Social Textterflys - A Shared Screen Design

I've seen quite a few calls for proposals with Urban Screens - or social screen designs. So the other day I had an idea for a shared screen where static web content from each persons profile seems to "come to life". In essence the idea is to transform what we perceive as static social content into dynamic and contextual content in a social space.

Using technology in social networking - or semi-public spaces where people are trying to get to know each other - is a delicate balance of public/private - gimmicky interest matching - and often interrupts the natural flow of conversation...

I would like to make a playful, large touchscreen for a wall where people go up and scan their RFID nametags - and a weblike profile comes up (which they prepare when registering for the event). THEN it slowly comes to life, your interests turn into birds and fish which
fly and swim over to other people's animated words. The whole profile disintegrates and all the elements either drift off or join an ecology of abstract connections between people. I imagine people could walk up and playfully interact with the birds, nudging them to fly or find other connections.

Here is a 3 minute video outline of the idea. I thought I would try this format as an experiment in place of doing image layout.


Writing the code is outlined above. My Proposal is to have a prototype of the concept for the final in this class. Something that brings up image profiles, and then proceeds to break them into image maps that have behaviors.

A System for Facilitating Interaction in Communication Spaces

Judith notes an important distinction in the "Everyday Interactions" paper regarding technology as an "agent or medum". The metaphors and expectations attached to these roles fundamentally change the way we interact with the system. If the computer acts as a facilitator between people it has a much higher chance of being adopted as a real "everyday" mode of interaction. The system as autonomous is magical, but it's novelty quickly dissipates when it is understood, and further interactions simply reveal the algorithms behind it's behavior.

How can we integrate computational systems to more meaningful, human systems in an inherently more personal (but not intrusive) way? What are these channels and systems of meaning? A few that come to mind are writing, touch, gesture, speaking, the making and exchange of objects, and social traditions of interaction such as eating, theatre, concerts, parties. I want to start experimenting in the domain of large social gatherings, without asking people to alter their activities in any way during the meetings, but augmenting the experience and providing a simple architecture for preparation and follow-up after the social gathering.

Guidelines based on the readings I considered in designing the system are:
A) Balancing the public and private aspects of the interaction. Perhaps one approach to this is to separate the actual data exchanged in the interaction from visual response of the system - by abstracting the data and translating it's form.
B) Not interrupting the natural social flow, or introducing new ways of interacting. Use our existing social framework as an informant for behavioral interaction.
C) Augmenting and rewarding behavior that is social - results in an exchange between two people. Handshakes, Proximity, Time, and Contact information exchanges are all forms which indicate the investment and intimacy of the exchange.
D) Focusing on reviewing data as a private activity - your profile (pre-meeting) and social visualization (post-meeting) as records for you to use as follow up tools. Focus on strengthening the "Broader Social Sphere" - as noted in the cell phone reading.

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ourSpace, myRing, myCard, mySocialMap - simple, seamless tools for tracking and augmenting interaction.

myRing is a small battery powered circuit with a Bluetooth radio and an RFID proximity sensor. When you come to the meeting you pickup a ring at the door by scanning one of your myCards. myRings are activated by handshakes (proximity) - and also report position data through triangulation by bluetooth receivers. I'm not the first person to think of this form for blue-tooth device, see: http://www.bluepoly.com




myCards are aprox 100 Disposable business cards (contact cards) with simple RFID tags imprinted in the card. Printed from your "web profile" and available at checkin, they serve as a tangible means of exchanging more detailed an intimate information.

These exchanges are measures of proximity and interest - and coupled with proximity sensing - they could act as triggers for pulses of animation and liveliness within a space.

ourSpace is a series of responsive projections in the periphery of the social meeting. Each time a business card is exchanged, or people shake hands, the walls come alive - Plants growing, fish swimming, an entire ecosystem is activated and responds to the activity and history of the space. The visualization is abstract, and immediate - a positive and fun reinforcement of the physical activity in the space, without revealing the identity of the viewer.

Below is a simple view of 3 possible types of projection in a space. (I would use one theme, but I tried plants, snowflakes, fish as examples)



mySocialWeb is a visual record of the night. It includes nodes for each person I shook hands with and more detailed information for people I exchanged business cards with. Business cards can be scanned at home for digital replicas, and links to public web information from the person whom you just met. mySocialWeb is a private web service to help facilitate social relations by allowing for quick follow-up and longterm records of social encounters at a conference, festival, party, art opening, dating function, or business meeting. It is intended for an Urban setting where exchanges are often not repeated and reinforced unless contact information is exchanged at the time of meeting. (in a small town setting such an interface would be intrusive and unnecessary)

Portraiture Follow Up, Combining Ideas

I continued to experiment with the software during the week - with friends. Kate and I were playing and discovered that if you use a background image with text - the juxtaposition can be quite interesting.

Here is a progression of portraits - The earlier idea of combining something someone has written into the portrait was the theme for the last few takes.




I asked Kate to experiment with the software - she picked up a coupon from the table and played with that format.




Then on the subway over to Cat's house I thought about using personal writings... and moving light around her head in the background to try and get more interesting difference matching. I asked her to pick images that she felt reflected her interests & desires..



Kathryn took a few pages from her diary here and watched how the software rendered her - I like these the best of the portraits I have taken so far - There are hidden gems in the text and she was open to the idea of seeing herself in the writing.

Information Portraits: Two Ideas

Idea 1: Instead of Taking a portrait of what is there - do the opposite - only look at those elements that are displaced. The idea was to write some software that would measure this as at a granular level and then blend together the results. I wrote this code in processing and used it to make some self portraits during my experimentation.


My second idea was to have text portraits. This is a mock up of the idea (in short) - I would like to do this with 10 layers of transparency - so that you only see the text at first and then from 1 angle everything comes together magically. So you could read what this person has to say about themselves, and then their own words become a layered portrait.

Next week after the demo week is over, I plan to try some of this by printing onto transparency, but for now I hope this will do.