PPM - Statement of Intent

Post no. 4

STATEMENT OF INTENT (PPM)

Topic: A Gestural Tech Game

Key Ideas	The key idea of this project is to create an immersive, experience/game that can breach between the digital and physical world seamlessly with wearable sensors. The output will be in the form of projection mapping.
About	Users are able to use every day offline gestures like clapping, hi-fiving, or shaking hands to interact with the installation game. They are required to put on a piece of wearable media first, to experience them.
Issues	1.      Media is commonly confined into screens. Interactive Advertising isn't confined to a Web, as mentioned by Tessa Wegert in an article on clickz.com. Media is diverse, creative and has no boundaries. Therefore, it being confined into screens limits its potential to grow and expand on more greater possibilities. Technology should be available all around us, seamlessly melting into our daily routines. Rather than we, blending and merging our focus to less-than-lively screens. 2.      Motion tracking is inconvenient and troublesome. Based on personal experience at experiments of motion tracking by notable Interactive Studios by ISOBAR and Kinect released games, the calibration time needed deemed too hassling and the results of the output are minimal and buggy. There are experiments with mechanical motion capture where users are to wear simple arm bands at certain spots, without the use of a camera or calibration. They are found on YouTube via the username Snappers Mocaps. They would also not have to worry about losing the tracking halfway during the interaction experience as this wireless mechanical tech could automatically measure direct movements from the direct muscles of the user. With Kinect, body parts would occasionally overlap each other as the calibration gets confused and wrong.
How it relates to multimedia	Gesture Tech and Wearable Media is commonly predicted as the future of technology by Multimedia experts. This interactive experience gives technology a new and more varied ‘body’ than what they are confined in today; which are screens. Gesture Tech and Wearable Media are both a combination of UBI computing (hardware) and Natural User Interface (software). “UBI computing is an advanced computing concept where computing is made to appear everywhere and anywhere.”
Research Question	What is the future for the seamlessness between the digital and the physical world? Would technology be superior to us or otherwise?
Inspirations from the research	Pranav Mistry – Sixth Sense His research encompasses the seamless connection between the physical and digital world. He takes media out of the screen and enables it to be available on any platform or surface. He explores the use of motion tracking as the input, and a small projection device as the output. This projector is designed to be worn on the neck like a regular necklace, while receiving tracking data from the colour taped fingertips of the user. By performing regular hand gestures like pinching and hand compositing, one is able to drag and drop data in real time and take pictures.

About the Project

Genre	Gestural Music Game
Form	Installation
Audio/sonic pieces	Free or purchased sound effects and music will be used. As for the hardware, speakers should do. I hope to get a surround sound by carefully experimenting the placements of those speakers.
Skills needed	Arduino Coding Sewing Animation of Motion graphics
Installation Details	Hardware/Software Arduino Adafruit Touch sensors/sound sensors Flash/Resolume Arena Size The projection would be about 3 metres. The Wearable media would be small and easy to put on. No bigger than a regular sized glove. Time to Consume 30 seconds or less. Number of participants 1
How it works	To initiate the game, users are to clap according to the beat to control the display of the projection mapping.
Risk Assessments	-          Fragile setups
Funding	·         Personal investments ·         Crowd-Funding (Kickstarter) ·         Sales

Target Audience: Young adults

Likely consumers	Ages: 18-25 Occupation: College students to young working adults. Interests: Enjoys socializing and technology. Media consumptions: Music videos, concerts Lifestyles: Party goers, Socialites Consumer behaviours:  Have short attention span, easily excitable
Their Experience with the “Final Year Project”	First, they would put on the wearable media. The will be able to hear the song and react according to the beat. The feedback will be given in the form of projection mapping and sound effects. The experience will conclude with the user's face being captured and showed through projection mapping on a piece in the installation design.

How it relates to existing skills and knowledge

The existing knowledge that I currently possess would act as a foundation to what I would do for the final project. Coding the Adafruit Flora (a circuit board specialized for wearable media) with my previous subject; Livetags provided the basic knowledge of handling the wiring and circuitry needed to operate and function the project.

How it addresses new skills and learning

Since this would be an individual project, one of the new skills that I would acquire would be a further advancement on the understanding of processing coding. I would also need to improve on UX and interface designing. Other than that, I would have a deeper learning on the behaviours of users. Questions would be asked; like what would make them excited to use it? How would they remember the experience? Would they want to use this media in the future? Graphical wise I would also like to explore and reinvent my own personal style which could signify my personality and interests.

How it relates to the Degree essay

This project would complement the degree essay which researches on the future of Gestural Tech and Wearable media. The essay would argue about how these forms of media would may or may not be the next cultural technological phenomenon. It would also analyse predictions and current developments of this form of media today.