In Curious Place generative plant-like shapes thrive on human curiosity as the temperature, humidity and interaction are used as arguments for transforming and amplifying a physical space.
The installation consists of a small screen that displays a generative design of plant-like shapes, attached to a network of sensors that allow it to use the immediate surroundings as raw material.
When a user approaches to see the display, a video tracking system is activated and a projection that expands the design is displayed on the body of the spectator. Thus, the space is altered once through interaction with the participant.
The system use video tracking to extract and react to information about human gesture and movement in spaces.
The installation responds to participant locations in the space, but also to spatial relationships between participants. A viewer body is visually transformed into part of the piece.
For this project I’m using the C++ programming language, computer vision and motion tracking, and projection. Additionally, I included in the system two sensors, one to detect the presence of the participants and other to red the weather conditions of the space.
The system perceives one or more participants and responds to their movements in real-time.
The wall of the display is illuminated with infrared lights so the image of the camera is analyzed as a shadow on the graphic screen.
The camera view participants standing in front of a backlighting assembly making easy for the computer to distinguish their images from the background. In this way I’m able to use the information of the contour of the participants as points of control for the displays of the shapes.
This project was developed in OpenFrameworks.
This installation is mainly composed of the following interdependent units
Graphic Output
LCD screen
Projector
Scan converter
VGA Distributor
Servomotor
Data Input
IR Proximity sensor
2 Xbees Radios for wireless communication
SHT15 Temperature and Humidity Sensor
Security B/W Camera with an IR filter
Analog to digital video converter
4 Infrared LEDS panels lights