Tag: graduate

Thesis I – Project Blog 5

Posted on by Matthew

This week, I worked on my studio project. My task was to start the blendshapes and get most done. I got most created and have about 12 left. I plan on working this week on wrapping it up and importing it into Unity and attaching LipSync. Also reminder to me: both top & bottom teeth are not UVed. Copy UVs from the combined game mesh for the final piece.

Here are some tests:

ROUGH ROUGH DRAFT of defense 2: Social cognition

Defense 2: Social Cognition

            Anthropomorphism and theory of mind intertwine with one another. As noted earlier, they trigger the temporoparietal junction in our brains highlighting the connection between, but anthropomorphism goes further than theory of mind. The phenomena can affect our cognitive function that processes how we perceive others, and how we view the surrounding world. (Cherry, Social Cognition in Psychology) Psychologists who study this process called it social cognition.

Social cognition is the “mental processes that (are) involved in perceiving, remembering, thinking about, and attending to the other people in our social world.” (Cherry, Social Cognition in Psychology) These processes influence how people behave, form impressions, and react to others. Simply put, it is the way we store, process, and interact with other living and non-living entities. Many things can encourage the develop of our social abilities such as culture, ideologies, experiences and so on. With anthropomorphism in mind, this cognitive ability grants humans an efficient way for our minds to process social stimulus that engulfs us every day. Predicting, and comprehending is important to us hence why we anthropomorphize the unknown. It puts the current unknown entity into context reducing uncertainty and allows for a simple way to communicate and socially reason to others about them. (Atherton) Therefore, anthropomorphism allows for an efficient way to socially predict and comprehend. Unfortunately, this mental efficiency can come at a cost.

Visually, we are highly sensitive to humanlike characteristics. (Agnieszka Wykowska) Our awareness of the difference between living and inanimate is impressive. As earlier, I explain how we naturally favor smooth human-like movements, called biological motions and how we are born with facial recognition but even with those traits, we make assumptions on what we observe. (Susan R. Fussell) When we interact with entities, we assign categories based on stimuli such as facial features and shapes, body shapes, gender, etc. When humans cannot understand the actor, we unknowingly rely on stereotypes we have learned to process their behaviors, and traits. (Susan R. Fussell) As the actor becomes more similar in appearance to oneself, the more we are likely to reference ourselves and anthropomorphize the non-human entity. (Atherton) Either anthropomorphizing or not, we judge because it allows us to create make assumptions. This assumption allows for forecast of behaviors of the entity and the environment that we are surrounded in. Another important aspect of social cognition is the need for connection that we draw from when we interaction with others.

Human beings desire and crave for some type of interaction that has the potential to produce a connection, emotionally and/or physically. From infants to adults, the social connection between others is a survival instinct. Plucking a person out of their social life, or rather, banish an individual would be a “death sentence for one’s genetic inheritance”. (Atherton) This type of punishment can have an enormous effect to an individual. Lacking or being withdrawn from social connections can influence and trigger the same neural functions that can induce physical pain. (Atherton) This pain may lead the individual to seek for a connection elsewhere. Requiring the person to seek a social connection and will start to anthropomorphize nonhuman entities to satisfy their lust. This basic motivation has been researched and found out that the lonelier a person is, the more they have connected with anthropomorphize objects. (Adam Waytz) Satisfying our need for a connection is important whether its fulfilled by living or nonliving entities. We need “someone” to survive.

Anthropomorphizing has its benefits. It allows us to be able to predict, to comprehend, and to make assumptions about the uncertainty. Lonely individuals that are deprived from social connection and interaction will anthropomorphize and feel at ease. Anthropomorphizing, to me, is about efficiency. This efficiency enables us to expect future actions from others. Removing the uncertainty that we as humans try so hard to unveil and learn what lies within.

 

Works Cited

Adam Waytz, Nicholas Epley, and John T. Cacioppo. "Social Cognition Unbound: Insights Into Anthropomorphism and Dehumanization." Psychological Science. 19 February 2010.

Agnieszka Wykowska, Thierry Chaminade, and Gordon Cheng. "Embodied Artificial Agents for Understanding Human Social Cognition." Philosophical Transacations B, 19 February 2016.

Airenti, Gabriella. "The Development of Anthropomorphism in Interaction: Intersubjectivity, Imagination, and Theory of Mind." (2018). <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6231421/>.

Atherton, Gray and Cross, Liam. "Seeing More Than Human: Autism and Anthropomorphic Theory of Mind." (2018). <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5932358/>.

Cherry, Kendra. How the Theory of Mind Helps Us Understand Others. 26 July 2019. <https://www.verywellmind.com/theory-of-mind-4176826>.

—. "Social Cognition in Psychology." Very Well Mind, 13 August 2019. <www.verywellmind.com/social-cognition-2795912>.

Drubach, Daniel A. "The Purpose and Neurobiology of Theory of Mind Functions." Blanton-Peale Institute, 18 December 2007. Online.

Karolina Zawieska, Brian R. Duffy, and Agnieszka Spronska. "Understanding Anthropomorphisation in Social Robots." Pomiary Automatyka Robotyka. November 2012.

Leslie, A.M. "Theory of Mind." International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences. Elsevier Ltd, 2001. <https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/theory-of-mind>.

Nauert, Dr. Rick. PsychCentral. 15 June 2019.

Nicholas Epley, Adam Waytz, and John T. Cacioppo. "On Seeing Human: A Three-Factor Theory of Anthropomorphism." Psychological Review. The American Psychological Association, 2007.

Susan R. Fussell, Sara Kiesler, Leslie D. Setlock, and Victoria Yew. "How People Anthropomorphize Robots." Carnegie Mellon University, 12 March 2008.

Thompson, Brittany N. Psychology Today. 03 July 2017. Website. <https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/socioemotional-success/201707/theory-mind-understanding-others-in-social-world>.

 

Thesis I – Project Blog 4

Posted on by Matthew

Below are some videos of the final particle fx for the Procedural Art course. I decided to work on some effects referencing Battlefield 5. The main requirement was to create sprite sheets from Houdini and then make the effect in Unreal 4 engine using cascade. There was some difficulties with crashing and render times but even with those issues, I believe they came out well.



 

I added finish skin weighting the character and he is now imported into the screen. Prior to this, I created a zbrush file for creating blendshapes. Which is my plan to start work on this week.

Defense 1: Theory of Mind

To anthropomorphize something, we humanize that entity. We give it human characteristics, be it emotions, intentions, or thoughts. During that transformation, our brains begin to process and comprehend those distinct human traits. This cognitive process is called Theory of Mind. First reported in an article by psychologist David Premack. (Leslie) It later became a term psychologist use to describe the cognitive process that gives an individual the ability to comprehend another’s emotional and mental statues. This cerebral function starts to develop around age of 3-5. (Cherry) However other research has shown it could develop earlier or could be delayed depending on the individual. This ability to theorize or predict another’s state of mind – thought, emotion, and behaviors, is the most important function for survival for human beings. (Drubach) Being social individuals, we commutate in such a way to comprehend other’s intentions, thoughts, and feelings. (Nauert) As we do this, areas of our brains such as the temporoparietal junction activate. Additionally, anthropomorphizing activates the same area and the more a person anthropomorphizes, the larger the areas of the brain are for Theory of Mind processing. (Atherton) Predicting and theorizing, our brains never rest. Humans continuously try to make sense of everything around them, especially with motions.

Instinctually, we humanize non-human actors to predict their behavior, but we also anthropomorphize motions. Research has shown that processing and recognizing biological motion contributes to the awareness of animacy. (Atherton) Recognizing motion is an instant flow of information which allows humans to predict and identify an actor’s behavior. Humans expect to observe smooth human-like movements as oppose to erratic motions. Researcher also found that early in development, infants prefer biological movements over artificial and by the age of 2, prefer human motion. (Atherton) Example of biological movements would be objects moving in a coherent manner with respect to one another. (Airenti) Using movements alone, we can start to understand actor’s intentions. We interpret the two objects as interacting with one another. As both objects could understand one another. Instantly we begin to anthropomorphize the objects by assigning unique roles to each one. These anthropomorphized motions allow for easier recognition and predictions. It allows humans to theorize about what might the objects do next. As important as biological movement is to Theory of Mind, there is another process we anthropomorphiz to help interpret. This clever process is called facial recognition.

Face processing is part of the cognitive process in which humans can determine what a person is thinking when observing a facial expression. As infants, we naturally develop skills to determine faces and mimic facial expressions. Whether a face is familiar or not, we can immediately tell one face apart from another. As humans develop, this constant stimulus will train a person to specific facial shapes and emotions (Atherton) which enables us to see key differences in faces. An example of anthropomorphizing a face is when we humanize our pets. For this instance, humanizing the face of a pet. They would express anthropomorphizing terms to explain the facial expressions of it. Such as the pet is smiling or happy. We assign them behaviors and emotions. Using such vocabulary helps us instantly recognize the other entity’s status without ever needing to see it in person. This grants us the ability to simulate and mimic the experience using our imagination.

We often use our creativity to dream up anything that our hearts desires and anthropomorphism is a unique part of this. Inadvertently, we trick our brain into believing these non-human entities are other persons. This creates a sense of familiarity and predictability that we know and need. This feeling of ease allows us to use everyday strategies to determine what the other’s motivations are and enables us to predict future behaviors. Humanizing non-human actors can go a long way as anthropomorphism and Theory of Mind triggers the same part of ours brains. Human need predictable communication and environments. We strive to make sense of the purpose of other’s goals. If we are unable to comprehend any situation, we will start to anthropomorphize. As soon as this happens, the humanized situation becomes easier to accept, comprehend and predict.

 

Works Cited

Airenti, Gabriella. "The Development of Anthropomorphism in Interaction: Intersubjectivity, Imagination, and Theory of Mind." (2018). <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6231421/>.

Atherton, Gray and Cross, Liam. "Seeing More Than Human: Autism and Anthropomorphic Theory of Mind." (2018). <https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5932358/>.

Cherry, Kendra. How the Theory of Mind Helps Us Understand Others. 26 July 2019. <https://www.verywellmind.com/theory-of-mind-4176826>.

Drubach, Daniel A. "The Purpose and Neurobiology of Theory of Mind Functions." Blanton-Peale Institute, 18 December 2007. Online.

Leslie, A.M. "Theory of Mind." International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences. Elsevier Ltd, 2001. <https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/theory-of-mind>.

Nauert, Dr. Rick. PsychCentral. 15 June 2019.

Thompson, Brittany N. Psychology Today. 03 July 2017. Website. <https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/socioemotional-success/201707/theory-mind-understanding-others-in-social-world>.

 

Thesis I – Project Blog 3

Posted on by Matthew

Thesis Paper Outline – Matthew Hopkins

  • Quote – “We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” – Walt Disney
  • Intro (Abstract) – summary of what the paper is about
    1. Anthropomorphism
      1. Where it started
      2. Where it used
      3. Where it is going
    2.  Project
      1. Relates to combing anthropomorphism and A.I.
      2. How artist can easily communicate using the combination
  • Thesis Statement
    1. Interacting with anthropomorphic A.Is can create and intensify participators’ connections, emotionally and physically, towards synthetic beings. Giving an artist the flexibility to communicate directly to their audience by manipulating the human psychology.
  • Background (Intro) – reason why I made my project
    1. Experience
      1. My background & skills
      2. Opportunity to create an interactive installation piece
      3. Learning in skills and tools
    2. Inspired from Disney and other productions
      1. Universal Studios – Harry potter ride attraction with talking walls
    3. Being able to watch participators and visitors reactions
  • Tech Background – describe hardware & software works if they did not understand
    1. Unity, zBrush, Maya, Blender, substance painter
    2. Lipsync – facial animations
    3. Excel – story progression datasheet
    4. Kinect v2 – input device to capture data
  • Defense
    1. Social Cognition
      1. *
    2.  Technopomorphism/Personification
      1. *
    3. Theory of Mind
      1. *
    4. Uncanny Valley
      1. *
  • Description of Project
    1. Overall/Summary
      1. “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.
      2. Story
        • Pen name* loved his work more than anything, so much so, that his soul was bound to his greatest piece of work, his portrait. Participators can interact and learn from this broken soul. If they are lucky enough, then they can discover his own lives story
    2. Design
      1.  Character
        1. The true meaning behind the man in the painting
        2. Technical story map *picture*
      2. Art style
        1. References
          1. Victorian era
          2. Dishonors and other video games
          3. Realistic stylization
        2. Installation
          1. Layout
          2. Setup
          3. Design
        3. Behind the scenes – Code
          1. Special functions
            1. Interaction data
            2. Interaction mood level
        4. Response from people
          1. Hypothesis
            1. Creeped out, Curious, entertained
            2. Create emotional connection
          2. Results
      3. Reason I choice the decisions I made
        1. How I started on the project
          • Hardware testing
        2. Everything, besides hardware, is designed around the main character
          • Story, background art, interactions
    3. Conclusion

 

 

Procedural Art – FX project WIPs

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pexePetINLsZPUIOR1SMy9eQnfIoIPrS/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xvwiY5N2ti35Y7dean3LbYtoScr452yK/view?usp=sharing

Character progress

Done this week:

  • the UVs combined
  • character 50% rigged – needs to accessories and hands weighted
  • blendshape readys to be sculpted – zbrush file specially made for the character’s head
  • Throw textures together to get a base maps

Thesis I – Project Blog 2

Posted on by Matthew

Character background meeting

  • Alone does not like people
  • Needs people to survive and thrive
  • Grumpy / Scroogey
  • He knows he is in the painting
  • Has regrets – like missing out on his family because of work, past experiences
  • Likes to talk about his perspective of what he sees from as a painting
  • He is an Artist! Who loves his work, the painting, so much his soul is attached to it
  • Goes by his pen name

 

  • Take away message of the painting – Take a step back from work every once awhile and make time for yourself & your family.
    • Like a warning to visitors through the interact
  • Based locally in a distance Victorian era

Background Art

  • Canvas painting in BG
    • Happy – painting of family
    • Sad – distorted self portrait
    • Uses the same canvas but distorts and blends between the two

 

Thesis Topic:

Interacting with anthropomorphic A.Is can create and intensify participators’ connections, emotionally and physically, towards synthetic beings. Giving an artist the flexibility to communicate straight to their audience.

RESEARCH NOTES

Anthropomorphism research

 

https://psychcentral.com/news/2018/03/01/why-do-we-anthropomorphize/11766.html

Giving human characteristics to animals, inanimate objects or natural phenomena is a human trait called “to anthropomorphize.”

The term anthropomorphism was coined by the Greek philosopher Xenophanes when describing the similarity between religious believers and their gods

Neuroscience research has shown that similar brain regions are involved when we think about the behavior of both humans and of nonhuman entities, suggesting that anthropomorphism may be using similar processes as those used for thinking about other people.

Human brains are tuned to try to understand other human’s intentions, thoughts and feelings. This concept is called Theory of Mind.

Specific regions of the brain contain populations of ‘mirror’ neurons are the same regions of the brain that are active when a person is anthropomorphizing.

Predicting the actions of animals and inanimate objects employs the same brain regions as predicting the behavior of another human. Though we can consciously differentiate between human and non-human, the same mechanisms in our brain are activated when we are observing actions of both.”

What accounts for this selectivity? One factor is similarity. An entity is more likely to be anthropomorphized if it appears to have many traits similar to those of humans (for example, through humanlike movements or physical features such as a face).

Various motivations may also influence anthropomorphism. For example, lacking social connections with other people might motivate lonely individuals to seek out connections from nonhuman items. Anthropomorphism helps us to simplify and make more sense of complicated entities.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jan/15/anthropomorphism-danger-humans-animals-science

Patricia Ganea, a psychologist at Toronto University, ran a series of experiments on three- to five-year-olds in which they were given information about animals in straight factual form and then in a more fantastical anthropomorphized way.

children were likely to attribute human characteristics to other animals and were less likely to retain factual information about them when told they lived their lives as furry humans.

attributing human-like intentions and beliefs is a “very natural way to explain certain animal behaviors”

lead to inappropriate behaviors

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003347215003085

Proposed to be a result of a cognitive default state. The main idea behind this hypothesis is that the human brain evolved to efficiently process social information.

automatic response to any human-like behaviour (Caporael & Heyes, 1997) or human-like feature (Guthrie, 1997) that requires a swift identification or interpretation, which cannot be accounted for using the knowledge at hand.

Epley, Waytz, and Cacioppo (2007) proposes that anthropomorphizing has strong motivational triggers, particularly effectance and sociality.

The first is described as the need to make sense of the actions of other agents to reduce uncertainty concerning their behavior

he second refers to the need of people to maintain social connections

increased tendency to anthropomorphize in situations of high cognitive load (e.g. situations in which a lot of information needs to be processed at the same time) and in social isolation (Waytz, Gray, Epley, & Wegner, 2010).

rooted in social cognition,

Automatic processes such as motor matching mechanisms will probably be engaged as a result of observing animals displaying behaviours that are familiar to humans, especially if their anatomy and general configuration resemble those of a person (Buccino et al., 2004, Kupferberg et al., 2012)

Anthropomorphic interpretations of nonhuman entities, especially animals, are supported by a set of cognitive mechanisms. Some of these processes, including motor matching mechanisms, evolved schemata and empathy for pain from the social cognition domain, are probably engaged in anthropomorphizing and mind attribution in an automatic way.

https://www.edge.org/response-detail/27219

anthropomorphism provides an alternative “model” to help us to interpret behavior.

 

https://www.cs.cmu.edu/~kiesler/anthropomorphism-org/psychology2.html

https://prowritingaid.com/art/812/anthropomorphism-%26-personification%3A-what-s-the-difference.aspx

  • Personification: The attribution of a personal nature or human characteristics to something non-human, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.
  • Anthropomorphism is literal. Speaking animals or objects who talk, think, or behave like humans are all anthropomorphic. Think of Thomas the Tank Engine, Winnie the Pooh, or Peter Rabbit. They literally act as if human.
  • Personification is figurative. Do you sometimes feel like your computer hates you, especially when it’s not working right? Well, it can’t literally hate you because it’s not human.

https://medium.com/emergent-future/technical-human-problems-with-anthropomorphism-technopomorphism-13c50e5e3f36

Technopomorphism is the attribution of technological characteristics to human traits, emotions, intentions, or biological functions.

This brings to mind a third major problem with anthropomorphism: the uncanny valley. While adding humanlike interactions can contribute to good UX, too much (but not quite enough) similarity to a human can result in frustration, discomfort, and even revulsion.

http://becker.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.becker.idm.oclc.org/docview/1422064525?accountid=35619.

Animism (i.e., perceiving life in nonliving entities)

WHEN WE NEED A HUMAN: MOTIVATIONAL DETERMINANTS OF ANTHROPOPMORPHISM

Recipe for supreme happiness was other people

People need other humans in daily life for reasons ranging from the practical to the existential

Need is so strong that people sometimes create humans out of non-humans

Humanlike characteristics

Physical appearance

Emotional states perceived to be uniquely human

Inner mental states and motivations

Anthropomorphism does not include behavioral descriptions of observable actions

Requires going beyond what is directly observable to make inferences about unobservant humanlike characteristics

Does not merely entail animism

Animate life is not a uniquely human property

Does not include any requirement of reasoned or reflective endorsement of an inference

Anthropomorphism is no necessarily inaccurate

Considering an inference anthropomorphic only when it is clearly a mistake is itself a mistake

Some people anthropomorphize more than others, some situations induce anthropomorphism more than others, children tend to anthropomorphize more than adults, some cultures are notorious for their anthropomorphic religions and worldview

People reason about an unknown stimulus based on a better-known representation of a related stimulus, in this case reasoning about a nonhuman agent based on representations of the self or humans

Socially and effectance motivation

Sociality motivation is the fundamental need for social connection with other humans. When lacking social connection with other humans, people may compensate by creating humans out of nonhuman agents through anthropomorphism-increasing belief in anthropomorphized religious agents, GOD, or perceiving nonhumans to be more humanlike, PETS

Anthropomorphism can satisfy effectance motivation by providing a sense of understanding and control of a nonhuman agent, and should therefore increase as effectance motivation increases.

Participants in study1 who felt more chronically disconnected provided higher rankings of the supportive anthropomorphic traits than participants who felt more socially connected.

Participants who were chronically lonely would create agents of social support by anthropomorphizing their pets

Satisfy sociality needs

How effectance motivation may influence anthropomorphism

Dispositional tendency to seek understanding and control is facilitated by as stimulus that enables anthropomorphism

Seeing a nonhuman agent as humanlike not only entails the attribution of humanlike characteristics, but it also carries the consequence of moral agency

 

ANTHROPOMORPHISM AND SERIVEC HUAMNOID ROBOTS: AN AMBIGUOUS RELATIONSHIP

Due to the negative effect of anthropomorphism, right up to 2004, Pittsburgh Zoo did no publicly give name to its inhabitants – zoo decided to reverse policy and give animals name” because anthropomorphism can give rise to positive alternative effects

Use of the Paro robot in a nursing home: beyond the ethical question of quthenticity of the human-robot relationship, it clearly appeared that this therapeutic robot, developed by the Japanese AIST industrial consortium, was found especially comforting to patients with dementia

 

 

 

Box of Life’s Rhythm

Posted on by Matthew

Box of Life’s Rhythm

 

Description

Box of Life’s Rhythm is a self-reflection interaction with a box containing a beating heart. The interactor opens and holds the box. As they hold the box, their index finger will lay on the pulse sensor that is located on the left side. Once the pulse is detect, the heart within will began to beat matching the interactor’s own heart rate. Four red LEDs will light up. Two LEDs are static. They illuminate the box and heart. The other two LEDs will pulse to the rhythm of the interactor’s pulse.

*This piece is merely part of a larger idea. There would be two boxes on display facing one another. As the interactors hold onto the boxes, each heart would beat to the other person’s heart rate.

The emotional response expected from this piece would be the feeling of being disturbed but some individuals might be excited and interest. The personal value of the piece was the physical build. Trying to piece together all the components into the box was a challenge. Redesigning the heart to beat with a servo motor. Wires breaking over and over again. The rubber band in the heart not sticking until adding massive amounts of hot glue. A faulty pulse sensor. Even with all those challenges, the build was completed and works as planned.

Sketch

Components

  • 4 330Ω Resistors
  • 4 Red LEDs
  • 9 volt battery
  • Arduino Uno board
  • Black cardstock
  • Cardboard
  • Duct Tape
  • Hot Glue
  • Jewelry box
  • Pulse Sensor
  • Rubber heart
  • Rubber Bands
  • Servo motor
  • Wires

Links to parts

Wooden Box

Heart Prop

Pulse Sensor

Arduino Uno

 

Concepts

The concept of the piece originally bigger scaled interaction that required two people to complete the “circuit”. Once the “circuit” was completed the wavelength would be displayed on the wall along with LEDs that would change color and brightness based off of the signal.

Original Description of “Coupling” – It takes two to be one…

2 people lay their hands on two metal plates. There is one in the middle between them forcing them to “hold hands”. Once their hands are touching the plates, a frequency or current would transmit through them both to the middle column. While this is happening, a picture/video of their unique wavelength is show. Based on the wavelength, LED panels would changs colors based off that signal. The resulting expressions would be curiosity, excitement, and Unity.

 

Concept Description

 

Blog Entry – Research and Project Updates – 2019 #13

Posted on by Matthew

This week I have been working numerous projects. First project is my human interaction final. As of now, I am struggling to get an heart rate from skin conductivity. I believe I will have to redesign the project to simulate the heart rate when the box is touched and held. Although I do have some time to develop it before the need to redesign it.

The other project I worked on this week was the 3d digital art final. I finally got a character that “fits” my requirement for the project. Here is a screenshot:

I am going to do a polish pass of the face and detail it out with wrinkles, defects, and to make the face asymmetrical. Also the character’s face has multiple layers that allows me to remove the beard and make the face fuller or not but the only thing I am deciding on is the clothes.  I haven’t figured out the style yet but I am feeling something Victorian or Gothic suit.

 

Tutorials/Interesting Videos:

 

Idea – Beat Box

Posted on by Matthew

Idea – Beat Box?

Description

Beat Box is a self-reflection interaction with a box containing a beating heart. As an interactor opens and holds the metal jewelry box, the heart within will began to beat matching the interactor’s own heart rate using conductivity and a servo motor. Four or more hidden RGB LEDs will light the interior of the box with color. The color and intensity will be controlled by the same input data as the heart. Lower the rate, cooler the colors while higher the rate, warmer the colors and brighter it is within the box.

This piece is merely part of a modified version of a final piece. There would be two boxes on display facing one another. As the interactors hold onto the boxes, each heart would beat to the other person’s heart rate.

 

Other Options

  • I would add in a small speaker to create some type of ambient, droning beat to match the heart rate.
  • Instead of a metal jewelry box, the heart would be suspended in the heart within an acrylic enclosure as if it was floating. The interaction would be the same, but the input would have to be adjusted. The viewers would have to lay their hand on a platform for the heart to beat.
  • The last alternative for a gallery version would be the main artist would wear a monitor during the show. The heart would beat in sync with the artist in real time for everyone to view.

Sketch

Components Needed

  • Rubber heart
  • Metal jewelry box
  • Acrylic plastic to split the box
  • Arduino board
  • Servo motor with 2 attachments to push the heart
  • Cloth interior – hide electronics
  • RGB LEDs
  • Arduino battery

Required Outputs

  • RGB LEDs
  • Servo Motor to drive heart

Required Input

  • Metal conductive material to get heart rate

 

 

Blog Entry – Research and Project Updates – 2019 #11

Posted on by Matthew

This week, I have been working on more shapes of the head for my 3d digital art course and my thesis. This character will be fully sculpted so I am trying to find a shape I like. As of now, I am leanings towards the second head. (longer skull, and droopy chin) I do like the fourth one day as well but I believe it is too close to Picard from Star Trek. Nevertheless, I will find the shape and go along with it to finish the project.

Thats the Spot!

Posted on by Matthew

Thats the Spot!

 

Hardware Components Used

  • 1 Green LED
  • 2 Yellow LED
  • 3 330 Ω Resistors
  • 2 10k Resistors
  • 1 Servo Motor
  • Arduino Uno Board
  • Breadboard
  • 5-volt power
  • Soft Potentiometer
  • Flex sensor
  • Cardboard
  • Ducktape
  • Piezo Buzzer
  • 14 wires

Concept

 

Description:

That’s the Spot! is an interactive game where the interactor controls a servo motor with a soft potentiometer. The motor head collides and bends a flex sensor. As the flex sensor bends, the LEDs will light up from yellow to green. If the interactor discovers the “spot” and holds the position, the piezo buzzer will play a jingle. After the interaction, the system resets and a new spot is selected for a different experience.

As they interact, the interactor should feel determined. They should feel the struggle to find the correct spot to complete the sequence. The personal value of the piece was the challenge of the flex sensor and the board design. Since the breadboard is small, I struggled to create a smooth interaction between the servo and flex sensor. Besides the design, the flex sensor sensitivity is short. I mapped and constrained the values for the interaction to work correctly.

Possible idea for the structure:

I envision this piece as being contained within an acrylic structure with one side being brass. The side of brass would be the interface with the soft pot and LEDs connected too. The rest of the piece would be a clear shell which will allow the interactor to view all the working parts interacting with itself. The style would be a mix of steampunk and sciFi.

To fill the negative space within the shell, there would be a mess of colorful wires. Example: