Final Project Proposal
Week 0: Work in progress


For my final project, I was inspired by interactive projection installations like the one below and the one on the media lab ping pong table.





I think these are really fun ways to turn otherwise utilitarian objects (walls, floors... ping pong tables) into interesting art. I am hoping to do something similar, but rather than using a projected image, I want the art to be phsyically part of the object.

Every time I walk past the mirror in my hallway, I realize it could be so much more. I would love to have it light up at the points it detects motion (I will need to play with translucent materials to get the right effect). I have this picture in my mind of how wheat fields bend and sway lightly as you walk by.



One initial idea I had was to take an ordinary mirror and have it be able to alternate between a useful state and an art display one. When in "art mode" a person could walk past it and it would gently acknowledge your presence. If you stop and try to interact with it (I'm thinking putting your hand up or touching it), however, it would turn to "function mode" and could illuminate your face at varying light intensities to brighten your face.

I also want to incorporate magnets and reed switches somehow into this design. I'm not sure if these should be a way of controlling the light levels (I think a sphereical magnet running through a track, for example, might be an elegant way to brighten or dim the light) or if it could be that you move objects to different points on the display to get different light configurations. I would also love to see if there is a way I can have the mirror not be reflective when in the "art mode", but I will have to think more about how/if to do that.





UPDATE:

Here are some renderings of the overall design. I am thinking of using composites (shown here as burlap) to form the frame. I have been playing with some translucent fiber materials, but I want to make sure that the frame just glows slightly.



Ideally, I want the frame to illuminate in green LEDs (I've turned charlieplexing arrays into more linear forms, with a somewhat random layout for artistic effect). These LEDs will go behind the composite frame. Putting a sensor on each side, I hope to be able to detect the direction a person is walking by.

Similarly, if the two motion sensors are activted simultaneously, I want it to move from "art mode" into "function mode" with one large light illuminating your face.



I was also playing around with some "smart glass" ideas, but Neil suggested that creating it from scratch is non-trivial and I don't think it would add that much to the overall effect in this case to warrant buying a solution.



Narrowing the scope further, I don't think I will add the magnet "dimmer switch" given my timing, but if all goes well quickly maybe...

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