Project Proposal

October 15th, 2008

And now I’ve sent off my Project Proposal to Gianni. My idea is far from set in stone and I’m not sure how appropriate it is, but at least for now this stage is done. Mostly it is a way of exploring the subject I have chosen for the Dissertation.

Abstract Outline:

I will be looking to create a project that explores the diminishing perceived boundaries between reality and virtual space, and in particular by looking at the hardware that connects human and virtual reality. I would like to create some sort of feedback interface that brings the user closer to a virtual object or space by having a more direct influence than currently available via the traditional means of interacting with a computer system. This could be in the form of the most intuitive feedback possible by measuring the emotional or brain activity response from the user to produce a graphical visualisation.

This would be similar to music visualisations that can be found in most of today’s media players that measure the peaks and troughs of a waveform in order to produce a visual result. However while this creates a representation accurate to the physical attributes of the sound, the sound itself could be meaningless noise. A visualisation based on the emotional response of the user on the other hand would be much more meaningful result, and make the user intrinsic to the process.

Of course, the user does not have to be responding to just music but instead it could be literature or art however I thought that music was the most appropriate because it is a universally enjoyed art form and also more appropriate when compared to perhaps images or video since the output would also be visual.

In this sense, it is a way of investigating how humans can improve the way they can express themselves in a virtual environment. I have also been inspired since seeing a brief mention of Birgitte Aga’s Teletouch project in the first year as a means of extending the way we can interact across huge distances within a virtual dimension.

The work of Stellarc also seems quite relevant to this idea however my aims are not to go down the line of full blown technology augmentation but rather produce something anyone can come along and interact with. For example, I have also heard of Toyota developing a steering wheel for a concept car that reacts by changing its colour depending upon the mood or presumably level of stress in the driver.