Cheese is a set of recordings of actresses trying to hold a smile. A computer continuously “rates” the strength of their smile, and sounds an alarm if they falter. It’s technically impressive. I’m used to computer-detection of human expressions being jittery and fickle, but the ratings plunge immediately when the actresses begin to relax. We tend to consider smiles idiosyncratic and personal, an attitude which is threatened by objective measurement.

(Skip to ~50 seconds in.) This is a pretty minor tech demo of putting a person and a virtual character into the same space. It turns the Kinect’s field of view into a middle ground between reality and virtuality. The proximity between imagined and actual is exciting.

Mehmet Akten’s Webcam Piano is a beautiful both visually and acoustically, but it unfortunately is not nearly as interesting as a real piano, because it gives the user no control. The notes are all pre-set to a pleasing scale so that there is no possibility for dissonance, and the compact arrangement notes prevents granular control. Instruments and art-making devices should ease, enable, and respond to the choices of the user, and not try to make up for the user’s lack of talent.