditory senses, making better use of their sense of touch. Instead of a well polished structure, the following is a messy list of my interests [closer to my thinking] that have shaped this Thesis; my background in literature and an interest in fictitious characters and worlds, collecting antiques, a small projector I had as a child that projected story slides (was one of my favourites), artists who used both writing and illustrations to express themselves, Symbolist painting, symbols that represent ideas as well as paintings created with a certain feeling and energy. Other motivation included simple mementos from everyday life: I have always spent a lot of time at river banks searching, looking for stones, collecting them, flipping them over, tossing them. Somewhat similar to a grand library in many ways. This perhaps led me to explore the annotated stone described further in the text. My grandparents just turned 90, looking at their lives and how technology takes a part in it, it seems they enjoy the technology as talking on skype or wanting to program a favourite television program – when someone sets it up for them. It made me realize or rather re-confirm that it’s not disinterest in technologies for select target audiences, but rather the “mechanical” and complicated access to them that keeps them disconnected. Our interfaces are still buggy, complicated and too mechanical. Integrating them more and more into our everyday lives and surroundings allows more fluid and flowing usage. Their closet is full of old photographs and letters, the apartment is full of works, of paintings, antique objects much of which are from working many years in China, etc. For many of them I know the story, for many, I don’t. Similarly, this is how many things end up in museums and all we really look at sometimes is through a distant glass case and a wall panel. These are some of the questions I wanted to look at in this Thesis, how can we make technology help us in the end, in these everyday little things. | |
| Context: | Context – TAGGING – TACTILE Handling – Visual DISPLAY
What are some of the applications and initiatives that are being used today? and how are they being used? There have been a number of innovative and inspirational projects and research, that has helped and led to the development of this thesis. Visual dictionaries Object Based Learning (OBL) Tagging Personal Touch Display The Visual Dictionary Visual dictionaries arrange items visually and point out the words associated with each item as in the above examples of the study and the desk above. We have access through either their name or their visual image. The Orbis Pictus \'Orbis Sensualis Pictus\' by the Czech theologian, philosopher and educator, Johann Comenius. Comenius lived in Amsterdam from 1656 until his death in 1670. “With its ingenious uses and combinations of text and image, the work, published in 1658, was a revolution in pedagogy and the visual presentation of knowledge. The book was the inspiration for subsequent picture dictionaries and illustrated encyclopedias published in the ensuing three centuries;\" Tagging “Wings” at the Natural History Museum in Aarhus, Denmark “Wings” is an exhibition where the exhibited birds are tagged and scannable through PDA’s that users receive when entering the exhibition. The Stuffed birds are RFID tagged, thus each bird has a unique serial number that is associated with descriptive textual materials, quizzes/games, audio and video. Visitors can access these features through the PDA. The exhibit can also be accessed in different modes such as: encyclopedia, theme and game mode. The encyclopedia mode gives a Point-and-Scan id/definition of the birds. The themes allow various narration modes to be walked through the exhibiton. The game mode gives various hints to a bird -- The answer is given by scanning the right bird. This can also serve as an on-premises playful test of what children have learned that day on their field trip. Another interesting feature of the exhibit is that after the initial registration into the system through the PDA – users can use the same name and password later to log into the system from home and access some of the information they might have gathered while visiting. | |
| Audience: | Teaching both children and adults alike about objects
according to audience segmentation and layered information access. [object specific unique virtual encyclopeadia (OSUVE), where we collect and embed information and data and links relating to an object and make it all easily accessible to various audiences, if needed, in a differentiated manner, through audience segmentation.] | |
| User Scenario: | The Project and concept is explored on two levels. One,
Scenario I, in a personal environment of the home, where we move around each day, where we live and where we surround ourselves with our collections creating our immediate world and stories. Some are functional, while others are completely illogical, save the notion that we want to keep them. We can touch these at any moment. The other, Scenario II, is a Museum/Library/Gallery environment, where preservation is a vital function, where the institutions constantly strive to develop new ways of educating visitors, where limited wall panels and object displays are often restrictive and limiting in scope of information communication. There are inverse roles and processes in the two Scenarios. In the Personal Touch Scenario (I.) only the Person knows the information related to the object, possibly has relevance only for her/him, and it is her/his decision to embed and what information in an object. In the Museum Scenario (II.) the Person (visitor) does not know the embedded information of the exhibit object and has to extract it to get to know it. | |
| Methodology: | The previous efforts all lead to the present interface installation: the explore desk. Embedding the RFID tags is more pleasant to handle and without the restraining barcodes through a more invisible stroke. The project also incorporated RFID technology for connecting the objects to their associated media, Macromedia Flash for containing the media, Visual Basic for connecting the read values of the RFID reader and loading the appropriate Flash file and
Priva-Lite glass for visual projection display. Phidget RFID Reader In developing the prototype I was looking for a reader that was low in cost and that I can connect to Macromedia Flash. Phidget Inc. produces USB connected peripherals. Their Phidgets RFID reader connects directly to the PC and requires no other power source of its own. It is a read only reader and and has the possibility to connect to a relay on board output 0. Visual Basic 6 and .net Visual Basic (VB) is a programming environment from Microsoft in which a programmer uses a graphical user interface to choose and modify preselected sections of code written in the BASIC programming language. After creating some applications in Visual Basic 6, I tried to transfer these to Visual Basic.net. There were several problems as .net converts files to .net version. It seemed I was missing components even after downloading supplementary components and the interface was also difficult to get used to after working with VB 6. Because of all of these circumstances and timing I stayed working with VB 6. VB 6 contains the function to communicate with Flash as well as to load and play Flash .swf files. This functions seemed to work well for me to create the demo that I wanted to create to link virtual information to physical objects. Macromedia Flash MX Scan Interface Media files as audio, graphical and video that are relevant to the objects were created in Flash. Each Flash .swf file corresponds to an object or information snippet. Represented information components/snippets: Full scale illustration of original artefact in comparison with replica Geographical information about the origin of the replica and historic context: Map of Imperial Tours of the first Emperor (220-219 BCE) Who it belongs to or is associated with: Qin Shi Huang Direct surroundings or how it was found: Xian tombs and excavations. Priva-Lite Glass Description Priva_Lite is a laminated glazing comprising two sheets of glass, either clear or tinted, and a liquid crystal film. I used a sample 8 1/2 x 11 piece of the Priva-Lite glass to demonstration how the visual display may work in a large scale application. The glass works with a switch allowing movement back and forth between its transparent and opaque state. The installation idea is based on the RFID tool, “whisperer” to trigger the on and off state of the glass (whether the glasses are windows of a house relating to the Personal touch or protective glass in museum cases etc.) when we want to display information about a specific object or retrieving previous information stored in the “whisperer”. | |
| Conclusions: | Referring to the secrets „witnessed” by objects, we often hear and say: „If these walls or stones could tell their tails....” Now they can, it is only our imagination that is limiting us in hearing what they say.
Whereas there are still several technical details to develop further, striving to link virtual information and real objects, we are capable of constructing, in both the private, personal realm and in public exhibit spaces, total information compilations related to and embedded in objects. The embedded information can be extracted in a differentiated and personalized fashion according to personal status, access rights, expertise and level of interest in detail. | |