Another device for distant non-verbal interaction (similar to Feel Me) is Kissenger by Dr. Hooman Samani. Created under a the research umbrella Lovotics (Love and Robotics) at Keio-NUS CUTE Center, a collaborative artificial intelligence lab between the National University of Singapore (NUS) and Keio University of Japan, the Kissenger are a pair of devices you use with your loved one to transfer a kiss over distance. Kissenger:
provides a physical interface enabling kiss communication for several applications facilitating intimate human tele-presence with the real and virtual worlds…With the aid of digital communication media and advanced robotic technology, the system takes the form of an artificial mouth that provides the convincing properties of the real kiss.
The system propose and enables three modes of possible kiss interaction:
1. Human to Human tele-kiss through the device: bridges the physical gap between two intimately connected individuals. Kissenger plays the mediating role in the kiss interaction by imitating and recreating the lip movement of both users in real time using two digitally connected artificial lips.
2. Human to Robot kiss: enabling an intimate relationship with a robot, such technology provides a new facility for closer and more realistic interactions between humans and robots. In this scenario, one set of artificial lips is integrated in a humanoid robot.
3. Human to Virtual character physical/virtual kiss: provides a link between the virtual and real worlds. Here, humans can kiss virtual characters while playing games and receive physical kisses from their favorite virtual characters. Further, Kissenger can be integrated into modern communication devices to facilitate the interactive communication between natural and technologically mediated environments and enhance human tele-presence.
This is an interesting concept but is essentially drifting into the area of teledildonics. It’s not unique as I’ve seen devices similar to these before from the very serious to artistic parodies however I’m not sure what the thinking is behind making it look like a cute pig.
Feel Me by Marco Triverio is an iPhone app that attempts to connect people through a form of digitised touch and natural intuitive gestures. Mobile phones prioritise language and sound, what if we could touch people through these technologies?
Based on the finding for which communications with a special person are not about content going back and forth but rather about perceiving the presence of the other person on the other side, Feel Me opens a real-time interactive channel.
When two people are both looking at the conversation they are having, touches on the screen of one side are shown on the other side as small dots. Touching the same spot triggers a small reaction, such as a vibration or a sound, acknowledging that both parts are there at the same time. Feel Me creates a playful link with the person on the other side, opening a channel for a non-verbal and interactive connection.
The Descriptive Camera by Matthew Richardson at NYU’s Interactive Technology Program is another camera to add to the growing list of networked enabled cameras I’ve been posting about (see the Lens-less Camera and Buttons). Using it is the same as other cameras, simply point and click, however the output produced is very different. Instead of producing a photographic representation of the space in front of the lens, the camera produces (via a mechanical turk) a description of the scene printed to paper. The rationale for the work is as follows:
Modern digital cameras capture gobs of parsable metadata about photos such as the camera’s settings, the location of the photo, the date, and time, but they don’t output any information about the content of the photo. The Descriptive Camera only outputs the metadata about the content.
As we amass an incredible amount of photos, it becomes increasingly difficult to manage our collections. Imagine if descriptive metadata about each photo could be appended to the image on the fly—information about who is in each photo, what they’re doing, and their environment could become incredibly useful in being able to search, filter, and cross-reference our photo collections. Of course, we don’t yet have the technology that makes this a practical proposition, but the Descriptive Camera explores these possibilities
The camera utilises some similar technologies to the cameras posted about previously however particular to this is the human element, an amusing use of Amazon’s Mechanical Turk service:
The technology at the core of the Descriptive Camera is Amazon’s Mechanical Turk API. It allows a developer to submit Human Intelligence Tasks (HITs) for workers on the internet to complete. The developer sets the guidelines for each task and designs the interface for the worker to submit their results. The developer also sets the price they’re willing to pay for the successful completion of each task. An approval and reputation system ensures that workers are incented to deliver acceptable results.
An example image converted to text description output is shown below.
Networked performance has now got the major arts institutions seal of approval with the series of online performances initiated by the Tate titled BMW Tate Live at Tate Modern. The first of these was on the 22nd of March and seemed to go largely unnoticed in many networked / new media art circles however the second Pablo Bronstein’s Constantinople Kaleidoscope (images above and below) broadcast tonight received a lot more publicity through a variety of mailing lists.
Tonight’s performance was pretty good, well worth watching. It consisted of a clever use of several mirrors choreographed movement by performers to reveal all points of view of the space the performance was occuring within. The mirrors allowed action from different parts of the space to be composited together within the broadcast screen space, sometimes creating optical effects and sometimes simply dividing the screen into parts similar to video split screen effects. What was particularly interesting for me was how the mirrors revealed the camera capturing the event, the result being the distance audience was effectively pulled into the space of the event as we were identified as having that initial point of view. In addition what would nomally have been off stage in a performance like this, prompters providing directions for sequences of movements, were also clearly visible and audible. All three spaces of performance, support and audience colapsing together. The simplicity of the performances execution enabled the clear concept of spaces, point of view and vision to be understood in the work.
What was unclear and not revealed through the question and answer session with the artist after the performance was how the subject matter of the performance, a heavily costumed sequence of dance like movements, related to those concepts. References such as 1920′s Russian performances were briefly mentioned (such as those developed by the Constructivists) however ideas of how optics were explored in those and perhaps related to this performance was unfortunately not developed any further during the Q&A.
If you missed the live event the full performance and Q&A is already online on YouTube (embedded above). Below is Jerome Bell’s performance of Shirtology, the first performance at BMW Tate Live.
Last day in Paris and the second network related work I’ve seen here (there probably was more to see but I’ve been ill for a few days) was Pangée by the collective MU today at the Musée du Quai Branly. Normally an unlikely location as it’s the museum of ethnography there has been a week of conferences, exhibitions and events around the subject of new media and how it can be used to present the museums collection. Pangée, a sound installation in the gardin of the museum essentially serves this purpose and reuses sounds of the instruments (and their musicians) in the museums collection. The following is translated from the works text:
In the gardin of the museum, a sonic territory in movement retraces the aesthetic of musical instruments of four continents: Africa, Asia, America, Oceania based on recordings from the museums media library…During the week “Digital Museum”, visitors are invited to explore the gardin and the musical collection of the Musée du Quai Branly provided with a headset and audio captors. The movement of the visitors, their position and direction activates the sonic sources of the work.
The sound installation closes tomorrow the 22nd. More details about it at the museum here.
This is a QR Code, it's a printed link to this webpage on Network Research!
Using a web-enabled mobile phone with built-in camera and QR Code reader software you can photograph this printed page to display the original webpage. For more information on how to do this please see the short article here:
