Simulation Of Nature 11.14.08

All it took was 8000 Stickers and a few thousand lines of code.
Sounds simple right? Thanks to Bob Shane at Vinyl Countdown in Allston, MA for his expertise in graphic installation we put the stickers up in 2 days in Boston and 3 days in Philly. As for the interactive application, that’s another story. Todd Vanderlin, Memo Akten and myself teamed up to create a dynamic plant that feeds off user interaction and presence.

We developed custom software using openFrameworks (openframeworks.cc), an open source development environment for C++. The software is displayed on an HD (1080 x 1920) vertical LCD screen, enclosed in a custom fabricated bamboo frame. As the user stands in front of the display, a camera captures them and the software analyzes the movement in each frame of the video. In realtime, the user’s movement is translated in to a wind force. This force and the accompanying physics system animates bring the environment to life. As the user sways and moves, the plants move with them. The interaction becomes a tango between the user and the plants. We are isolating the upward motion and computing that into plant growth to encourage growth. The more someone moves up the more the plants will grow. The application has two modes: day and night. At night the sky fades to a black gradient and stars twinkle in the background. When the sun rises the environment transitions back into a sunny day.
The application also has some pretty cool analysis software that captures data from the locations.

If you’re in Boston (1 Financial Center) or Philly (7th and Market) you should swing by the banks to check them out.

More photos here

Citizens Interactive Windows Market St. Philly

Nick Demoing The Inteaction

Screen Grab

However, it looks like there was another reason for releasing the latest firmware