Last semester, I built a “Virtual Wall” as my term project. This project was about tangible shopping experience. People buy furniture, televisions from the store but it is quite hard for them to see how they will look like on their apartment overall before they purchase them. So what they usually do is they buy the product only based on their imagination. The idea started from here. What if there is a way to upload their room picture on the wall and put the virtual item pictures on it and see how it looks like in advance? This is the concept about the project.

In this design, however, you need big space to see and control things and run a projector to make a real-size screen. I was thinking if there is another handy and easier way to keep this interaction and the main concept. Therefore, for this capstone project I would like to use augmented reality technology in iPhone and try to make interesting interaction with a virtual wall concept.

Besides, the virtual wall concept, it will have huge potential. I did not decided what it will be but, I would like to make something fun like these below.

Lego Augmented reality

Hallmark Augmented reality card

For my final project, I hope to continue my work in urban computing and time-lapse photography. In particular, I’ve been working on creating a cheap, time-lapse camera that people could use to “sense” the world around them. The cost of such a device would be around $10, when all is said and done, and having multiple of these devices would open up options for public computing that people have not considered – a world where people are willing to deploy “personal, public” electronics throughout their environment with the same ubiquity, recyclability and reusability as paper.

That said, getting a camera to a usable state where one could seriously explore this future would take time. I’ve created a proof of concept camera, to test how seriously my idea can be taken today with open-hardware techniques – but the question remains, how do I explore what might be possible in the future using today’s technology? In the seven weeks of this project, it’s infeasible to linearly refine my open-source hardware to a usable state and THEN explore the possibilities of personal, public computing on that same hardware.

My solution? Cobble together existing off-the-shelf hardware to do the task for me. I hope to combine the Wingscapes Plantcam ($80) with the Eye-fi Wireless SD Card ($40), to give myself a slightly expensive “prototype” hardware platform for taking time-lapse photography in public spaces. I will then create a server application and website for time-lapse photo processing that, combined with the hardware, makes a reasonable case for why a cheap, open-hardware time-lapse photography kit makes sense for individuals in the community.

By the end of this class, I hope to have worked out the kinks in this prototype hardware setup, and successfully deployed a hardware and software setup that regularly counts people at the CMU bus stop and shares that information with commuters around CMU through a publicly available website. The thought is that people can safely assume the bus has already left if no one is waiting at the bus stop, and that the bus is running late and will arrive soon if more people than normal are waiting. A rough sketch of what such a website might feel like is below.

(Note: I reserve the right to rework this project as PamelasCount, or LaundryCount, or whatever allows me to complete a successful intervention in the time alloted that still taps into the “zeitgeist” of personal public computing.)

Development Plan:
Mon, March 22nd (Today, and My Birthday): Deliver this pitch. Done!
Thur, March 25th: Have hardware acquired and functional (PlantCam/Eye-fi). Spend lots of money to get things quickly. Try to get other projects interested in equipment to reimburse.
Wed, March 31st: Prove that pictures can be transmitted with PlantCam/Eye-fi to a local machine or Flickr service
Fri, April 2nd: Prove pictures can be transmitted over public wifi (CMU, Sq Hill)
Mon April 6th: Have blob detection working with “test photos” (taken without PlantCam/Eye-Fi)
Fri April 9th: Have blob detection work in real time with PlantCam/Eye-Fi photos.
Sat April 10th: Begin work on public-facing website.
Sun April 11th-Fri April 16th: CHI in Atlanta. Work on website during boring talks.
Freak out, recognize irony of being crunched to finish further work in Personal Public Computing because of presenting previous work in Personal Public Computing.
Fri April 16th: Plug real photos, blob detection data into public-facing website.
Mon April 19th: Present finished work, or beg for forgiveness/extension.

Concept & Motivation

I’ve always been really interested in how people choose to express themselves through the internet. Many people I know have heard of Post Secret and FMyLife: sites in which people can express something personal about themselves anonymously to the entire internet. I’m sure many people have also heard of various YouTube celebrities who blog about random topics in their lives/about the world and end up getting 1.8 million views (a.k.a. Boxxy).

Another big question I have is why?: why do people feel the need to express their problems publicly to potentially everyone on the internet? An obvious answer would be because it’s an outlet for them. Or, they believe that by expressing their secret or opinion, they will change the way others think about the topic of their secret or opinion (or at least open their eyes to the topic). So, I figured I’d investigate even further than that and put forth the final question I’m going to hopefully investigate for this project: Why do people feel the need to express themselves over the internet, and how do the topics they feel comfortably sharing over the internet differ from the topics they would share with a person face-to-face?

Method(s)

I don’t think they’re has been a huge study on this, but I want to collect my own data anyway. I will be using Mechanical Turk again (since I had so much fun with it in my first project!). I will also try to use other survey sites and chat clients to get data. I’ve already begun collecting data and shaping my survey from mechanical turk. I’m going to start trying to collect data from chat roulette soon (when I’m not sick anymore and my voice returns).

This is going to be an information visualization project, so after I collect enough data, I will try to compile the data into a visual project. I haven’t fully decided on how I’m going to visualize my data–it depends on how successful my data collection from the video clients are and on the final data set (how many dimensions I have to work with).

Right now, I’m thinking about using a bar chart to display my data (each bar would represent the data from a different participant). And, using the fish-eye idea to be able to zoom in on the bars to get more specific information about the participant. There will also be filters to only show participants from certain age groups and genders.

CONCEPT

In this project I am building a group of creature-like robots which interact with people.

In many movies we can find a group of small adorable creatures that are friends of  human beings.

We like creatures that is smaller than us and being surrounded by them we feel worm.

(of course, if those guys look like bugs in “Mummy” you might wanna run away)

They usually have same characteristics: soft, small, and pure soul. And most important thing is that they

make human beings aware of being respect to the nature.

In my final project I am interested in exploring the interaction between  a school of physical

objects and the user, also creating an experience of playing with objects which have minds.

To implement the kinetic installation I am thinking of using camera to track viewers’ position from above,

and projecting intense light circle on the floor. A school of light following robot will then tracing those

light sources.

Beacon at Lightwave 2009 from Cinimod Studio & Chris O'Shea on Vimeo.

SKETCH

Choosing the topic for my capstone project, I am inspired by the 1970s San Francisco architects and artist collective Ant Farm. Their work, a series of experimental architecture and film pieces produced between 1971 and 1978, is inspired by the space age, nomadism, and radical counterculture. Their 1974 installation Calillac Ranch has become an icon of American culture.

I am particularly interested in Ant Farm’s early work. In 1970 the group produced a set of temporary inflatable buildings designed as communal living spaces and performance centers. Politically charged, the inflatables challenged American consumerism culture by suggesting a radically different and communal way of living. They could be quickly and inexpensively constructed, moved, and augmented, supporting a nomadic way of life.

Ant Farm was also interested in making architecture accessible to non-experts. In early 1971 they released their “Inflatocookbook”, a primer on inflatable construction with practical tips based on their experiences producing inflatables around the country. The group toured art museums and university campuses teaching people how to make inflatables.

For my capstone, I want to continue Ant Farm’s effort to bring architecture to the masses by creating a 3D inflatable blueprint creation tool. My project will use 3D unwrapping algorithms like those available in Blender to flatten computer-based 3D models and prepare them to be inflated. Later editions could perform calculations to determine the type of fans needed or how to tie down the inflatables.

The potential uses for such a tool are nearly unlimited. By lowering the bar for making architecture, the program allows underrepresented groups to create large architectural statements. Inflatables can serve as temporary shelters, canvases for video projection, tools for political dissidents looking to make a dramatic statement, or just a place to hang out. I want the software to be easy enough that ordinary people can use it to experiment with inflatable structures on the weekends—Ant Farm’s dream of architecture for the masses inflating in your back yard.

Sources
http://we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/2008/03/centro-andaluz-de-arte-contemp.php
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chiplord/sets/72157605232897509/
http://on1.zkm.de/zkm/stories/storyReader$4601
http://www.spatialagency.net/database/ant.farm