Pinokio – Shanshan Zhou, Adam Ben-Dror and Joss Doggett

Pinokio is an animatronic lamp which gazes around and responds to the presence of humans in a surprisingly lifelike way. It will even respond to sudden sounds in its environment and resists being turned off. Based upon the video, it would appear that the lamp is a very straightforward application of face detection, which surprises given the quality of the character shown. The project is of course reminiscent of the Pixar Lamp, though one of the core elements lacking relative to that earlier work is the partner. The ability to just watch two lamps clumsily interact with each other provided the Pixar piece with much more character than the single lamp alone can manage.

Virtual Ground – Andrew Hieronymi

Virtual Ground is a projected game that is played by two people who try to steer a bouncing ball to light up the floor. I find this project interesting because it seems to run counter to our typical rivalrous impression of a game. However, in terms of computer vision, it is a fairly basic exercise of tracking moving objects that does not seem to push the bounds of the possible. I am immediately curious to see how the game could evolve if more participants entered the playing area, though the presentation of this project seems to suggest that there would not be a meaningful result.