Thesis Proposal Form
What is your area of focus for your thesis research?
My area of focus for my thesis research is the uncanny valley and the experience of human-robot/A.I. interactions.
Please provide 3-5 artists whose work inspires you or that you plan to research as part of your thesis work.
Golan Levin, Edward Ihnatowicz, Kenneth Rinaldo, Lozano-hemmer
What type of work is your thesis project? (Game, installation, ARG, etc.)AND What technology needs does it require? Will you be using your own technology or Becker’s resources?
Installation. It will require a PC using Unity, Monitor, speakers, and Kinect V2.
Describe your project idea and how it ties into your thesis research in 1-2 paragraphs.
“Project Frame” is a dynamic interactive experience featuring a hanging oil painting that responses to visual and audio inputs. It will detect the presence of the viewers, follow faces and body movements, and listen for speech responses. All of which, will advance down a fixed “script” that the A.I. continuously references. The final presentation will consist of an environment that will be build around the frame for maximum immersion.
This project ties into my thesis because it involves human-A.I. interaction. I want to research the effect of the uncanny valley, positive or negative. Is there a usable use for it? Also, can different physical spaces promote this effect? Researching deeper into this, will help me heighten the overall experience of the project.
Describe your planned presentation method for your thesis project, (keeping in mind the gallery showcase at the end of the year).
I envision a space that mimics a Victorian library (with scope in mind). The main piece, the painting, is hung on the center wall. I plan to adapt the lighting in the space to hide the Kinect and any other sensors that are used in the piece. The painting itself will be a monitor with a frame built around the screen. Rest of the electronics, such as the computer, will be located behind in the walls.
Please list 4 major project milestones for your interactive work for this (You may also want to list your milestones for next semester but clarify especially where you want your project to be at the end of this 3-month semester)
- Programming A.I. branch layout/designed *Me: character rigged and blendshapes done
- MIDTERM – Rough draft of the basic script finished. A.I. tree interacting with inputs. Alpha demo where users can say hello and have it hello back. Some character movements – eyes, etc. *Me: character textured, connect/import blendshapes with lipsync. | Help on the script
- Character face animated, have lipSync working with correct responses. Background done.
- FINAL – Ground work down for a interaction demo – Detects users and voice input affects the A.I. interaction using the script. *Basic interactions (audio, and visual) are smooth!
Detailed list:
- Art: Character is imported with textured, rigged, and blendshapes are applied. Prog: Must have branch structure designed which allows for input data effect the output visually. Such as (eyes follow detected user or head follows detected user)
- Art: Fill out the background of the scene and get lighting close to final. Prog: Have vocal input effect output.
- Art: Have basic on animations imported. (Arm movements on interaction, etc.) Prog: Have lipSync working, and Animations linked with the correct responses.
- Art: Post effects – overlays and any other polish work. Prog: Add more interactions with the data. Expand the tree and make sure it does not break during run time.
What are your project needs as far studio teams (ex- 2 artists, 3 programmers)?
- 2 artists for background modeling, texturing and animations.
- Writer for interaction mapping script
- 2-3 programmers for hardware working, and basic A.I. work.
- 1 audio engineer for voice and other ambient sounds.
* These numbers are guessed +/-. As I am not sure what help I may need.