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The Narcissist Mirror

Wannapa Pokakunkanon

An interactive mirror that will reveal your true beauty.

https://editor.p5js.org/msyves/full/r1E38zHy4

Description

More and more of the younger generations are struggling with self-worth issues. This problem can start at really young age and with the media exposure these days we are led to believe that we have to look/be a certain way to be considered ‘beautiful’. It is also a nature of human to compare ourselves with other people.

‘The Narcissist Mirror’ is an interactive mirror that talks to you and listens to you. Users will be prompt to answer the question ‘Who is the fairest of them all?’. The mirror will then start drawing a painting of the user only if they answer ‘me’ or ‘myself’ using speech recognition. If the user say something else, it will point out how the user doesn’t know how beautiful they are and will keep encouraging the user to answer again and again.

I believe we need a little reminder that we are all beautiful 😉

Classes

Introduction to Computational Media

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Music Between Us

Jiwon Shin, Rashida Kamal

Music Between Us (title tentative) is a set of wearable musical instruments in the form of embroidered jackets, meant to be worn by two (or potentially more) users, that invites users to explore and play with the boundaries of comfort, in touching and being touched.

https://js6450.github.io/PhysicalComputing/weekly/musicbetweenus.html

Description

Music Between Us (title tentative) is a set of wearable musical instruments, meant to be worn by two (or potentially more) users at a time. It takes the form of embroidered jackets that when touched, triggers a range of melodic and rhythmic elements that are added to an existing soundscape. The soundscape begins with a “heartbeat” percussive piece that continues for the duration of the soundscape. The variety of sounds builds as the users interact with each other by making contact with the embroidered elements on their jackets, occasionally including additional percussive elements as contact between the users intensifies.

The regions of embroidered elements on the jacket represent a topography of meanings — some locations on the jacket may suggest a more casual connection and others, more intimate. The piece invites users to explore and play with the boundaries of comfort, in touching and being touched. The piece is also a social experiment in the sense of prompting the users whether their default boundaries of comfort would be altered under the context of art and play.

The wireless wearable jacket is is constructed using a polyester base material and conductive thread for the embroidery and circuit connection. Areas of embroidery are used for input for the capacitive touch sensors (MPR121) and the users' touch data is communicated via Bluetooth over the Web Bluetooth API to trigger sounds over the web. Each of the sounds that can be triggered via capacitive touch sensors are initially composed as a soundscape designed in the way that regardless of how many sounds are triggered, the soundscape sounds natural and reflective of the level of touches between the participants.

Classes

Introduction to Physical Computing

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Vo-5ynth

Tushar Goyal

Generative music instrument that makes music algorithmically from the users voice

https://wp.nyu.edu/tushargoyal/2018/12/05/vo-5ynth/

Description

Vo-5ynth, pronounced “vo-synth” (short for “voice-synthesizer in p5”) is a music instrument, but, its not a an ordinary one. First it doesn't have a sound of its own. Instead, it uses the users voice to make music. Second, its a generative music instrument so it doesn't give the user complete control over the music making process, instead, it encourages the user to (in a way) collaborate with the instrument (“the machine”) to make music. The user can define the pool of notes from which music can be generated but the actual output (notes for the bass, melody, harmony) is generated algorithmically by the instrument. The user can change the selected notes in real time to change how the music sounds and can thus, play this as an instrument that can be performed live or be used as an ideation tool, or just for fun really!

Classes

Intro to Fabrication, Introduction to Computational Media, Introduction to Physical Computing, The Code of Music

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Phubbing Puppets

Rui Wang, Su He, Helen Tang

Give us your phone, pass down ur phubbing habit 😉

https://medium.com/@sh5304/icm-final-concept-9954883595e0

Description

Phubbing refers to as phone snubbing, where we slip back and fall into the habit of constantly checking our phones, retract from physical interaction and immerse in the virtual world. In collaboration with Rui Wang and Su He, we set out to explore how to demonstrate this phenomenon, while at the same time, actively seeking approaches to tackle this behavior if possible. Through three main stages of user testing and test play, our idea evolved over time and turned out more engaging.
Our final piece is an interactive installation that illustrates the phenomenon and provoke further thoughts within viewers.

Classes

Introduction to Computational Media, Introduction to Physical Computing

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Pandemonium

Dingwen Kou, Ruyi Chen

Our oblivious sonic footprint can cause acoustic trauma or even death to underwater life.

https://wp.nyu.edu/rc3989/2018/12/05/whats-under/

Description

“We now know that the underwater world is anything but silent. In fact, today's researchers are concerned that underwater noise produced by humans is distracting, confusing – and even killing – aquatic animals.”

Based on prior and current researches, noise pollution caused by human activities in the ocean (underwater explosion, ship or boat sound, construction, etc.) can and does severely disrupt whales' behaviors such as their communication and their ability to find food, mates or avoid predators, thus threatening their lives or even directly causing death. Therefore, we decided to use the microphone as the primary input and interaction in this project to simulate how underwater acoustic trauma is produced by humans and how it is largely affecting marine species which would be whales in this case.

When the sound made by the user from the microphone input hits a certain level:

The background color will change from black to a bloody red as the choppiness of the ocean will be influenced by the volume of the noise. The whales will be disturbed heavily and thus lose their track of peaceful and orderly swimming orbit which too will be affected by the volume of the noise.

When the environment calms down again, fortunately yet ironically everything will go back to the serene environment that the piece starts with, while in reality, most of the time the trauma caused would take decades to ease and heal and the tragedies of death are irreversible.

Primarily, this project acts as an educational and warning piece to every single one of us even though you might think that you are not doing anything bad.

These ocean threats, however, are also human threats.

As Cousteau said, “For most of history, man has had to fight nature to survive; in this century he is beginning to realize that, in order to survive, he must protect it.”

Classes

Creative Computing

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The Friendship Game

Chunhan Chen, Olivia Kung, Tianyi Xie

Test your friendship with your closest friend or the stranger closest to you by selecting shapes that represent how you feel about a given emotion.

http://tianyix.hosting.nyu.edu/blog/ipc/the-friendship-game-a-simple-two-players-interaction/

Description

We wanted to explore the complicated nature of friendship in a game-like way. Abstract shapes and vague questions represent the disconnect that two people may have while thinking about the same question. The friendship tests gamifies the difficulty that it can be to achieve common ground and eventually friendship between two people who have alternate perspectives.

This project requires two players, that may be strangers or the closest of friends, to put their new or old found friendship to the ultimate test. The players will be provided with five identical shape halves. Then they will be given a series of questions related to their feelings on select emotions. All it takes are three correct matches for the players to be rewarded in friendship and candy.

Classes

Introduction to Physical Computing, Introduction to Physical Computing

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sensorship

Helen Hutchens, Xiaoshi Liang

Sensorship explores what happens when censorship is not longer an omission but a transmutation, by challenging two people—whether near-strangers or old friends—to hop in and figure out how to convey a message when your earpiece is against you.

https://carrefinho.com/sensorship/

Description

Our relationship with those around us is increasingly carried out on screen. As the magnitude of digital communication increases inverse to face-to-face interactions, it belays the question: what happens when what we mean to say is not faithfully transmitted to who we’re communicating with?

The censorship of thought, language, and expression has, of course, been carried out in past ages, our current times, and likely future eras. Yet most of this has come across via blockage—a hand obstructing a printing press, a story cut from a manuscript, a forced deletion on social media…

What happens, though, when your message comes through? We trust that our machines will relay our messages in good faith. But what happens when your message is altered, warped, and effectively pre-packaged for its recipient? What can you do when the medium of communication itself believes in 'fake news'?

Users will assume different roles: one person will be a scientist who is a member of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the other an emissary of the research to the world. They have to try and communicate—somewhat ironically by speaking into two analog phones—through a system that twists the terms that matter most (e.g. “global warming”) replacing them with other terms and thus meanings. Using a speech-to-text-to-speech process and the RiTa language library, both parties will be able to have a conversation, albeit one tampered with. The emissary's task is to receive the correct message from the researcher. They’ll have to beat the system in creative ways.

Classes

Creative Computing

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Fabricated: A Series on Light and Energy

James Hosken

Handmade devices exploring the aesthetics and tangibility of light and electricity.

https://generallyplayful.com/category/itp/fab/

Description

Each of these objects incorporates light, or electricity, or both, in a tangible, aesthetic way. The modular hand-cranked power supply can be used to power each of the pieces, bringing an element of interactivity; demonstrating the work required to power something as mundane as LEDs. Alternatively, the hand-made power supply can be used as a more stable energy source, turning the objects into display pieces.

Classes

Basic Analog Circuits, Intro to Fabrication

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wings(wearable)

Fenfen CHEN

Use the power of your muscle to control your own wings

https://wp.nyu.edu/fenfenrita/category/pcomp/

Description

Imagine you have a pair of wings，you can control it with the power of your muscle.
When tense muscle , the wings will flap and different feather layers will move up and down.
When muscle release，the wings will stop gradually.
It is wearable finally…

Classes

Introduction to Physical Computing

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Breathenage

Wenjing Liu

A set of meditating tool that resonates with user's breath, help them breathe more consciously and calm them down

https://jingdezign.wordpress.com/2018/12/05/research-on-breathing-for-project3-breathing-cave/

Description

Breathing is an action that is vital to our lives yet often ignored by us. We get so used to it that we forget we are actually controlling it constantly, nevertheless to remember how important it is. Breathing is our life instinct. It is one of the signs that we are still present at this world. The way we breathe will also affect our internal state.

But today people, especially those in the cities, are live in such a hectic lifestyle that many of us are experiencing more and more anxiety, stress and even insomnia. We are so busy in interacting with different external things that we forget to interact with ourselves.

Hence I set out to design Breathenate to help people interact with themselves through breathing — to slow down, to be more self-aware, to focus on the present and let the tension flows. Functional wise, it is a set of tool that mirrors user’s breath pattern and guides them breathe deeper and slower. Eventually, it might help users (including me!) build up a good breathing habit.

The piece consists of 2 parts:
– A soft waistband that can detect user’s breath pattern using stretch sensor and will instruct them how to breathe through vibration motors
– A balloon that will inflate and deflate in responding to user’s breathing pattern

Classes

Introduction to Physical Computing