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Spherror

Julia Fernandez

An playful, yet unconventional mirror commenting on the absurdity of reality.

https://jftech-art.com/f/an-unconventional-mirror

Description

In our project, we invite visitors to take a seat in a chair and look at themselves in our unconventional mirror. The “mirror” is 4 feet tall and 3 feet wide and was created with 20 polystyrene spheres fixed to wooden dowels. The dowels are attached to a hollow base that conceals the power source and any wiring, including the wiring for the webcam. Across from the mirror is a chair for visitors to sit and gaze at themselves, positioned in a way that mimics a traditional vanity mirror. A projector will be fixed from the ceiling and at the bottom of the chair for full projection mapping coverage of the spheres. Since it is projection mapping, we would like to request a darker room. When a visitor is seated in the chair, PoseNet will detect specific facial features (eyes, nose, mouth) isolate them, and assign them to a sphere in the p5.js sketch. We then take the p5 sketch into MadMapper and projection map each circle onto our physical spheres. In the p5 sketch, the isolated features will jump around to different positions, which in turn will jump around from sphere to sphere via projection mapping. When there is no human present, the p5 sketch will display a TV noise animation.

The project is a commentary on the absurdity of reality. By dissecting your facial features, it is easier to see how strange we look and how much stranger we look when our eye or our nose is isolated. The project is playful because it is a fun interactive installation that anyone can use, but it is also uncanny and even uncomfortable because it dissects, exposes, and magnifies your face. Though people love looking at themselves, how will they feel when their faces are distorted in such a way?

Classes

Comm Lab: Hypercinema, Creative Computing

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AR Flooded City

Timmy Zhou

A compact AR installation of a coastal city showing the effects of our rising oceans, and what cities can do about the issue.

https://

Description

The city will be displayed on an area of 16″ x 18″. Users will have access to 13 Marker tiles (9 of which will be double sided) that come together to show the city. 9 Markers make up Scene 1, which is the city in the present day. Flip those over and Scene 2 will display, showing more than half of the city has been flooded and there has been a hasty seawall erected to try and save the rest of the city. Users can then clear those tiles away and use the remaining 4 markers to show the city before it was flooded, but now with various flood infrastructure in place. (Flood protection ideas inspired by BIG's Big U proposal for NYC).

Classes

Comm Lab: Hypercinema

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OptiMice

Jason Tse

OptiMice is a unique customer experience that professional computer peripheral users would get a tailor-made, ergonomic, customized, programmable computer mouse designed and manufactured, and finally shipped to customers’ hands.

https://jason1996429.github.io/optimice.html

Description

First, customers will have the shape and size of their hand measured with 3D scanning technology, a 3D model of the mouse that fits perfectly in their hand will be generated digitally. On a digital platform, customers can further customize different aspects of the mouse, e.g. wired/wireless, extra buttons, types of buttons/switches, button placement finetune, lighting, etc. The tailor made mouse case would be 3D printed. Programmatically, the PCB design which fits the tailor made casing would also be generated digitally. Then all the electronic parts of the customer’s selection will be installed on the PCB. When the customer gets their own mouse, they can program the behavior and functions of the mouse, e.g. what to perform with certain button is pressed.

Being a computer peripheral enthusiast, I bought some of the most premium mice that companies offer, just to simply make my life easier and more comfortable. But one time, I purchased a 4 dollar ergonomic vertical mouse, and it fits better than the 100 dollar mouse which earns “the best mouse on the market” title. The idea of “form over function” struck me. Despite premium mice are programmable and somehow ergonomic, unlike a customized mechanical keyboard which can be customised with different switches, keycaps, even the PCB design and frame, the customizability of a mouse is relatively limited. When a mouse is one’s everyday essential, especially for professional computer users, they will need a personalised computer mouse that perfectly fits their hands and preferences, just like a tailor made suit.

Classes

Electronics for Inventors, Prototyping Electronic Devices