Interactive TableTalk Project
This interactive TableTalk helps you to analyse your conversation and it responses to your voice. The more you talk, the more lights will be lighted up. The amount of blue lights will appear depending on how much you speak and if your partner starts to speak, green lights will start to appear on the table.
I think this is an interesting way to analyse the quality of a conversation between friends. We can know that a group of friends are having a nice conversation by looking at a colourful tabletop with lots of LEDs being lit up. We can also know which person should talk more by looking at the amount of lights each colour is being lit up and thus encouraging participation in the conversation.
I think it will be much more interesting if the shape and the patterns of the lights formed can vary depending on the topic being discussed. For example, if the group of friends are talking about food, maybe a shape of a hamburger will slowly form as the group is talking. The different colours of lights will form the shape and from there, we can see who in particular in very or not that interested in the topic.
Google EarthWalk
This project uses the Google Earth to project onto the floor so that it will seem like you are walking on the earth. On the projection, the user navigates on the earth's surface using five footpads. The arrows represent the cardinal points as heading directions. Activation of one of the pads simultaneously with the center pad will speed up the pace of navigation. Simultaneous activation of the pads marked with plus or minus will result in zooming in and out respectively. However, the interface is customisable. The intention of this project is to "bring the application out of the screen". This same method was also being tested out in some video games too.
I think this project provides a much more intuitive way of using Google Earth to navigate yourself in the application; being physically "there" and its like as though you are stepping on earth yourself. People can have fun at the same time by stepping on the arrows and exploring different continents of the world, just like playing the video game Dance Dance Revolution.
However, I do not think using arrows is the best way to control the navigation of the user. Although people can quickly understand what the arrows are for when they initially stepped onto the projection, but it is still not natural enough. After a while, the user will get bored using the application with this method as it only concerns stepping onto the arrows. I think, a more engaging way is to allow the user to walk on the projection to navigate, as though the user is really walking on earth. Maybe building something spherical on the floor that can helps to detect the direction the user is walking towards is an option to ensure the user stays at same spot of the screen while having unlimited navigation. Maybe the user can jump on the spot to zoom in to the area.
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What is Arduino?
Arduino is a physical computing platform based on a simple open hardware design for a single-board microcontroller, with embedded I/O support and a standard programming language.The Arduino programming language is based on Wiring and is essentially C/C++ (several simple transformations are performed before passing to avr-gcc).The goal of the Arduino project is to make tools available that are accessible, low-cost, low capital investment, flexible and easy-to-use for artists and hobbyists. Particularly those who might not otherwise have access to more sophisticated controllers that require more complicated tools.source from Wikipedia.com
Arduino can be used to develop stand-alone interactive objects or it can be connected to a host computer. A typical Arduino board carries the controller, some digital and analogue I/O lines, and a serial or USB interface to the host. This host is used for both programming the board, and run-time interaction with the Arduino. Arduinos themselves generally do not have networking facilities, but it is common to combine one or more Arduinos with a networked host, using the Arduino as hardware controllers and the host as a network or user interface. Host interfacing is simple, since the host software may be written in a variety of languages. A popular language is Processing, but other languages that can access the serial connection are Max/MSP, Pure Data, SuperCollider, ActionScript, and Java.
