Pusteblume: interactive installation
Class Project at University of the Arts Berlin, 2004/2005
View Documentation - PDF(german)
View
project documentation on UdK website
concept
the installation
The installation has been created for rooms in which people are moving a
lot.
It consists of a large-scale wall projection and is able to track and analyze
peoples' positions and movement in the room.
the projection
in the beginning the projected image shows a "field" of flowers
that grow, produce seeds, which then fall and create new flowers.
Each flower has a certain life-span and not any seed creates a new plant,
so that the number of plants regulates itself.
The flowers are abstract-shaped, it is the aim to catch the idea of falling
seed in the wind rather than geving a realistic image.
behaviour and interaction
The main aspect of the installation is its reaction to peole moving in front of the projection: the tracking system recognizes passers-by and translates their movement (direction ad speed) in "wind" which carries the seeds away and make the plants bow.
In addition to that, persons are attractors for seeds and plants, so that
more plants are created where a person stands. 
If a Person stands still in front of the Projection for a certain time,
a new plant which is bigger and more detailed than the other Plants starts
to grow.
This new plant also reproduces itself, so that the person leaves traces
in the Projection.
The children of the new plant degenerate slowly until their children look
exactly like the "idle" plants. After a while, the only thing
that reminds of the Person who stood in front of the wall, is the stem of
the plant first created.
technology
The image is projected to the wall via one or more beamers (backside projection
would be perfect because of shadows).
The area in front of it is scanned from the ceiling by a webcam. The software
analyzes the image if there are changes, and moving piles of pixels are
recognized as persons.
the software was written in processing
with the additional library JMyron/webcamXtra
staging
The playful and at the same time unostentatious character of the installation
makes it perfectly suited for public rooms, where normally people dont spend
time, transit rooms like hallways for example. In ones perception the installation
upvalues the room and makes it worth taking a rest there.
The room, which is normally not significantly remembered, gets a memory
for itself.
Demo Applet (Java required)
Built with Processing