Bestiary is a large, seemingly empty book that displays a new fantastical creature each time someone turns a page. The animals are assembled from an array of parts in Processing, given a name reflecting their make-up (e.g. Mantidilloboon for an animal assembled from mantis, armadillo, and baboon parts) and projected onto the blank pages. Camera input notes each page turn and triggers the creation of a new animal.

Audience
Young children and their parents.

User Scenario
A person sees a mysterious book lying face open on a table. She approaches the book, and sees a unique animal she has never heard of projected upon the page. She turns the page and sees yet another fantastical creature.

Implementation
The animal creation is based on a context-free grammar Java program, and the page tracking is done with color recognition, a webcam, and processing.

Conclusion
We've generated animals a few different ways, from overlaying transparent .png files to attaching images to various points on other images. Vectors, however, are the most flexible medium for creating these composite images. The idea of projecting on the book comes from a desire to create an experience more engaging than clicking a mouse for the user.